By Alyssa Landers
The Sri Lankan government declared today that a civil war lasting for nearly three decades is finally put to rest, announcing the defeat of minority rebel group, the Tamil Tigers. Even the rebels, who had been forced onto a mere sliver of land near the coast, agreed that the war has reached “its bitter end.”
Despite the general consensus that the war is over, there is no such consistency on the number of casualties. While the Tigers contend that almost 3,000 were killed in the past day of conflict leading up to the war’s end, the government maintains that no civilians were harmed. Aid groups abroad estimate that at least 7,000 people have died in 2009 alone.
Since the end of a 2002 moratorium on fighting in the region the violence has increased exponentially in recent years, with both sides accusing each other of taking civilians as hostages. And because the Sri Lankan government bars all independent media, any objective information remains impossible to obtain. Currently, an estimated 120,000 Sri Lankan civilians have been pushed into makeshift refugee camps in the hot, dry region of Vavundiya.
While the war seems to be over, there is no guarantee that Sri Lankans have seen the end of the fighting. With impressive guerrilla military tactics—suicide bombing—coupled with a fierce dedication to the cause of Tamil independence within Sri Lanka, the Tigers do not appear to be giving up altogether. The global war on terror has hindered their ability to procure funding and maintain a certain cohesiveness; yet even though they remain a minority, the Tigers remain a substantial presence in the region.
Now the major challenge for the current president, Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa, is to adequately incorporate the Tamil minority voice into the majority Sinhalese government. This will be no easy task considering that civil war has been raging for decades with no end in sight.
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