End of Civil War

On 16 May 2009, the President Mahindra Rajapaksa addressing the G11 summit in Jordan, declared the victory of Sri Lankan government over LTTE killing 70 rebels by Sri Lankan troops who were trying to escape by boat. The whereabouts of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and other major rebels were not certain. On 17 May, LTTE admitted defeat with the rebel's chief of international relations, Selvarasa Pathmanathan. On 18 May, the Sri Lankan armed forces claimed that the leader of LTTE Prabhakaran was killed while he was trying to flee the conflict zone in an ambulance along with the killing of 250 Tamil Tigers overnight who were hiding and fighting the no fire zone. Again on 19 May, President Mahindra Rajapaksa delivered a victory address to the Parliament and declared the victory of Sri Lanka from terrorism. But after the declaration, it was reported that a body similar to Velupillai Prabhakaran has been found among the mangroves in Nandikada lagoon and later confirmed that it was Prabhakaran's body through DNA test against his son's genetic material.

REACTION

The general public of Sri Lanka took to streets to celebrate the ends of decades long war filled with joyous scenes of jubilation. All the leaders of political, religious, etc hailed the end the end of the bloodshed. International responses for the end of the fighting have also been positive and welcoming, while some countries expressed concern over the civilian casualties and humanitarian impact.

Even though the end of war was declared, from 19 to 27 May,2009 still 28 more cadres were killed during the operation and on 5th July special Task Force (STF) personnel while conducting search and clear operation in Ampara recovered two bodies along with numerous military items. On 5th August, Selvarasa Pathmanathan, the new leader was arrested by Sri Lankan military intelligence unit with the help of local authorities in Malaysia.

SPLIT of LTTE

Meanwhile, in March 2004, there was a major fracturing between the northern and eastern wings of LTTE. Colonel Karuna, the eastern commander of LTTE pulled 5000 eastern cadres of LTTE, claiming insufficient resources and power were being given to Tamils of the eastern part of the island resulting in a clash within the LTTE. After the parliamentary elections, brief fighting south of Trincomalee led to a rapid retreat and capitulations of Karuna's group, where leaders going into hiding including Karuna himself who was helped by a politician in the ruling party. However, the 'Karuna's faction ' maintained a significant presence in the east and continued to launch attacks against LTTE. The LTTE accuses the army of covertly backing the breakaway group, which subsequently formed a political party named the Tamil Eelam Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal(TMVP) and hopes to contest election in future.

The ceasefire largely held through all this turmoil, with over 300 infractionsby the LTTE and some 300 by SLA recorded by Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission(SLMM) by 2005.The situation became complicated by alleging that both sides were carrying out covert operation against each other. The government claimed that LTTE was killing political opponents, recruiting children, importing arms, and killing government security and intelligence officers. The rebels accused government for paramilitary groups against them, especially Karuna's group.

EARLY PEACE EFFORTS

Due to the never ending war, by mid-2000, human rights groups estimated that more than one million people were internally displaced persons, living in camps, homeless,and struggling for survival. As a result, significant peace movements were developed in the late 1990s, holding peace camps, conferences, training and many others to bring the two sides at all level.

Written by Amrutha (1215333) PCM