The issue is complicated that the Srilankan government has been supported by China by their supply of third generation radars and fighter jets, USA by their non-intereference and intelligence on the LTTE arms gathering; by India vide radars, RAW and intelligence personnel and by supporting the Srilankan government. The crucial difference for the Srilankan government victory over LTTE unlike before has been made Pakistan, who have trained the Srilankan fighter jet pilots for precision bombing. This skill has outclassed the LTTE this time.

You missed out the Israelis, who have trained the Sri Lankan airforce and have also lent them some of their drones.

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When the going gets tough, the tough gets going!!!

30 Years of armed conflict, thousands of lives lost on both sides, and several assassinations later, we are hardly close to the truth about this civil war. The Tamils talk of \"unspeakable atrocities\", \"civilians being killed in cold blood\", and much more. The war (in the real sense & the war of words) goes on. We will never know the truth because there is so much untruth, propaganda, bias and double standards in this war.

I have followed this war ever since it started 30 years ago. While the Tamils keep talking of \"discrimination\", and \" state terrorism\", they have never chosen the path of political reconciliation or peace. Instead they chose to kill civilians and heads of state, indiscriminately. We sent the IPKF as a peace keeping force, and the LTTE killed our soldiers. We brokered a peace deal and in return the LTTE killed Rajiv Gandhi in cold blood. Why did that happen? We will never know.

Norway and the EU have done their best to bring about peace by brokering a deal, but the way I look at it, it is all about Prabakaran, his lust for power, and his path of violence. About 15 years back INDIA TODAY had a cover page article about how the LTTE recruited kids as young as 12 to join their \"army\". The wide coverage did not shame the LTTE from changing their ways. Instead they went on a hiring spree!!

Time and again the Sri Lankan government has invited the LTTE for talks, but they spurned all of that, because they believe in nothing but an \"armed struggle\". I am not taking sides, but I believe the Sri Lankan government had no choice but to take this conflict to it's natural end.

As for the talk of civilians being killed.......... I know that this is absolutely wrong whether this is perpetuated by the Sinhalese army or the LTTE.
Let us remember however that the LTTE is not snow white.......they have killed Sinhalese by the thousands, they have even eliminated their own kin (other Tamil organizations that the LTTE thought would be a threat to their unbridled power).

Violence begets more violence. I rest my case.

Even before the ink on the paper from my former post could dry, this news from France.

http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Six+LTTE+men+held+for+French+cop’s+murder&artid=Xq4/ZOHgYqg=&SectionID=oHSKVfNWYm0=&MainSectionID=oHSKVfNWYm0=&SEO=Sri+Lanka,+LTTE,+France,+Paris,+London&SectionName=VfE7I/Vl8os=

Six suspected members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have been arrested in Paris for the murder of a French policeman, a Sri Lankan diplomat said Tuesday.


The incident happened at around 9 p.m Saturday night when an armed policeman in civvies spotted the six collecting funds in the Tamil-dominated La Courneuve area, said Walter Jayawardhana, a press spokesman at the Sri Lankan High Commission in London.

Jayawardhana, quoting from reports from the Sri Lankan embassy in Paris, said a scuffle ensued when the policeman challenged the group,

During the scuffle, the policeman took out his gun for self-protection, but it dropped. One of the Tamils then picked it up and shot him, seriously wounding him.

He was lying on the street bleeding profusely for half an hour before a passerby saw him and called an ambulance.

The policeman died immediately after being admitted to a Paris hospital,� Jayawardhana told IANS, adding the six included a woman.

The gun was later found in a dustbin in front of a house belonging to a man named only as Kandiah. He is described as the chief fund-collector for the LTTE in Paris.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy told a television programme Sunday that the killing was a very serious incident� and that authorities would take stern action against the culprits.

The incident follows the detention of eight Tamils during a protest outside the Indian embassy in Paris last week against alleged Indian help to the Sri Lankan Army in the ongoing war against the LTTE in the northeast of the country.

The eight were detained after the protest by the Tamil Coordinating Council, described by Jayawardhana as the LTTE front in Paris, turned violent and a car belonging to the Indian embassy was damaged in stone throwing.

Although the LTTE is banned in France, members of front-organisations are said to be active in raising funds.

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Sunny Leone a true Canadian DESI now back in India !.