There are whispers in Washington, based on reliable briefings by Sri Lankan officials, that Rajapaksa's secret strategy is to repopulate areas vacated by Tamils during the fighting with ethnic Sinhalese the same way Han Chinese changed the demographics of Tibet in the last few decades.
Prabhakaran told a journalist in 1986 that his primary role model was Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose in his power and resplendent as the head of the Indian National Army. His other role model, according to this journalist, was Clint Eastwood in his tough guy roles in the Dirty Harry movies.
With the prospect that DMK will have a key role in the next UPA government, South Block was today trying to look beyond the mopping up of any residual Tamil resistance in Sri Lanka and, instead, urging Colombo not to engage in what may amount to soft ethnic cleansing of areas where Prabhakaran wanted to concentrate his Eelam homeland.
?This is the moment when the root causes of conflict in Sri Lanka can be addressed,? India said in a statement. ?This would include political steps towards the effective devolution of power within the Sri Lankan Constitution so that Sri Lankans of all communities, including the Tamils, can feel at home and lead lives of dignity of their own free will.?