Pushing 60: Independence Day manifesto
Sri Lanka is finishing its fifties as an
independent country. The age and stage of life determines the tasks
ahead. There are things we must attend to, goals we must achieve,
mistakes we must rectify, conflicts and entanglements we must end
before we turn 60 next year, on February 4th 2008. We must win this
war against terrorism; defeat the LTTE that has plagued us and
derailed our progress for almost half of our life as an independent
country; and put in place a new framework which enables us to catch
up on lost time and fulfil our potential as a nation and a people.
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Tiger violence brewing in Vavuniya
In the face of the loss of Vakarai - and added
with it is the huge loss of cadres and material- the Tigers would
like to step up covert attacks against the security forces. This is
a growing possibility in the wake of LTTE's failure to offer a
resistance in the form of conventional warfare. Though the general
temptation in the South is to describe these as "desperate" tactics
in the face of the set back in the battle front, such covert
missions have always been part of LTTE strategy, immaterial whether
it was strong or weak.
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Is there a future for Prabhakaran?
After leading the Tamils in a militant hate
campaign against the Sinhalese for at least 32 years, after waging
four Eelam wars, after sabre-rattling in the last annual speech
threatening dire consequences to the nation if the Tiger demands
were not met, after killing more Tamils than any other force put
together, after sacrificing the Tamil children recruited into the
depleted Tiger cadres, after investing the millions subscribed by
the Tamil diaspora into the bottomless pit of purchasing arms, and,
above all, after subjecting the Tamil people to the worst imaginable
indignities and sufferings in the name of an elusive political goal
of a separate state, Velupillai Prabhakaran, the self-styled "sole
representative of the Tamils", is nowhere near his goal of Eelam.
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