Word: rajapaksas
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...decades of suppression of the country's largest minority. A cease-fire agreement signed in 2002 raised hopes that the bombings, assassinations and terrorism had finally come to an end. But the Tigers and the government failed to reach a meaningful political compromise and returned to war. President Mahinda Rajapaksa has promised a "military solution" to the Tamil question. He is almost there. After months of intense fighting in the LTTE-controlled areas of the Tamil-majority north, the army has captured Kilinochchi, the rebels' administrative capital, and it is moving toward their last strongholds in the jungles around Mullaitivu...
...report on these successes--or on their human toll. The war zone is all but off-limits to the media, one of the many security measures imposed by a government with little tolerance for dissent. "I ask this of all political parties, all media and all people's organizations," Rajapaksa said in a speech in 2006. "You decide whether you should be with a handful of terrorists or with the common man ... You must clearly choose between these two sides...
...holds-barred, occasionally salacious stories alleging corruption and self-dealing among the powerful. No matter who the ruling party was, all officials were his potential targets. And Wickrematunge believed he had become theirs. His paper's stories and editorials about the administration of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa have been particularly controversial. The newspaper is fighting a defamation lawsuit by Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the President's brother, over a series of Leader articles alleging corruption. The Sri Lankan government has denied responsibility for the attack on Wickrematunge and has called for an investigation...
...government officially pulled out of it in January 2008. In the past year, the federal forces have tried to forcefully put down the Tigers, pushing into their strongholds and leading up to the January 2 capture of Kilinochchi. In a speech announcing the takeover, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa called on the Tamil Tigers to surrender. Hours later, a suicide bomber struck the air force headquarters in the country's capital, Colombo, killing at least...
...celebrations didn't last long. Less than an hour after Rajapaksa's late afternoon speech, a suicide bomber struck the air force headquarters in the city, killing three people, including two airmen and wounding at least 32. The LTTE have not officially claimed responsibility, but the message sent by the blast was unmistakable: even if the government is close to controlling all of Sri Lanka, the guerrilla war is far from finished. "They want to take the victory spirit out," says Lakshman Hulugalle, a defense ministry spokesman and director general of the Media Center for National Security...