The monsoon rains that rolled into Colombo this week could not dampen the street celebrations that erupted when news broke of the Government’s defeat of the Tamil Tigers.

The hard-won result would have been savoured by one family above all: that of the President, Percy Mahinda Rajapaksa, who carved out victory with the help of his brothers — Gotabaya, the Defence Secretary, and Basil, who masterminded the political and diplomatic strategies that accompanied the war effort.

The brothers Rajapaksa, members of a prominent political family of Sri Lanka’s Buddhist Sinhalese majority, won through utter ruthlessness, cunning and a fierce refusal to brook dissent, admirers as well as critics say.

In contrast to previous Oxbridgeeducated leaders, they had no links to the English-speaking elite of Colombo and showed little reluctance to sever Sri Lanka’s ties with the West in favour of strengthening relations with China and Russia — countries that supplied sophisticated military hardware and diplomatic muscle.

In giving the cold shoulder to Britain, the former colonial power, and the United States, the President also won the approval of ultranationalist Buddhist monk MPs, who had demanded victory at any cost over the Tigers and on whom Mr Rajapaksa depends for his parliamentary majority.

In 2006, a year after he became President, air, sea and ground assaults were launched against rebel strongholds in the north and east.

The Army nearly doubled in size to 180,000 men in two years and began to adopt guerrilla tactics, using the Tigers’ methods against them by sending death squads to kill rebel leaders.

The Rajapaksa brothers were just as agile on the diplomatic front, thwarting attempts by Western powers to use the UN Security Council to curb the Sri Lankan military’s new-found ruthlessness.

Now the moustachioed President, a lawyer who worked as a film actor and library clerk before entering politics, enjoys a cult-like following.

In Colombo this week his image was everywhere (he always appears in spotless white robes). Pundits say that he has never been more popular among the dominant Sinhalese community.

Not all the country is with him. In particular, there are doubts over the promises he made this week to forge a lasting peace by implementing a “home-grown political solution” by reaching out to the Tamil minority.

“The majority of Sri Lankans feel a sense of relief and joy at the Army’s victory,” said Lal Wickrematunge, the managing editor of the Sunday Leader, a newspaper founded by his brother Lasantha, who was murdered in January after he criticised the Government. “But nobody is taking into account the oppressed minorities.”

Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war, a conflict that cost as many as 100,000 lives, was characterised by a climate of impunity for perpetrators of serious human rights violations on the Government side, legal experts say.

Some Sri Lankans feel that Mr Rajapaksa has deliberately blurred the genuine grievances of the Tamil minority — a community that has been oppressed since it lost its favoured status with the end of British rule — with the atrocities carried out by the terrorist Tigers over 26 years.

Many believe that Sri Lanka desperately needs a political solution that addresses the former while giving no truck to the latter.

Instead, there are fears that Mr Rajapaksa’s refusal to grant ceasefires that would have allowed tens of thousands of civilians to flee the conflict zone has radicalised a new generation of Tamil separatists — particularly among the community’s international diaspora.

Mano Ganesan, a prominent Tamil MP and human rights activist, told The Times. “The war is won but the political conditions [underpinning] Tamil militancy remain undefeated.”

His critics say that Mr Rajapaksa has used inclusive rhetoric before but failed to act. Mangala Samaraweera, a former Foreign Minister, now an opposition MP, said: “I know Rajapaksa. I worked with him. He is good at making noise but the words do not always match the actions.”

As Mr Samaraweera spoke to The Times, a mob of pro-government protesters was gathering around the MP’s house.

One thing seems sure: the President is set to have as much influence on Sri Lanka’s future as he has over its recent bloody past.

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