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.
In 1972, Ceylon became Sri Lanka, with Buddhism installed as the state religion.
But in the northeast of the country, Tamil separatists began to organise themselves, morphing into the Tamil Tigers. Their demands were for the creation of an independent state called Tamil Eelam.
In 1977, clashes broke out between Tamil youth and the police. Anti-Tamil riots also erupted across the country, causing several hundred deaths. Little by little, the youngsters became radicalised.
They later began to take aim at the Sri Lankan army. In 1983, 13 soldiers were killed in an ambush. In retaliation, organised massacres against the Tamil population killed several thousand people, the start of what would become a civil war.
The conflict lasted until 2009, in reality until all the Tamil Tiger guerrillas had been killed. At least 100,000 people lost their lives, tens of thousands went missing and hundreds of thousands were displaced, with most of the civilian victims Tamils.
Some 13 years later, reconciliation appears far off. The current Sri Lankan president is considered a hero by the Sinhalese but is accused of war crimes by the Tamils from his time as defence secretary. In the former war zone in the northeast, tens of thousands of women have lost their husbands in the conflict – many confirmed dead, many others still missing. For them, mourning is impossible as they fight for the truth about what happened.
