Is a ban on LTTE Lanka’s next step?

Sri Lanka’s decision to call off the February 2002 ceasefire with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is at one level a logical move as the truce was only on paper.

In the last two years and more both sides have used air power and artillery in what is virtually a full-fledged war between the two sides.

Yet Wednesday’s move signals the growing confidence of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the defence establishment in Colombo that the military has gained the upper hand. The next step could be a ban on the LTTE.

The President’s brother defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa had already given a hint in an interview to the government-controlled Daily News last week.

He said the government should officially withdraw from the ceasefire and ban the LTTE for a fresh approach to the Tamil question. The ceasefire agreement brokered by Norway had become a joke in the eyes of the people, he added.

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