LTTE put to sleep

I read one of the articles sometime back ard Jan09 on BBC listing out major events in the history of Sri Lanka. That time LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) was still very much alive and kicking.
The seeds of the war on which LTTE was formed seemed to have been put in soon after Sri Lanka got independent status in 1948: A wave of nationalism promoted by Solomon Bandaranaike followed by Srimavo Bandarnaike in 1970’s. LTTE was formed in 1976 as tension grew between ruling government policies and the Tamil dominated areas in north and east. The war between the government and LTTE had persisted since then till now when finally the father of LTTE (Prabhakaran) has been put to sleep. I haven’t read much about Prabhakaran but from what I could gather from readings, the cause against which he stood was right but the means he used to achieve the objective were wrong. Over a period of time it looked like war had become a way of life for LTTE and it took toll on both LTTE army and Sri Lankan army troops and the civilian population. Many times a peace deal was brokered by other countries and UN agencies but it never lasted long.
This time around the Sri Lankan government had made up the mind to finish it once and for all with a tacit backing by China as per some reports. China has vested interest in the region as it plans to set up its navy base and Sri Lanka seems to be a good ally. I don’t know what all is true but this seems to be one of reasoning why Sri Lankan government did not yield to external pressure. Several pleas by the UN and other countries proved futile.
I hope the Sri Lankan president should be very cautious of not repeating the same mistakes as done by earlier Prime ministers of letting a fraction of community feel so isolated that we will see the re-emergence of a new Prabhakaran. There is a fear among native Sri Lankan Tamils and around the world that the ethnic cleansing of eliminating Tamil’s from Sinhalese land might continue.
There is a strong feeling in Tamil Nadu on the support for LTTE. Ironically the staunch LTTE supporting politicians lost out in recent elections. The news of death of LTTE chief led to some precautionary measures taken by many companies here including mine by asking the workforce to go back home early on that day.