World

When negotiating with terrorists doesn't work defeat them

by sudharaka | May 20, 2009 at 09:20 am

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When negotiations with a terrorist outfit does not lead anywhere, defeating them militarily is a viable option, says the Wall Street Journal.

The LTTE's killing of moderate Tamil politicians made clear that even if an independent homeland were to be established,it would have been under the iron fist of Prabhakaran instead of addressing the grievances of the Tamil people.

Therefore Colombo's decision to enforce a military defeat on the terrorists before politically accommodating the genuine issues at hand, is a good lesson for the entire world, in the post 9/11 context.

Further, "Prabhakaran's apparent demise is the Sri Lankan equivalent to killing Osama bin Laden"
says the WSJ.

The war on terror scored a big victory this weekend with the Sri Lankan army's battlefield defeat of the terrorist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The event vindicates one of the major lessons of September 11: Most of the time, terrorists have to be defeated militarily before political accommodation is possible.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa announced that the army had routed the Tigers from their last redoubt in the island's Northern Province, killing Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and several hundred top militant leaders. Prabhakaran's apparent demise is the Sri Lankan equivalent to killing Osama bin Laden. It's much less likely the cadres will continue a low-level terrorist insurgency.

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As Colombo starts to grapple with those post-conflict problems, everyone else can take note: Thanks to a strategy of defeating the insurgency, Sri Lanka is now in a position to talk seriously about peace and economic growth. When negotiating with terrorists doesn't work, Plan B is defeating them.