15 years on, justice and economic progress elude Sri Lanka’s Tamils

The recent gathering of Sri Lankan Tamils in Mullaivaikkal, brought back traumatic memories of the devastating May 2009 civil war.

Every year since, survivors observe ‘remembrance day’ on May 18, to pay homage to their loved ones killed in the war. Mullivaikkal is the narrow strip of land where lakhs of civilians were pushed in the last days of the war.

However, despite the Sri Lankan government declaring it a ‘No Fire Zone’, the military carried out indiscriminate shelling, killing tens of thousands of Tamils. Sri Lanka’s armed forces faced serious allegations of violations of human rights and international law.

More recently, Tamils living in the north and east are witnessing a growing attack on their land, including agricultural and pastural lands, by state authorities, on the pretext of wildlife, forest, and archeological conservation. The economic development after the war has been slow, going by the people’s struggles to sustain themselves. Following Sri Lanka’s economic crisis of 2022, poverty has increased.

Further, the Tamil people and their politicians have been relentlessly demanding to devolve substantive power to all provinces. While successive governments have made many pledges to share power, none has fully devolved even what is guaranteed in the Constitution, through the 13th Amendment that came out of the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987.

Fifteen years after Sri Lanka’s civil war ended, Tamils are still awaiting truth and justice.

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Script, reporting, videos: Meera Srinivasan
Production and voiceover: Yuvasree S.

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