Word: prabhakaran
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...more than 30 years, Velupillai Prabhakaran has been Sri Lanka's most wanted man. The authorities now believe they have cornered the elusive commander of one of the world's deadliest and most resilient insurgencies. Sri Lankan military officials said on Sunday that more than 500 cadres of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had been killed in fighting over the weekend and that the Tamil separatist fighters are now confined to a narrow coastal stretch a little more than seven miles long in northern Sri Lanka - a far cry from the vast swaths of eastern and northern...
...says Saravanamuttu. "He's seen very much as a man of the people." The war has the overwhelming support of Sri Lanka's rural heartland in the south, and Rajapaksa is unlikely to seek a truce when triumph is finally within sight. All that remains is to find Velupillai Prabhakaran, the Tiger commander who has outlasted five Sri Lankan Presidents and is wanted for ordering the assassination of an Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi...
...Rajapaksa can vanquish Prabhakaran, he will have just one foe left: the economy. The cost of the war may be more than the country can afford, with the defense budget far exceeding the government's revenue after servicing of the national debt. "It just doesn't work," says Harsha da Silva, an economist and consultant to the Asian Development Bank. A victory would reduce that spending but might also bring down with it a rural economy propped up by soldiers' salaries and pensions. In many villages, the army is the main employer, and without it, families will begin to feel...
...flotilla of gunboats and transports, and even launched daring strikes on Colombo with their own makeshift airforce. But a sustained government offensive has inflicted defeat after defeat, and that, in turn, has prompted widespread desertions. Today, just over 1,000 fighters, including the LTTE's shadowy, ruthless leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, have retreated into a wilderness of some 350 sq km, and are hemmed in on all fronts by emboldened government troops...
...population, compared to the majority Sinhalese, who constitute about 75%. In 1972, the Sinhalese-controlled Sri Lankan government declared Sinhala and Buddhism the official language and religion. The Tamils, who practice Hinduism and have their own language, took this action as an affront, and Vellupillai Prabhakaran founded the Tigers soon after. The group is formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). (See pictures of Sri Lanka on the brink of civil...