Word: ranil
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...COME TO THIS? War broke out in 1983 and had cost 64,000 lives by the time a cease-fire was signed in 2002. The government of Ranil Wickremesinghe promised peace, and the Tigers declared they wanted to join the political mainstream. But skirmishes continued after the cease-fire, and when Wickremesinghe lost power in April 2004 and was succeeded by a government allied to hard-line Sinhalese nationalists, the fighting intensified. The same year, the senior Tiger commander in the east, Karuna, broke away from the L.T.T.E., claiming its leaders were biased against eastern Tamils. The violence escalated...
...opportunity to bargain away the gains that years of war have brought them: a virtually separate state with its own borders, flag and national anthem. Prabhakaran's decision to enforce a boycott of the election by ethnic Tamils in the north and east, who overwhelmingly preferred opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe to the hawkish Rajapakse, almost certainly cost Wickremesinghe the presidency in this tightly fought contest. "If Prabhakaran wanted any kind of peace, even peace on his own terms," says Dayan Jayatilleka, a visiting scholar in South Asia studies at Johns Hopkins University, "he wouldn't have sunk Ranil...
...suicide bomber over an officious border guard. And when a rebel becomes a teacher - when a sword turns into a plough-share - shouldn't we be grateful? These questions weigh heavily on Sri Lanka as it contemplates the November 17 presidential election, where the choice is between opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, who began the original peace process, and prime minister Mahinda Rajapakse, backed by Sinhalese nationalists who, while not openly advocating war, oppose the current ceasefire. Whatever the answers, the residents of Tigerland say there is one unquestionable upside to the detente, as long as it lasts. With battle-hardened...
...Richter scale, higher than the initial temblor, which left more than two dozen dead. Let the People Decide SRI LANKA President Chandrika Kumaratunga dissolved the country's Parliament - paving the way for snap elections on April 2 - in a bid to win a bitter power struggle with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, majority leader of the 225-member legislature. Kumaratunga's ongoing feud with the Prime Minister has stalled peace talks with rebel Tamil Tigers. Pitched Battle HAITI At least three policemen were killed in street fighting as police special forces swept into Gonaives, Haiti 's fourth-largest city...
...would extend her term in office by a year, until December 2006. At the same time, Kumaratunga clinched a deal between her Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the leftist People's Liberation Front, signaling possible early parliamentary elections in a bid to resolve her ongoing feud with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe...