The Australian
Sri Lanka 'unified' after 30 years
AP, AFP Newswriters
Wednesday May 20, 2009
SRI Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse has delivered a victory address to parliament, declaring his country had been "liberated" from terrorism after defeating the Tamil Tiger rebels.
The speech came yesterday as Sri Lankan state television broadcast footage of what it said was the body of Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, hours after the rebels claimed he was still alive.
The footage showed the upper part of a corpse dressed in camouflage uniform and with a head wound. The face was intact, with the eyes wide open, and bore a clear resemblance to the rebel leader. Part of the forehead was covered by a blue cloth, and the head was resting on a bloodstained newspaper.
The images showed Prabhakaran's dog tag with the marking "0.01" and his Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam identity card.
Mr Rajapakse spoke to a rapt assembly of politicians a day after government forces killed the last of the rebel fighters on the battlefield in the north. He never mentioned Prabhakaran.
Recounting how the rebels once controlled a wide swath of the north and much of the east, Mr Rajapakse said that for the first time in 30 years, the country was unified. "We have liberated the whole country from LTTE terrorism," he said, declaring today a national holiday to celebrate the armed forces.
The rebels had been fighting for three decades for a homeland for the mainly Hindu Tamil minority after decades of marginalisation at the hands of governments dominated by the mainly Buddhist Sinhalese majority.
Briefly addressing parliament in the Tamil language, Mr Rajapakse said the war was not waged against the Tamil people. "Our intention was to save the Tamil people from the cruel grip of the LTTE. We all must now live as equals in this free country."
Mr Rajapakse has said that he would negotiate some form of power-sharing with the Tamil community after the war and he alluded yesterday to the need for an agreement.
"We must find a homegrown solution to this conflict. That solution should be acceptable to all the communities," he said. "We have to find a solution based on the philosophy of Buddhism."
The war has killed more than 70,000 people over the past quarter of a century. A further 265,000 Tamils were displaced in the recent offensive and many of them have been sent to overcrowded camps in the north.
Flags flew from cars, shops, streetlights and houses across the capital as carloads of cheering residents did laps of the main streets and others let off firecrackers from spontaneous roadside parties.
The chubby Prabhakaran turned what was little more than a street gang in the late 1970s into one of the world's most feared insurgencies, fighting for independence for minority Tamils. At the height of his power, Prabhakaran controlled a virtual country in the north and a rebel army of thousands backed by artillery, a navy and a nascent air force.
He was branded a terrorist abroad and his fighters waged hundreds of suicide attacks, including the 1991 assassination of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, and forcibly recruited child soldiers.
Please click HERE to read the entire article...
Sri Lanka 'unified' after 30 years
AP, AFP Newswriters
Wednesday May 20, 2009
SRI Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse has delivered a victory address to parliament, declaring his country had been "liberated" from terrorism after defeating the Tamil Tiger rebels.
The speech came yesterday as Sri Lankan state television broadcast footage of what it said was the body of Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, hours after the rebels claimed he was still alive.
The footage showed the upper part of a corpse dressed in camouflage uniform and with a head wound. The face was intact, with the eyes wide open, and bore a clear resemblance to the rebel leader. Part of the forehead was covered by a blue cloth, and the head was resting on a bloodstained newspaper.
The images showed Prabhakaran's dog tag with the marking "0.01" and his Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam identity card.
Mr Rajapakse spoke to a rapt assembly of politicians a day after government forces killed the last of the rebel fighters on the battlefield in the north. He never mentioned Prabhakaran.
Recounting how the rebels once controlled a wide swath of the north and much of the east, Mr Rajapakse said that for the first time in 30 years, the country was unified. "We have liberated the whole country from LTTE terrorism," he said, declaring today a national holiday to celebrate the armed forces.
The rebels had been fighting for three decades for a homeland for the mainly Hindu Tamil minority after decades of marginalisation at the hands of governments dominated by the mainly Buddhist Sinhalese majority.
Briefly addressing parliament in the Tamil language, Mr Rajapakse said the war was not waged against the Tamil people. "Our intention was to save the Tamil people from the cruel grip of the LTTE. We all must now live as equals in this free country."
Mr Rajapakse has said that he would negotiate some form of power-sharing with the Tamil community after the war and he alluded yesterday to the need for an agreement.
"We must find a homegrown solution to this conflict. That solution should be acceptable to all the communities," he said. "We have to find a solution based on the philosophy of Buddhism."
The war has killed more than 70,000 people over the past quarter of a century. A further 265,000 Tamils were displaced in the recent offensive and many of them have been sent to overcrowded camps in the north.
Flags flew from cars, shops, streetlights and houses across the capital as carloads of cheering residents did laps of the main streets and others let off firecrackers from spontaneous roadside parties.
The chubby Prabhakaran turned what was little more than a street gang in the late 1970s into one of the world's most feared insurgencies, fighting for independence for minority Tamils. At the height of his power, Prabhakaran controlled a virtual country in the north and a rebel army of thousands backed by artillery, a navy and a nascent air force.
He was branded a terrorist abroad and his fighters waged hundreds of suicide attacks, including the 1991 assassination of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, and forcibly recruited child soldiers.
Please click HERE to read the entire article...
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