Summary
Contents
This book tells the story of why the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) lost the war that it had always dreamt of winning in Sri Lanka. It is a collection of news stories and commentaries penned by the author from 2003 to 2009 on the ethnic conflict in the country. Each piece is provided with an introduction that places it in the context in which it was written. The unfolding of the drama is brought about through conversations with Sri Lankan leaders, Tamil activists, Indian officials, Norwegian and other diplomats, human rights activists, former LTTE guerrillas and civilians.
The Tiger Vanquished: LTTE's Story provides a detailed account of the critical years when Sri Lanka's internationally backed peace process slowly led to a vicious war that the LTTE decisively lost. A product of the author's extensive research on the issue for more than two decades, the book reveals the dangerous lives led by LTTE guerrillas and previously unpublished information about India's silent involvement in the Norwegian-sponsored peace process.
This book will interest a wide readership including journalists, South Asia study specialists, Sri Lanka study specialists, politicians and any general reader who is interested to know about Sri Lanka.
How the Tide Turned
How the Tide Turned
(After a quarter century of conflict, one of the bloodiest and most heartless, Sri Lanka finally crushed the LTTE in May 2009. This piece, written mainly for a foreign audience, explained who Prabhakaran was—and how he met his ugly end.)
FOR well over a quarter century, it looked as if Velupillai Prabhakaran could never be vanquished. Since its birth in 1976, his LTTE had grown from a rag-tag outfit to one of the world's deadliest insurgent groups commanding thousands of fighters. At one time, the Tamil Tigers presided over a third of Sri Lanka's land area and two-thirds of its coastline as they ran a de facto state. A Norway-brokered truce went into effect in 2002 but failed to ...