The Tamil Tiger rebel army, which has been fighting the Sri Lankan government in order to establish an independent state for 25 years, grudgingly acknowledged yesterday that “the battle has reached its bitter end;” Tamil rapper MIA, who spent her childhood in Sri Lanka (and who was featured in Issue 22 of STOP SMILING), is among the Tamil diaspora who continue to support resistance in their homeland, arguing that under the rule of the ethnic majority, Tamils will always be oppressed — MIA was widely criticized as recently as February for “supporting terrorism” as a result of her pro-Tiger stance. -SS