Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels admitted defeat today after a final flurry of suicide attacks on the government forces which have surrounded them in a tiny patch of coconut grove on the northeastern coast.

The Tigers’ surrender -– after 26 years of fighting for an ethnic Tamil homeland -- was announced in a statement by Selvarasa Pathmanathan, their chief of international relations, on the pro-rebel Tamilnet web site.

“This battle has reached its bitter end,� said Mr Pathmanathan, who is believed to be in hiding outside Sri Lanka. “We remain with one last choice - to remove the last weak excuse of the enemy for killing our people. We have decided to silence our guns. Our only regrets are for the lives lost and that we could not hold out for longer."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle6305401.ece

Quite remarkable really.

Out of interest, how many insurgencies could claim to have been militarily quelled in recent history?

Not too many i'd imagine!

Horrendous civilian casualties though. :(

If they didn't spend all their bloody time outside the Houses of Parliament, they might get something done.

Interesting exercise in political pragmatism; regardless of the Tamil cause, the world's chosen to allow Sri Lankan forces to achieve what might be a conclusive victory. Fingers crossed - what the country needs is some stability so it therefore benefits from some investment.

So what did the Tamils do wrong?

Too brutal?
Not cuddly enough? No attractive and articulate intelligensia under house arrest.
A bit boring - including outside our Parliament?

Simple.

Middle Eastern chaos affects Western security, the Tamil conflict doesn't. Hence the West doesn't really give two hoots.

If the LTTE had bombed London or NY then I guarantee you we would all be educating ourselves about the Tamil cause!

The unpalatable reality is, international terrorism works.

Originally Posted by Victorian_Major

Interesting exercise in political pragmatism; regardless of the Tamil cause, the world's chosen to allow Sri Lankan forces to achieve what might be a conclusive victory. Fingers crossed - what the country needs is some stability so it therefore benefits from some investment.

So what did the Tamils do wrong?

Too brutal?
Not cuddly enough? No attractive and articulate intelligensia under house arrest.
A bit boring - including outside our Parliament?

A cause for which most of us had no clue and to be honest no interest.

They hen pecked at the government for years and then Colombo said enough is enough and sod the consequences, endex.

The thing is they will probably have far more representation in parliament post LTTE than they ever had the with the tigers doing their thing. The apparent threats of mass suicide is probably the best thing they could do.

Which all shows that the Sri L Govt were right to stop pussy-footing about and go for the throat, thereby (one can but hope) ending a steady trickle of terrorism, murder and general brutality.

Does nothing about the causes of inter-communal resentment though. I was in Ceylon in 1957 and the Sri L Govt were already baiting the Tamils by replacing English bus numberplates with Sinhalese script.

Parallels with NI anyone?

Originally Posted by Victorian_Major

Interesting exercise in political pragmatism; regardless of the Tamil cause, the world's chosen to allow Sri Lankan forces to achieve what might be a conclusive victory. Fingers crossed - what the country needs is some stability so it therefore benefits from some investment.

So what did the Tamils do wrong?

Too brutal?
Not cuddly enough? No attractive and articulate intelligensia under house arrest.
A bit boring - including outside our Parliament?

No, massive aid from the Chinese to Sri Lanka: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle6297463.ece

MSR

After all these years that's a bitter pill to swallow...!

'I'll get me coat'
:D

Our North London local GP is banged up in USA for trying to buy RPG's for the Tamil Tigers. I bet he's hoping the Yanks keep him there, he'll probably swing back in Ceylon.

MSR has it. The PRC is propping up regimes in Burma, Sri Lanka and (with Uncle Sam - although for different reasons) Pakistan in order to surround India. Expect a PLAN forward operating base in Columbo in the near future.