Sri Lanka’s president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, announced today that a “total battlefield victory“ has been achieved against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). In a televised address to Parliament, Rajapaksa formally declared an end to the 30-plus year civil war. For the first time in three decades, all LTTE land is in government hands. The president, however, made no mention in his address of the rumored capture or killing of Velupillai Prabhakaran, the LTTE leader. Later, after the president’s speech, an unidentified army officer did confirm that Prabhakaran’s body was found and postively identified. International criticism was levelled against both sides for the callous disregard for civilians over the course of the war. Some EU ministers are even calling for war crime investigations. Tamil politicians are understandably concerned for their minority communities in Sri Lanka, implying that “the Sinhalese majority must change for there to truly be a new era of peace and harmony, which government leaders proclaim is now beginning.”
Robert D. Blackwill, former U.S. ambassador to India, writing in The Epoch Times, warns that “the evolving situation in Pakistan is potentially the most dangerous international situation since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.” Blackwill sees four “vital national interests” that U.S. operations must protect: preventing Pakistan’s nuclear weapons from falling in the hands of extremists, ensuring that Afghanistan does not turn terrorist sanctuary, avoiding war between India and Pakistan, and preventing the Taliban from gaining control of Pakistan. “The Obama administration clearly has its work cut out for it,” says Blackwill. Ultimately, however, Washington will struggle to counter “the fundamental problem” of Islamic extremism that is on the rise in Pakistan. Since U.S. policy and its instruments are too weak to impact these societal trends, this is a problem Pakistanis alone must solve.
The Nigerian military has vowed to continue fighting the Niger Delta rebels, who have renewed their attacks last week, targeting the country’s multi-billion-dollar oil and gas industry. The military launched a counter offensive last Friday, freeing 13 hostages held by Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND). Some 3,000 residents have already been displaced due to the fighting in the Delta state. MEND, the main armed rebel group, seeks to shut down key waterways to keep oil and gas exports from leaving the country, further damaging Nigeria’s energy industry. Unrest and reduced output has boosted the price of oil to over $59 per barrel. In 2006, Nigeria produced a daily output of 2.6 million barrels of oil—largely due to the current conflict, daily output is now down to 1.76 million barrels.
In the third general elections held in their nation, Kuwaitis elected the first female MPs to Parliament on Sunday. The women, Aseel al-Awadhi, Rola Dashti, Salwa al-Jassar, and Massouma al-Mubarak won four of 50 parliamentary seats, 21 of which went to new members. Dashti said that their success was remarkable in Kuwait’s male-dominated society, noting that “For the last three years we’ve ran [for office] and to…do this historical [achievement] without a quota, I think it is history in Kuwait.” Sunday’s election also saw the two main Sunni groups in Kuwait, the Islamic Salafi Alliance and the Islamic Constitutional Movement, lose ground, dropping seven seats. Meanwhile, the Shia minority “almost doubled their presence” in Parliament, winning nine seats. Shia MPs held five seats in the previous term, a possible indication that political infighting will ease in the Gulf nation.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul is facing trial for alleged embezzlement over charges that the Welfare Party, a precursor of the now-governing Justice and Development Party (AKP), misappropriated funds after being banned from government in 1998. Many analysts say that Turkey’s secular establishment has used these sorts of allegations to “oppose the activities” of the Islamist AKP. The Welfare Party implemented pro-Islamist reforms such as allowing women to wear headscarves in government offices during its brief stint in power in 1996–97. After Welfare Party Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan left office in a “soft-coup” in 1997, the party’s assets were transferred to the state treasury which found that more than 1 billion Lira had gone missing. The party claims to have transferred the missing money to its local branches, a claim disputed by prosecutors. Gul was deputy chairman of the Welfare Party at the time, and pardoned Erbakan last year when he was sentenced to jail and fined for embezzlement. The court released a statement yesterday stating that the Turkish constitution requires everyone to stand trial. Gul’s office responded, saying, “The president cannot be put on trial unless it is on charges of treason.”