A quarter of a century into a war with itself, Sri Lanka on Friday announced the capture of Kilinochchi, the administrative capital of Tamil Tiger rebels, whose aspirations for the creation of a separate homeland have suffered successive diplomatic and strategic blows in recent months.
Tamil rebels have been reiterating that the fall of Kilinochchi will not halt their fight for a separate homeland.
Within hours of the fall of the de fact capital, a Tamil suicide bomber rode his explosive laden motorcycle into the Sri Lankan Air Force headquarters in Colombo, killing two.
Kilinochchi lies some 185 miles north of Colombo and is not a particularly strategic target; the coast and narrow pathways to Jaffna peninsula to the north are more valuable.
But Kilinochchi was a symbol of Tamil resonance as Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or (LTTE) collected taxes and ran a parallel legal system from the city, which houses several monuments of those killed in the 25 year battle with Majority Sinhalese in the Island nation.
The capture of Kilinochchi, however, could not be confirmed as Sri Lanka bans journalists from entering the battle-zone, where Tamil rebels say Lankan troops blister international laws and human rights with impunity.
A report on the pro-rebel website www.Tamilnet.com, says government troops entered a virtual ghost town.
Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, who has vowed to crush the guerrillas’ quarter-century campaign, described the town’s capture as “an unparalleled victory.”
“For the last time, I call upon the LTTE to lay down their arms and surrender,” he said in a nationally televised speech, according to an Associated Press report from Colombo.
Government officials say they will return to peace talks only if the Tigers agree to lay down their arms.
Lankan troops have made steady progress into the rebel held territory in recent months, pushing the LTTE into the northeast from their earlier strongholds in the northwestern coast.
With guns on both sides blazing, thousands of civilians have been forced out of their homes and into rebel-held areas, where they must sleep in temples and schools and some only in makeshift shacks in paddy fields.
The United Nations has been allowed to send food rations to what it estimates to be more than 200,000 civilians displaced by the war.
The ‘decisive’ Lankan war effort has been accompanied by a spate of disappearances and abductions, bringing the Rajapaksa administration under sustained international criticism.
The biggest challenge facing the government now is to deliver a political solution acceptable to its Tamil minority.
India has repeatedly said that only a power sharing agreement with the ethnic Tamil minority can muffle the gun shots that continue to blaze through the island nation.
Tamil rebels have been reiterating that the fall of Kilinochchi will not halt their fight for a separate homeland.
Within hours of the fall of the de fact capital, a Tamil suicide bomber rode his explosive laden motorcycle into the Sri Lankan Air Force headquarters in Colombo, killing two.
Kilinochchi lies some 185 miles north of Colombo and is not a particularly strategic target; the coast and narrow pathways to Jaffna peninsula to the north are more valuable.
But Kilinochchi was a symbol of Tamil resonance as Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or (LTTE) collected taxes and ran a parallel legal system from the city, which houses several monuments of those killed in the 25 year battle with Majority Sinhalese in the Island nation.
The capture of Kilinochchi, however, could not be confirmed as Sri Lanka bans journalists from entering the battle-zone, where Tamil rebels say Lankan troops blister international laws and human rights with impunity.
A report on the pro-rebel website www.Tamilnet.com, says government troops entered a virtual ghost town.
Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, who has vowed to crush the guerrillas’ quarter-century campaign, described the town’s capture as “an unparalleled victory.”
“For the last time, I call upon the LTTE to lay down their arms and surrender,” he said in a nationally televised speech, according to an Associated Press report from Colombo.
Government officials say they will return to peace talks only if the Tigers agree to lay down their arms.
Lankan troops have made steady progress into the rebel held territory in recent months, pushing the LTTE into the northeast from their earlier strongholds in the northwestern coast.
With guns on both sides blazing, thousands of civilians have been forced out of their homes and into rebel-held areas, where they must sleep in temples and schools and some only in makeshift shacks in paddy fields.
The United Nations has been allowed to send food rations to what it estimates to be more than 200,000 civilians displaced by the war.
The ‘decisive’ Lankan war effort has been accompanied by a spate of disappearances and abductions, bringing the Rajapaksa administration under sustained international criticism.
The biggest challenge facing the government now is to deliver a political solution acceptable to its Tamil minority.
India has repeatedly said that only a power sharing agreement with the ethnic Tamil minority can muffle the gun shots that continue to blaze through the island nation.
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