Prabhakaran's death signals end of an era

The Sri Lankan government's historic victory over the Tamil Tigers was capped by yesterday's news that the ruthless head of the Tigers, Velupillai Prabhakaran, had been killed in a fire fight. This means the Tigers have been truly smashed, and have very little chance of rebuilding themselves. The Sri Lankan government has every right to celebrate the end of a 30-year struggle, and to take pride in the success of the last few years' offensive.

It is also time to look ahead and make political plans for how the Northern Province can be brought back under normal administration. The foreign minister has said that the government will follow the tactics it employed when it recaptured the Eastern Province in 2007. A year later in 2008 it held successful elections, and today a former Tamil child soldier is running the new provincial government.

It is important that while those who led the violence should be tried for their crimes, a widespread effort should be made to rebuild the peaceful political life of the Tamils, which may have to involve allowing some who took up arms against the state to take part in the new political life.

The aim should be to bring together the Tamil and Sinhalese populations of Sri Lanka, working together in one state.

An immediate starting point for the Sri Lankan government would be to seek international help to deal with the huge humanitarian task of feeding and eventually rehousing the hundreds of thousands of refugees from the fighting, including the tens of thousands who were taken by the Tigers as human shields.

These people need to get back to their homes and pick up their lives again, as the start of rebuilding a united Sri Lanka.