A Perilous Victory

Mahinda Rajapakse's win, with 50.3% of the vote, in Sri Lanka's presidential election last Friday could determine whether the strife-ridden country sinks deeper into conflict. The signs are not good: a four-year cease-fire with the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is under severe strain, with internal conflict in the rebel-controlled east and political killings blamed on the Tigers in the Sinhalese south. Rajapakse, 60, who says the peace process has been too soft on the Tigers, proposes ripping up the agreement and starting talks from scratch. Sri Lanka's stock market plunged 7% in a day on news of his...