While Tamil Tiger nationalists are waging a bloody struggle in Sri Lanka, a Marblehead, Massachusetts man is trying to rehabilitate the militants' stateside image. In Washington, which classified the Tigers as terrorists six months ago, the State Department's position against them hardened. He sits there the following afternoon in a room smelling of incense and lined with miniature tractors, the accumulated calling cards of 30 years manufacturing and selling heavy machinery. Sun is slanting through the window onto a bowl of oranges. The husband is an abusive husband.
Some people do that.
We did that. The only way is divorce. That is the sensible thing to do. The husband in his metaphor is the government of Sri Lanka, a small island, population 18 million, off the south coast of India. The wife is the minority Tamil population, which makes up about 18 percent of the population, and which is fighting for an autonomous homeland along the north and east coasts of the island.