How Sri Lanka's terrorist Tamil Tigers brought about their own destruction

RARELY in the contemporary world has a domestic insurgency been as decisively crushed by military means as the Tamil Tiger rebels of Sri Lanka have been -- and arguably not in recent times has a reversal of fortunes been so dramatic. During a war that raged more than a quarter century, the Tigers, who claimed to represent a minority that makes up about a fifth of Sri Lanka's population, grew to control more than a third of the country and operated their own government, legal system, navy and air force. But yesterday, their last sanctuary was wiped out by a government offensive that also appears to have killed most of their top leaders, including notorious chief Velupillai Prabhakaran.

The bloody outcome, which had cost the lives of at least 7,000 civilians since January, prompted outrage from human rights groups and some Western governments, which accused Sri Lankan forces of war crimes. Very likely there were atrocities on both sides -- and the government's banning of independent observers from the war zone and repression of its own media, actions that make the facts hard to come by, were in themselves reprehensible. But the fears that a far greater catastrophe would befall hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in the war zone were not borne out.

Moreover, there can be little doubt that the calamity that befell the Tigers as well as those trapped with them was caused by the group's own depravity. Mr. Prabhakaran, as much a cult leader as an insurgent commander, did much to establish suicide bombing as a tactic for extremists around the world. He orchestrated the assassination of a Sri Lankan president and an Indian prime minister; he enslaved and systematically brainwashed children. He refused to accept compromise proposals that would have granted the Tamils autonomy, and he triggered the government's final offensive by cutting off the water supply to eastern Sri Lanka. The Tigers were rightly branded a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and India.

By orchestrating an election boycott, the Tigers helped to elect Mahinda Rajapaksa as Sri Lanka's president. Having rallied the Sinhalese majority to win the war, Mr. Rajapaksa now will have the opportunity and the political capital to remedy the trouble that caused the war, which is the absence of Tamil self-government. So far his efforts have been inadequate: The devolution of power already undertaken in the country's Eastern Province has been mostly nominal and marred by continued abuses by security forces. The president has promised to quickly stage elections in the newly freed territories. If he is to ensure that Sri Lanka leaves behind the violence that has plagued it for so long, he will have to sponsor a political process that is fully inclusive and democratic and that guarantees the rights of Tamils under a peaceful rule of law.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/18/AR2009051802606_pf.html

© 2009 The Washington Post Company