Yet for many Tamils in Jaffna, the Tigers' imminent defeat is cause less for relief than for foreboding.
ECONOMIST: Mixed feelings among Tamils at the prospect of the war��s end
They have been especially vindictive towards those Tamils who have refused to toe their line.
Tamils in Mallavi, a town in the Tamil-controlled Vanni area, dutifully echo their leader's optimism.
Thousands of people, mostly Tamils, have been protesting in Western capitals to demand a full ceasefire.
This will antagonise Tamils at large, and widen the gulf between them and the Sinhalese.
The general, a Sinhalese chauvinist, won almost exclusively in areas with many Tamils and Muslims.
Kumaratunga's trump card has been to offer the Tamils regional autonomy in the north and east.
But it has left most Tamils, 18% of the island's population, quaking about the future.
The message of the vindictive attack seemed to be that the Tamils had nothing to celebrate.
But officials at the Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation, a Tiger-backed charity, claim the region receives only one-third.
It does not say so, but most detainees are Tamils suspected of links with the Tigers.
Unsurprisingly, many Tamils think the government is trying to subjugate them, not win them over.
Even the tea estates, which were well run by Tamils, were turned over to Sinhalese control.
She has never publicly criticised her mother for her part in fomenting the Tamils' grievances.
The armed struggle for a separate state for Tamils started in Jaffna peninsula in the 1970s.
The mainly Sinhala province also has a large population of Indian-origin Tamils working in plantations.
The DMK recently left the government over its failure to condemn alleged atrocities against Sri Lankan Tamils.
Hardline governments, they reckon, end up helping their cause by driving even moderate Tamils into their clutches.
Evidence of reconciliation between Tamils and the Sinhalese-dominated government, which the president has promised, is hard to find.
Analysts say the plight of Sri Lankan Tamils has an emotional and often a political echo in Tamil Nadu.
Many of the tens of thousands of Tamils detained in the north at the war's end have been released.
ECONOMIST: In Sri Lanka the grip of the Rajapaksas only tightens
The Tigers have been fighting for an independent Tamil homeland, and Tamils have been hardest hit by the war.
Villages have boxes into which Tamils can post petitions and suggestions, which they say go directly to Mr Prabhakaran.
But even now many Tamils still cannot return home because of the danger of landmines and the lingering military presence.
ECONOMIST: A rebel stronghold becomes an unlikely tourist trap
At Vavuniya, it has corralled 60, 000 Tamils, inhabitants of the Tigers' former fief, into makeshift camps, ringed by razor-wire.
Patching up foreign ties and reconciliation with the aggrieved Tamils are the most important tasks facing Sri Lanka's rulers.
But many Sri Lankan Tamils abroad are not convinced by the government's assurances.
Warm relations with India, too, rest in part on reconciliation with the Tamils.
Official claims of peace and freedom hardly ring true, at least among Tamils.
All this is paid for with contributions, mostly from expatriate Tamils, and profits from businesses, such as restaurants and shipping.
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