AFTER decades of fighting and some 100,000 deaths, the civil war in Sri Lanka, Asia's longest-running and most lethal domestic conflict, appears to have finally ended. Sri Lankan government has said that LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and two deputies were shot dead trying to flee in a van and ambulance. The end of the conflict is welcome news. Both sides have fought each other ruthlessly with the Tigers pioneering the use of the suicide bomber vest and carrying out more suicide missions than Al-Qaeda and Hamas combined. The government has attacked the rebels with little or no regard for the loss of innocent civilian life, an attitude that has been frighteningly apparent in its recent assault that brought the Tigers to their knees. Although the military conflict may be on the verge of cessation, the ethnic conflict is far from over. No one should lose sight of the fact that the LTTE's original goal was a noble one. The Tamil population of Sri Lanka is only 18 percent of the total and it suffered severe discrimination at the hands of the majority-backed government. The demands and agitation for a separate Tamil homeland on the island were not unreasonable. The viciousness into which the LTTE degenerated, however, greatly affected the legitimacy of their cause. It is now up to the Sri Lankan government to win the hearts and minds of the Tamil people and make it clear that it is ready and willing to accept them as complete and equal citizens of the independent country of Sri Lanka. The Tigers' days may be numbered but the Tamils are not going anywhere. __
