But since it crushed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam its government has found itself in an unfamiliar position.
The only Tamil group now fighting the Sri Lankan armed forces is the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The group fighting the government for a separate state, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, has rejected the proposals.
Heavy fighting erupted in eastern Sri Lanka between government troops and rebels from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) emerged under the leadership of Velupillai Prabhakaran as a ruthless and highly effective fighting force.
The belligerents the Sri Lankan army and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam issue contradictory claims, and the area is closed to independent observers.
The Tigers - or Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) - are fighting for a separatist state in the north and east of the island.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam are one of 21 organisations named in connection with the Terrorism Act 2000, passed by the British Parliament in July last year.
As the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Mr. Prabhakaran, more than any other leader in recent Tamil history, has projected the aspirations of his people.
The weapon and the assassin's identity are well known: plastic explosives detonated by a female suicide bomber of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the Sri Lankan secessionist group.
She was a member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a militant movement that seeks an independent state for the mainly Hindu Tamils of the north and east.
In May 2009, Sri Lankan troops mounted a massive campaign to end the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist group better known as the Tamil Tigers.
During a tightly controlled tour on January 24th, the army escorted journalists through vast swathes of northern territory including Pooneryn, Paranthan and Elephant Pass recently wrested from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
The result looks unlikely to advance a settlement of Sri Lanka's 17-year war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who want a separate state in the north-east for the Tamil minority.
On the other, the grimly monolithic Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, fighting for an independent homeland for the Tamil minority in the north and east of the island, have brooked no dissent.
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The emergency's justification was the long war against the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who pursued their demand for an independent homeland for Sri Lanka's Tamil minority with total disregard for human life.
One said the blast in the PM's office probably was in direct response to Kumaratunga's public pledge to end the secessionist war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam by the end of this year.
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His priorities now are to attract foreign investment and increase trade while defending his army against allegations of war crimes committed during the final stages of the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
War there has been waged between the Sri Lankan government, tending to represent the interests of Sri Lanka's majority, and predominately Buddhist, Sinhalese ethnic group, and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who claim to represent the mostly Hindu Tamil minority.
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