War rhetoric has replaced negotiations everywhere. In the capital, Colombo, Buddhist monks fasted, calling for an abrogation of the truce; in northern Jaffna, the grapevine was expecting a shift in trajectory from the Tigers on or after the fifth-year mark.

President Mahinda Rajapakse, under whose leadership the military has scored a series of successes, stated in Male, capital of the Maldives, that the LTTE would be soon flushed out of their last eastern strong hold of Toppigala. The LTTE are trapped in the area after fleeing vast stretches of land following operations by Government forces.

The Tigers have lost their holding power in the east considerably. Soon after the costal town of Vaharai fell to Government hands on January 19, 2007, the truce monitors, the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) assessed that the LTTE was unlikely to retain control of the land in the Eastern Province. More... Discuss this story Published: Mon Feb 19 20:28:10 EST 2007

It was shut down after fighting broke out between the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels and the military on Aug, 11. After the clashes, the road to Jaffna from the south was closed by the government, saying the rebels were using it to transport weapons and fighters and taxing traders.

The university was subsequently shut down. The A-9 road remains closed, but supplies have resumed to Jaffna, the traditional homeland of the ethnic minority Tamils, by sea.

The Tamil Tigers have been fighting since 1983 to establish an independent homeland for Tamils following decades of discrimination by the Sinhalese-dominated government.Discuss this story Published: Mon Feb 19 05:56:22 EST 2007