WORLD NEWS | Lankan Tamils ​​say government has failed to deliver justice as it mourns civil war victims

COLOMBO, May 18 (PTI) Sri Lankan Tamils ​​said on Thursday that the government has failed to bring justice to victims of a brutal civil war as they mark the 14th anniversary of the end of a three-year conflict between the Tamil Tigers. Ilam (LTTE) and Lanka Forces.

The LTTE-led separatist movement to establish an independent Tamil homeland in the island nation’s northern and eastern provinces came to an end on 18 May 2009 with the killing of LTTE supreme leader Velupillai Prabakaran by Sri Lankan troops in Vellamulivaikkal, Mullaithviu.

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Every year on May 18, as the armed forces celebrate victory in the war, Tamils ​​mourn the victims of the final phase of the conflict.

A commemorative ceremony was held on Thursday at Mullaivaikkal in the north-eastern Mullaithivu district – the scene of the last battle on 18 May 2009.

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Fr Leo, a Catholic priest representing the Mullaivaikkal Memorial Council, called for justice and accountability at a service at the scene this morning.

Mourners say the government has failed to deliver justice for the victims of the civil war.

In Colombo, a group of civil society activists said their efforts to commemorate the deaths of Tamil civilians were interrupted by members of the majority Sinhalese community, who called the commemoration an act of honoring “LTTE terrorists”.

Intervening riot police dispersed both parties from the scene.

Sinhalese (mainly Buddhists) make up nearly 75 percent of Sri Lanka’s 22 million people, while Tamils ​​make up 15 percent.

The hardline Buddhist clergy, who make up the majority, have also thwarted attempts at reconciliation with the Tamil minority since the country gained independence from Britain in 1948.

The government is also planning a commemoration for soldiers killed in the conflict near parliament on Friday, with all military commanders who won the war in attendance.

Force Commander-in-Chief President Ranil Wickremesinghe will chair the event.

Tamils ​​claim thousands were massacred in the final stages of the war, which ended in 2009, an allegation denied by the Sri Lankan army.

According to a United Nations report, at least 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed in the last months of the civil war alone.

Since 2013, Sri Lanka has been bound by a UN Human Rights Council resolution calling for international investigations into accountability for alleged war crimes.

Deposed President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who served as defense minister during the final stages of the conflict, is accused of killing LTTE supreme leader Prabhakaran in 2009, which brutally ended Sri Lanka’s civil war .

The island nation has a long history of failed negotiations with the Tamils. India’s attempt to create a joint provincial parliamentary system for the Tamil-dominated north and east in 1987 has faltered as minority communities claim it is not fully self-governing.

Wickremesinghe, who took over as president last year amid unprecedented economic crisis and political turmoil, had earlier stressed the need to fully implement the constitution’s 13th Amendment, which grants political autonomy to the country’s ethnic Tamil minority.

13A provides for the devolution of power to the Tamil community in Sri Lanka. India has been urging Sri Lanka to implement 13A introduced after the 1987 India-Sri Lanka agreement.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)