On May 18, 2009, the Government of Sri Lanka declared an end to the civil war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE or the Tigers), killing their leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran. Since January 2008, the Sri Lankan Government was waging a “final” assault against the Tigers, who have fought a civil war for the last 25 years against the Sinhalese majority Government, calling for a separate state for Sri Lanka’s Tamil ethnic minority. Over the last few months, tens of thousands of Tamil civilians trapped in the conflict zone were being used by the LTTE as human shields against Government forces that were also shelling them indiscriminately.

In November 2009, the Pakistani Army began a major assault in South Waziristan, believed to be the stronghold of the largest of the Pakistani Taliban factions. In a stroke of genius, the Army dumped thousands of leaflets one day ahead of its assault as part of a public relations effort. The leaflets bore a letter directly from the head of the Pakistani Army, General Kayani, to the Mehsud tribe which lives in South Waziristan. The letter said: “The [military] operation is not meant to target the valiant and patriotic Mehsud tribes but [is] aimed at ridding them of the elements who have destroyed peace in the region.” In order to clear up any confusion as to whom the letter was from, the Army helpfully included a picture of General Kayani on the leaflets.

INSIDE CENTRAL ASIA
BY DILIP HIRO
Overlook Press, 2009

The London-based journalist Dilip Hiro has authored more than thirty books—a number about Iraq and Iran, many about West Asia more generally. With his latest, he explores a region he previously considered in <i>Between Marx and Muhammad</i> (1995). <i>Inside Central Asia</i> provides a political and cultural history of five former Soviet republics: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, with Iran and Turkey included as well.

Earlier this year, the ruling Shah Dynasty in Nepal finally fell, coming up a decade short of a quarter-millennium reign. Nepalis' recent parallel struggles for democracy and communism have come to an uneasy confluence this summer:  despite backing from India, China, the UK and the US, the Hindu monarchy has surrendered state power to a Maoist-helmed electoral republic. Twenty-first century socialism, anyone?