THE Sri Lankan Army has managed one of the more difficult feats of the modern age in ending the insurgency by the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam, who had held sway in the northern Tamil-dominated areas of the island for almost three decades. The insurgency was rated one of the intractable conflicts of the world, and proved resistant to all but the latest military measures, as well as all political measures, which were carried out by the two PMs and three Presidents who tried to tackle it. LTTE was also known because the insurgency involved India, which under Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi became involved, with the sending of a peacekeeping force there, which returned with its nose bloodied and completely unsuccessful. LTTE also pioneered the suicide blast, with a LTTE volunteer accounting for Mr Gandhi at the end of the election campaign, which should have brought him back to power. Perhaps the most important symbol of the Sri Lankan Army's victory was the death of LTTE chief Vellupillai Prabhakaran, along with its naval chief Soosai and its intelligence chief Pottu Amaan in a climactic final battle in the war zone. Along with Prabhakaran, a host of LTTE fighters and political cadres were also killed, including spokesman Sivaratnam Puleedevan and political chief B Nadesan. Amid all this bloodshed, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse has declared victory over the Tigers, and has assured the Tamil portion of the Sri Lankan population that their protection was his responsibility. However, he did not claim Prabhakaran's death, and LTTE has claimed that he survived. However, the Sri Lankan government is not alone in the world in believing that Prabhakaran and LTTE cannot make a comeback, that the civil war is finally over. Now, though Sri Lanka, which was hit only a couple of years back by the tsunami will not revert to its 'island-paradise' status, the end of the civil war should mean a return of prosperity to the island-nation. It will be the success of the Rajapakse government, and of its successors, if that prosperity is allowed to be shared by the Tamils in the north of the island. At the same time, the entire profile of Sri Lanka will change, and it will no longer be possible to conduct diplomacy on the basis of a one-point agenda. This victory also has consequences for the region, and the War on Terror. It illustrates that Indian domestic politics cannot impose itself on any other country, not even a neighbour with a large minority that corresponds to one in India, and it brings to an end a major reason for assuming that the region is a vortex of terror.