Government Should Watch Out For Elitist Manipulation Of Grievances

The scars of the war on both sides have not yet healed. Every year, on the eve of the anniversary, these wounds are pestered

- Ranga Jayasuriya

Remembrance and nationalist Tamil politics

Last week, Sri Lanka marked the 11th anniversary of the end of a nearly 25 years-long civil war, which ended in a rare battlefield annihilation of a terrorist group. That was an extra brutal affair, the correlation can be found in the ruthlessness of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the global champion of suicide terrorism. High intensity of violence meant that collateral damage was equally higher. Civilians who were herded deeper into the inland, and then to a sliver of land in the coast by the Tigers ( and those who willingly trekked together with the group with a conviction or a suicidal wish) took the brunt of the viciousness of the fighting.

When the war ended, the leaders of the then government were all too occupied with personal aggrandising of the war victory. They simply overlooked to take a civilian death count. Later local and international organizations came up with the back of the envelope figures ranging from as low as 7,000 to as high as 146,000. The latter figure was so liberally cited by Navi Pillai, one time UN Human Rights Chief at a memorial event organised by the US Tamil Sangam last week.

The scars of the war on both sides have not yet healed. Every year, on the eve of the anniversary, these wounds are pestered. Last week, two competing commemoration events marked the end of the war. At one end, a State ceremony led by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa commemorated the fallen soldiers and civilian victims of war. In the North, Tamils commemorated their loved ones who were killed, maimed and disappeared.