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Sri Lanka’s ousted Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe (third from left) waves to his supporters during a protest against his removal, near his official residence in Colombo on October 30.

Change that fuels fears

Sri Lanka has entered a hugely uncertain phase of its post-civil war politics in which the disillusionment of young voters can result in their radical
JAYADEVA UYANGODA
October 29, 2006: S.P. Tamilchelvan, the LTTEs chief negotiator, with Erik Solheim, Norwegian Minister for International Development, and Jon Hanssen-Bauer (centre), Norways Special Envoy for the peace process in Sri Lanka, at a press conference in Geneva where they announced the adjournment of the peace talks.-SALVATPRE DI NOLFI/AP/KEYSTONE

New configurations and constraints

Endgame for the LTTE. That is how the media described the Sri Lanka Armys entry into Mullaithivu town, seemingly the last stronghold of the Liberation
JAYADEVA UYANGODA
The body of T. Maheswaran, Tamil Member of Parliament of the Opposition United National Party who was shot dead inside a temple in Colombo on January 1, being taken for cremation in Colombo on January 3.-LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHI/AFP

Point of no return

The abrogation of the ceasefire agreement re-inaugurates in no uncertain terms a period of intense war escalation.
JAYADEVA UYANGODA
Sri Lanka Special Task Force troops rehearse for an Independence Day parade at the Galle Face Ground in Colombo, in February 2006. Sri Lanka unveiled its biggest ever war budget in early November as part of a government campaign to crush the Tigers.-SANKA VIDANAGAMA/AFP

Beyond redemption

Sri Lankas ethnic war has now reached a point of no return. It can only escalate in the years to come.
JAYADEVA UYANGODA
MOMENTS AFTER Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa escaped an attack in Colombo on December 1.-SANKA VIDANAGAMA/AFP

That sinking feeling

The war between the government forces and the LTTE has escalated, and a return to the negotiation table seems unlikely.
JAYADEVA UYANGODA
OFFICIALS AT THE wreckage of a truck loaded with explosives, which an LTTE suicide bomber drove into a Sri Lankan Navy convoy, killing nearly 100 sailors.-GAMINI OBESEKARA/AP

Choosing war

Negotiations between the government and the LTTE falter as each attempts to gain the upper hand through military victories.
JAYADEVA UYANGODA
Norway's International Development Minister and top peace envoy Erik Solheim with President Mahinda Rajapakse in Colombo.-AP

Anatomy of a confrontation

Behind the failure to reach a compromise is the incompatibility of the Sinhalese and Tamil nationalist projects.
JAYADEVA UYANGODA
A mourner holds a poster of Lakshman Kadirgamar during his funeral service in Colombo.-INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/AFP

The path ahead

The overall challenge now is about the difficult task of providing incentives to the LTTE to stay on the path of political engagement and disincentive
JAYADEVA UYANGODA

The birth of a tragedy

Since Sri Lanka's Independence 50 years ago, two competing visions of a modern state, grounded in separate and unmediated ethnic interests, have infor
JAYADEVA UYANGODA
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