Word: rajapaksa
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...will get the credit for ending Sri Lanka's 26-year war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam: the tough Army commander or the President who appointed him? That's the question at the heart of island's Jan. 26 elections that will pit President Mahinda Rajapaksa against retired Lieut. Gen. Sarath Fonseka. A political novice, Fonseka may not have the organizational strength to beat Rajapaksa, but he has proven to be a sharp thorn in the side of a president who recently seemed unbeatable...
Fonseka has spent nearly 40 years as a soldier. He joined the Army at the age of 19, and he will turn 59 on Dec. 18, the day his campaign officially begins. The same year that Fonseka joined the Army, Rajapaksa won his first election to Parliament. A shrewd, brash career politician, Rajapaksa made eliminating the LTTE, an armed separatist group, the all-consuming mission of his four years in office. Since the collapse of the Tigers, Colombo has been full of enormous cut-outs of the president, congratulating him on his victory. Rajapaksa called early elections to capitalize...
Without any other compelling candidate, the opposition parties have rallied around Fonseka as their war hero. "He was someone who could prove to be an effective counter to the popularity and the credibility that President Mahinda Rajapaksa enjoys," says Jehan Perera, Executive Director of the National Peace Council, a research and advocacy group in Colombo. (See a video about civilians caught in Sri Lanka's civil...
...fate of those in the camps will also be a key issue in next January's presidential election. Having ended what once seemed like an endless war, Rajapaksa would appear to be unbeatable. But Sri Lanka's numerous opposition parties have come up with a consensus candidate whose stature as a war hero is unquestioned: retired General Sarath Fonseka, the army commander who defeated the Tigers. Fonseka has softened his once die-hard Sinhala nationalism and criticised the government for holding civilians in camps, calling for rapid and complete resettlement. "We did not win the war to lose the hearts...
...votes of the displaced, and their families in the Tamil-majority north, could play a decisive role in a tight contest. Rajapaksa and Fonseka could split the majority Sinhala Buddhist vote, leaving Sri Lanka's Tamil and Muslim populations with powerful leverage. (Those who have been displaced during Sri Lanka's long conflict are overwhelmingly Tamil and Muslim.) President Rajapaksa's supporters have already begun their election work in the north, and the opposition is likely to follow suit. The vote will be a referendum, not just on who gets credit for winning Sri Lanka...