Sri Lanka faces a grim new year
[ The Guardian ]
The loss of Kilinochchi, its capital, is a major blow to the Tamil Tiger movement fighting for autonomy in the Sinhalese-dominated country. But the army’s success in capturing the town yesterday does not mark the death of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Kilinochchi was the LTTE’s political headquarters, strung out on the main tarmac road from Colombo to Jaffna. The government could always strike it at will by air, as it did just over a year ago when aircraft bombed the offices of SP Thamilselvan, the man with whom foreign diplomats as well as the government had frequently negotiated.