In Sri Lanka, 13 years after the end of the civil war with the Tamil Tigers that lasted a quarter of a century, reconciliation appears elusive. Elected in 2019, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, seen by the Sinhalese majority as a hero and accused by the Tamil minority of war crimes during the conflict, embodies this divide. FRANCE 24's Thomas Denis reports, with Navodita Kumari.
The roots of the conflict in Sri Lanka go back to the period of British colonisation. When the island of Ceylon obtained its independence in 1948, the majority Sinhalese, who are Buddhist, took power. The Tamil minority, made up of Hindus and Christians, were accused of having been close to the colonisers and soon found themselves marginalised.
