Word: mahinda
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...autonomy and self-governance that would undercut the Tigers' power, officials have regularly been suckered into more fighting by the rebels. As in Israel, domestic politics plays an important role. The cease-fire in 2002 was signed with a government more open to negotiation. But the election of President Mahinda Rajapakse in late 2005 saw the return of a more hard-line attitude toward the L.T.T.E. Top officials in Colombo oscillate between talking and fighting. "They forget that you can and should deal with the underlying problem with or without the L.T.T.E.," says Dayan Jayatilleka, a senior lecturer...
...killed 17 Sri Lankan navymen in a suicide attack. So the murder of the Ketheeswarans, who were ethnic Tamils living near a naval base, was viewed by some as revenge by wayward sailors. Others saw it differently: some supporters of the Tigers blamed rival Tamils; an aide to President Mahinda Rajapakse spoke of unspecified forces "trying to discredit the President"; and Sinhalese nationalists even suggested the Tigers had killed their own to justify future attacks. To make sense of the latest fighting, here is a guide to an all but intractable conflict that sometimes seems to make no sense...
...attacks that would be "catastrophically disabling and devastating to the enemy," but adds that the rebels have no wish to "adversely affect the peace process." Government defense spokesman Keheliya Ram-bukwella speaks of "coordinated retaliation" that will "continue as long as the L.T.T.E. targets the security forces." But President Mahinda Rajapakse, a nationalist, declared himself a "man of peace" last week...
...long demanded that leaders in Colombo recognize their sovereignty. The rebels say that if this is granted, they are willing to discuss the establishment of a federal state. The government in Colombo still insists on a unified state. Even if some sort of compromise is reached in Geneva, President Mahinda Rajapakse, a Sinhalese nationalist elected last year, might be hard pressed to sell it to the south. Rajapakse was elected on a hard-line platform that promised to do away with the cease-fire agreement. By agreeing to the talks, he risks alienating extremist Sinhalese parties who want the Tamil...
...Mahinda Rajapakse's win, with 50.3% of the vote, in Sri Lanka's presidential election last Friday could determine whether the strife-ridden country sinks deeper into conflict. The signs are not good: a four-year cease-fire with the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is under severe strain, with internal conflict in the rebel-controlled east and political killings blamed on the Tigers in the Sinhalese south. Rajapakse, 60, who says the peace process has been too soft on the Tigers, proposes ripping up the agreement and starting talks from scratch. Sri Lanka's stock market plunged...