SRI LANKA:Sri Lanka is planning victory celebrations next week to mark its army's seizure of the last Tamil Tiger rebel base in the island's east after almost 14 years.
"There will be a big event in Colombo in keeping with the success of the armed forces in Thoppigala," presidential spokesman Lucien Rajakarunanayake said of the celebrations, scheduled for July 19th.
The fall of the eastern province to the military, which began its offensive some 20 months ago, has dealt a significant blow to the Tamil Tigers' dream of establishing an independent homeland in the nation's north and east.
Grudgingly, the Tigers conceded from their headquarters at Killinochchi in the north that the army was in the ascendant in their eastern territories.
The campaign has also shattered the Norway-brokered ceasefire between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) secured in 2002 which now exists only in name.
Fighting has flared across Sri Lanka since December 2005, with assassinations, suicide bombings, air strikes and sea battles claiming more than 5,000 lives, but neither side is willing to totally abrogate the ceasefire.
The Tigers, meanwhile, have responded to their latest rout with threats to cripple the economy with attacks on military and economic targets. Analysts take this to mean suicide strikes in the capital, Colombo. These could cripple the island republic's economy by driving away tourism, a principal revenue earner, and overseas investments.
International airlines have curtailed night flights to Sri Lanka after the Tigers launched air strikes on Colombo airport and other targets in modified micro-light aircraft in May.
Defence sources said the Sri Lankan military and the Tigers are gearing up for a major showdown in the north where the rebels control large swaths of territory where they run a de facto state, levying taxes and controlling the entry of outsiders.
This assumption follows President Mahinda Rajapaksa's recent vow to "wipe out" the rebels from the island's Northern Province as the army has done in the east.
Mr Rajapaksa earlier this week said blunting the military prowess of the Tigers was the only way to achieve permanent peace. His pledge is a clear indication that there is little scope for negotiations or peace at this time.
Claiming decades of discrimination at the hands of the majority Sinhalese, the Tigers have fought a bitter civil war since 1983 for an independent homeland, in which nearly 70,000 people have died.
The Tamil Tigers have successfully taken on the Sri Lankan and Indian armies, both superior in numbers and equipment, and have fought one of the world's longest-running civil wars. It is the only terrorist group to have both a navy and air wing and a cadre of young suicide bombers of both sexes, many of them just children.