Even Mandela would not escape label today

What the international community have not quite grasped yet is that this is a Sri Lankan Government like none before.

Theacknowledgment of a Tamil right to self-rule in their own homeland marks a welcome evolution in US policy.

'The Tamils have already made the biggest concession of all by making a form of self-rule, rather than independence, their aim.”

Playing political football with child soldiers.

At some point in during the peace process, the international community assumed that it was no longer necessary to apply the concept of parity to resolving the Tamil question.

There is no sense that the international community actually understands what the Tamils themselves want. Or care to find out either.

Denying the Tigers legitimacy took priority over resolving the conflict - and has led to the brink of war.

The European Union resolution on May 18, the first step towards proscribing the Liberation Tigers, also marked the EU’s transition from observer to a partisan participant in Sri Lanka’s conflict. There are a number of controversial aspects to the resolution, including, for example, the directive to the LTTE to go for talks with the Sri Lankan government “without delay” and “be prepared to decommission weapons.”

The international community has miscalculated Sri Lanka’s dynamics. But it is unlikely to reconsider.