The political situation in SL seems grim and stalemated. Can Mr Rajapakse last politically without J.V.P & J.H.U support? What are the J.V.P & J.H.U planning to do - cut his throat if he does not stick by his totally unacceptable election pledges? Does he, in the interest of survival, intend to stick by those pledges?

As the year draws to an end, no amount of peace rhetoric can disguise a powerful atmosphere of doom and gloom engulfing the Tamil Homeland. Not a single one of the nine districts have been spared of arbitrary killings, abductions and unfair imprisonment. Everywhere it seems, grenades are exploding, soldiers are opening indiscriminate fire and scores are being killed in what increasingly looks like a return to all out civil war.

Amid seething tensions between the Tamil population and Sri Lankan security forces, the ceasefire continues to fray in a storm of landmines, grenades and gunfire. There have been clashes at sea and more extra-judicial killings on land.

The rape and murder of Tharshini is an inhuman act. 19 year old Tharshini's mutilated and lifeless body was recovered from an abandoned well in Punguduthivu located close to the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) camp insidethe high security zone which is under the control of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces (SLAF).