End Game for LTTE

End Game for LTTE...
I think the turning point for Sri Lankan Tamils....struggle for self determiniation came with the Assasination of Rajiv Gandhi by the LTTE. This was theirs single biggest mistake. They annoyed and lost a strong friend in India. The Indian establisment then determined not to help them in any matters. One should know that security decisions in India are made in New Delhi and not Chennai. THe LTTE top ranks showed utter contempt for India. They relied more on the Tamil Diaspora in Canada ,UK ,Europe, Malaysia etc and elsewhere for funds... combined with their other legal and illegal Businesses to run the war machine.They had a very low opinion about the Sri Lanka Military as they had defeated them in many battles with their dedicated fighters in the last 25 years.This made them think themselves as invincible. A strong LTTE Military was arrogant which elimnated all its moderate rivals one by one in these last 20 years.Any one who were willing to adjust with Colombo government for Tamil autonomy was dead man walking. They did not care about world opinion. Nothing short of a "Tamil Eealam" was acceptable to them. It almost looked as it was LTTE'S fiefdom. The Top LTTE arrogance was so much that they ran thier area like Warlords.They had all thiers sympathizers/agents in Police, Judiciary,University, media etc. If one went against them in any way ...it was all over for them.All sorts of people disappeared in Eaalam areas.
Another turning point came to them after 9/11 attack. It changed the world in the way as we look at it. The world has now become less tolerant to ruthless armed struggle how ever legitimate cause it may be. People want to talk & negotiate with decent people.
The Sri lankan Establishment quickly gauged the changing world mood and quickly established its legitamacy every where and put forward its point of view with great success and pushed to have the LTTE banned. Also Col.Karuna moved away from the LTTE who weakened its Cadre base from the east. He did provided a lot of input and intelligence about LTTE working, heirachy, agents etc.
All the sucide bombing carried out the LTTE in Colombo and other places in Sri lanka gave them a very bad name. They targeted the Military Personals/Assets....but it was the civilian gatherings targets which gave them negative publicity and hardened world opinion against them.The LTTE thought that they could go on forever like this. All the ceasefire was just a chance for them to further consolidate & build their arsenal.
It was then decided by the long suffering Sri Lanka Military establishment to bring thier force upto power and uplift the moral of SLA soldiers which had long suffered desertion and complains about ineffective firepower, salary ,command control issues.Once they had rectified these a resurgent SLA took help from Pakistan for attack strategy training and purchased new technology arms from Isreal, China. India possibily helped SLA who could not see Foreign interference in its own back yard.India's Strategy is to see LTTE damaged but not decimated which is happening now. Though India can do little to help the Tamils now.
Now the SrI Lanka Gov will have to decide how to to go about peace post-LTTE.It will take a long time for this to happen and till then it will best for the Sinhala Community to decide if tamils are equal citizen or not and the Tamil Diaspora to decide if a new leadership wants a Ealaam and Armed struggle again or integration in Sri Lanka ......This is not the end of the Road....Best of a Luck to all....Atif