He who lives by the sword, dies by it. Prabhakaran had a chance to settle for a good deal, but he got too enamoured by blood lust. The only long term solution for the Tamil-Sinhalese issue is to look at their ethnicities: the Tamils are Dravidians with ties to Tamil Nadu and other south indian dravidian states, while the Sinhalese are related to the Biharis and northern Indians. The only sensible solution is for Sri Lanka to join the Indian federation and ask for more devolution of power to the states, so that the Sinhalese state would be the south and west of the island of Ceylon and the Tamil State would include the north and east of the island + the current state of Tamil Nadu. This will meet both ethnic needs and economic needs.
Since the Tamil Tigers were the world’s most murderous terrorists (and I didn’t know that they were the ones who killed Rajiv Gandhi), it is unlikely that passions will allow this to happen for a long time.
Did Hinduism have its roots in Buddhism? Do the Sinhalese view Hindus as an apostate branch much as the Sunnis view the Shiite sect of Islam?
I remember reading a National Geographic article some years ago on Sri Lanka. What made it memorable is that even the warring parties interviewed couldn't explain why they were fighting.
Robert Blake, the American Ambassador, was trying to use the UN to allow the LTTE leader to escape. He is currently a candidate for a higher position in the new administration.