Saturday, November 03, 2007  The latest in Sri Lanka  Yesterday,
the Sri Lankan Army killed one of the most senior leaders of the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE -- yes, a group
designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., EU and
India), S.P. Thamilchelvan, in an airraid, the BBC reported.
The first reaction of those who don't know much about the
situation there would be that this is a good thing. If the
forces in Afghanistan kill a senior member of the Taliban, don't
we celebrate that as a good thing?  But this killing is anything
but good news. Thamilchelvan was not just a senior leader of the
LTTE, he was also the chief negotiator, communicating with
international envoys in their efforts to reach an elusive peace
agreement between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Tigers.
With his death, that peace agreement has now moved even further
away. The GOSL is, as usual, playing on the world's paranoia
about "terrorist organizations" to justify this killing, and
promises that more will follow. Lit