 COLOMBO - The reclusive leader of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers is to deliver his annual policy address this week from a besieged jungle hideout that could soon be totally overrun by government troops. With his northern fiefdom shrinking fast in the face of a massive onslaught, Velupillai Prabhakaran is expected to use Thursday's address to rally his forces for a do-or-die battle for survival.
| Reminds me of the old 'Far Side' cartoon: a dinosaur is giving a lecture to his peers, and is saying, "my fellow dinosaurs, we face tough times: the climate is changing, the mammals are taking over, and we all have brains the size of walnuts." |
The last 18 months have been disastrous for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who want to carve out an ethnic homeland in the north and east of the Sinhalese-majority island. The rebels were ejected from the east in July 2007 and lost their political chief in a government air raid, while much of their flotilla of ships used to smuggle in black market weapons has been reported sunk. |