Civil War in Sri Lanka

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Territories of Sri Lanka claimed by the Tamil separatists

The civil war in Sri Lanka was an armed conflict that lasted from 1983 to 2009 , in which Tamil separatists, especially the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), fought for independence from the island nation of Sri Lanka . The LTTE called for the Tamil settlement areas in the north and east of the otherwise Sinhalese- dominated island to be formed into an independent state of Tamil Eelam . The simmering ethnic conflict between Sinhalese and Tamils ​​culminated in civil war on July 23, 1983. After more than 25 years, the civil war ended on May 18, 2009 with the complete military victory of the Sri Lankan government forces over the LTTE.

The death toll during the war between 1983 and 2009 is estimated at 80,000 to 100,000.

History of the conflict

The two largest population groups in Sri Lanka are the predominantly Buddhist Sinhalese and the mostly Hindu Tamils. For more than 2000 years there were some parallel Sinhalese and Tamil kingdoms on the island. Contrary to the frequently held thesis of hereditary hostility, these existed for most of the time in peaceful coexistence with lively cultural exchange. What is relevant here is the fact that the two groups are not too far apart from each other in terms of cultural and religious aspects: On the one hand, the Sinhalese folk religion, which is practiced alongside Buddhism, has always contained many Hindu elements; on the other hand, there were large proportions of followers of Buddhism in the Tamil population for centuries (often attested for the area of Tamil Nadu ).

The most important historical conflicts existed between the Sinhalese kingdoms and the Tamil states of southern India, especially the Cholas , who ruled large parts of the island for long periods. Today nationalistic Sinhalese refer particularly to the story of the Sinhalese prince Dutugemunu, reported in the Buddhist chronicles, who lived in the 2nd century BC. BC defeated the South Indian King Elara, who ruled in Anuradhapura , from the south of the island to end Tamil rule; It is often kept secret that Elara, although a Hindu, (e.g. according to the Chronicle Mahavamsa ) was a just and popular ruler who respected the religion of his Sinhala subjects. In western Indology today the view is held that the Dutugemunu war had little to do with ethnicity or religion, but that this story was only changed in the course of time by various Buddhist authors in order to create a Sinhala-Buddhist national feeling and a corresponding national hero .

When the European colonial powers emerged in the 16th century, there were three kingdoms in Ceylon , two Sinhala Buddhist kingdoms in Kandy and Kotte (today Sri Jayawardenepura ) and one Tamil Hindu kingdom in Jaffna . Under the Portuguese and the Dutch these remained separate from each other; after the British colonial rulers had defeated the kingdom of Kandy in 1815, they united the three kingdoms into one administrative unit Ceylon . Under the British, high-caste Tamils ​​were mainly used in the administration , which was favored by their traditionally good education, but probably mainly corresponded to a divide et impera tactic; this gave the Tamils ​​some privileges. The British government brought numerous Indian Tamils ​​to Ceylon, whom they needed as workers on their tea plantations . The proportion of Tamils ​​in the total population rose over time from 12 to 18 percent. As early as 1840, there were the first tensions because of the different beliefs .

After the island's independence, which was voluntarily granted by the British Parliament on February 4, 1948, the UNP ( United National Party ) came into power; it was initially not a party of a certain political and ideological direction, but an association of western-oriented members of the upper class consisting of Sinhalese, Tamils ​​and Muslims who demanded a state of their own. In 1948-49 laws were passed to expatriate the Indian Tamils who had lived in the country for over 100 years , which led to disagreement within the government. There were splits and party foundations of various ethnic groups, including the Sinhala nationalist Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).

For some time a Sinhala-only movement had developed out of Buddhist groups. Initially, it was not so much about the contrast between Sinhala and Tamil as about the dominance of English (which a large part of the Sinhalese did not speak) and the dominance of (Sinhala and Tamil) Christians in education and administration.

The SLFP won the general election in 1956 on the slogan Sinhala only , carried by a wave of Sinhala national sentiment linked to the Buddha Jayanthi , the 2500th anniversary of the Buddha's alleged death . The SLFP government tried to "Sinhalize" the island with its policy. In the years and decades that followed, there were repeated riots against Tamils, in which resistance slowly formed, initially among student circles, because the army had massacred the Tamil population.

First, Sinhala was made the only official language in 1956 by the Official Language Act . In 1957, the Shri dispute over Sinhala writing on license plates followed. After the mutual overpainting of characters, there were pogroms in 1958 with around 400 dead Tamils. As a result, the Tamil Language Act was passed, which allowed the use of Tamil in Tamil-majority areas.

From 1970 onwards, Tamils ​​were discriminated against in the education system, for example by adjusting the required number of points in university admission tests for Tamils ​​in order to achieve a quota of Tamil students in science courses corresponding to the proportion of the total population. In 1972 the official state name was changed to Shri Lanka , which is perceived as pro-Buddhist. Buddhism became the preferred religion and Sinhala became the only official language.

In the following years the conflict between the two ethnic groups intensified. Various political parties and organizations joined in this time the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) (dt. United Tamil Liberation Front ) together. This called for a separate Tamil state ( Tamil Eelam ) in the north and east of the island. The Prevention of Terrorism Act of 1979 made it possible to revoke the basic rights of individuals in only vaguely defined suspected cases.

Course of the Civil War

LTTE speedboat in front of a freighter sunk by the Sri Lankan Air Force

The beginning of the civil war is usually assumed to be July 23, 1983, when 13 soldiers died in an attack on a military facility in the north of the island. After the attack there were nationwide pogroms against the Tamil minority. In the course of this, between 1,000 and 5,000 Tamils ​​were murdered, especially in the areas with a Sinhala majority, and at least 100,000 were forced to flee to other parts of the country, with much of the Tamil property being passed into Sinhalese hands; some of the perpetrators were incited by politicians close to the government and members of the police and the military participate in the riots.

On page of the Tamils who soon won LTTE (also known as "Tamil Tigers", Tamil Tiger called) the upper hand by rigorously separatist Tamil groups and sometimes violently opposed. In the ongoing war, as the strongest military force, it was also able to quickly take over the political leadership of the Tamils.

In the years after the outbreak of the civil war there was a lively exchange between the Tamils ​​in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the Tamils ​​of Sri Lanka. The LTTE repeatedly used the Indian mainland as a base and retreat, and Sri Lankan-Tamil refugees found a new home in India. As a result, however, India saw regional security at risk and in 1987 sent peacekeeping forces ( Indian Peace Keeping Forces , IPKF) to the island nation under a UN mandate and with the consent of the Sri Lankan government .

India negotiated a peace treaty with the Sri Lankan government that provided for the Tamils ​​to be united in an area of ​​Sri Lanka that would subsequently be given extensive autonomy . However, the LTTE embarked on a bloody guerrilla war against the IPKF that killed around 1,500 Indians; Finally, after 32 months, India had to withdraw from the conflict and from Sri Lanka unsuccessfully under pressure from the Sri Lankan government. As a result of the negotiations between India and Sri Lanka, it was agreed to naturalize half of the "Indian Tamils" in Sri Lanka and repatriate the other half to India over a period of about 30 years.

At the same time, the JVP (" Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna ") was formed on the Sinhalese side , which was founded in 1971 as an armed communist guerrilla organization which in turn fought against the central government. It was mainly recruited from the poor Sinhalese rural population, especially young people, who were dissatisfied with the government. Their goal was to establish a communist regime across Sri Lanka. The struggle of the Tamils ​​would be invalid in their eyes, since nationality would not play a role in a communist Sri Lanka anyway. Due to the spatial separation, however, there were neither significant conflicts nor cooperation with the LTTE. The central government tied up many of its forces in a vehement struggle against the JVP and even sent out "death squads" to destroy them. However, she only succeeded in doing this in 1989, with many Sinhalese civilians also losing their lives. The central government was considerably weakened by this "fratricidal war" among Sinhalese. The LTTE, on the other hand, succeeded in its two most sensational actions: the murder of the Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa and the Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi .

Eventually a stalemate arose: the LTTE controlled the north and northeast, but was not strong enough to force the Sri Lankan government to accept its peace terms; the government controlled the rest of the country but was unable to conquer the north and northeast. It was not until 1996 that the Sri Lankan army was reorganized to the point where it could launch an offensive. Although it succeeded in conquering the northern Jaffna Peninsula , it did not destroy the LTTE, which continued to operate out of the jungle of the Vanni region. By using suicide squads ( Black Tigers ), the LTTE lost a lot of foreign sympathy and was, for example, included in the US list of terrorist organizations in 1997 .

Fragile armistice

The area controlled by the LTTE was politically, militarily and administratively autonomous, so that one could speak of a de facto state , which, however, was not recognized by the Sri Lankan government. In February 2002 there was a ceasefire and peace negotiations; The conflict eased noticeably over the next two years, but the mood soon became more hostile again.

After the 2004 tsunami disaster , the LTTE accused the Sri Lankan government of obstructing and partially embezzling aid deliveries to Tamil territory ( confirmed by the ICRC ). On August 12, 2005, the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar , was assassinated and killed. It is believed that the Tamil Tigers were responsible for his death, which they denied. In May 2006 the European Union put the LTTE on the list of terrorist organizations. The LTTE then asked EU officials to leave the country.

On June 14, 2006, more than 60 people died in an bomb attack on a coach near Kebitigollewa (northern central region, near Anuradhapura). It was the worst attack since 2002. While the government blamed the LTTE, a spokesman for the organization said it had nothing to do with it. On the same day, the Sri Lankan Air Force flew operations against LTTE positions on the northeast coast, which also killed Tamil civilians.

The violence escalated further at the end of July 2006 when the LTTE occupied a lock near Muttur in the northeast of the country , thereby blocking the drinking water supply for tens of thousands. The government responded with a military offensive and fell into a trap. The fields around the lock had been heavily mined by the LTTE and the LTTE had prepared itself well for the attack by the Sri Lankan army. 300 people, mostly soldiers of the Sri Lankan army, were killed. According to estimates by the Red Cross, around 20,000 to 30,000 people fled the city of Muttur, which is predominantly inhabited by Muslims, at the beginning of August after 10 people were killed in the shelling of the city. Also in Muttur on August 6th, 17 Tamil employees of the French aid organization “Action against Hunger” were found murdered. The government was accused of carrying out the massacre, which it rejected. On August 8, 2006, the LTTE surprisingly announced its withdrawal from the contested reservoir so that the lock gates could be reopened. On August 14, 2006, a bomb attack by Sri Lankan KFIR fighter planes on the children's home “Chencholai” in Mullaithivu killed 61 school girls and injured more than 129. The government said it only bombed an LTTE training camp, but a targeted attack on the school cannot be ruled out.

On July 31, 2006, a leader of the Tamil rebels had declared the ceasefire null and void because the army was constantly bombing the Tamil areas. Because of this, and because of the LTTE's call in May, some EU officials announced that their observers would withdraw. The conflict escalated further in August. On August 12 alone, over 200 people died, including a senior mediator in the peace process.

Attacks on LTTE supply routes

A Sea Tigers boat

For the movement of soldiers and goods, the LTTE relied heavily on its maritime forces known as the Sea Tigers . These consisted of speedboats with fiberglass hulls , which were difficult to spot with radar and could not be followed in the coastal traffic of the thousands of fishing boats. After the earthquake in the Indian Ocean in 2004 , the LTTE's fleet was considered badly damaged and the Sri Lankan armed forces' navy equipped itself with several hundred small and cheap boats that were used flexibly in larger groups. In the course of 2006, the military reconnaissance of the Sri Lankan army exposed the LTTE's supply routes. She had acquired up to eight cargo ships that were permanently in international waters and served as a floating weapons store. From September 2006 to mid-2007, the armed forces succeeded in sinking all eight freighters. According to the Sri Lankan Navy, they were able to prevent any supplies from the LTTE from the end of 2006 until the end of the war in May 2009, which contributed decisively to their defeat.

Government offensive

On January 2, 2008, the government officially announced the 2002 ceasefire. Since then, government troops have been able to recapture several areas, and the offensive stalled in front of the city of Kilinochchi.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa announced in a nationwide televised address on January 2, 2009 that the Sri Lankan army had taken the LTTE stronghold of Kilinochchi in the north of the country following an offensive. He spoke of an "unprecedented" victory in the civil war and called on the LTTE to lay down their arms. A few minutes after Rajapaksa’s speech, two people were killed in a suicide bombing outside the Colombo air force base.

On January 25, 2009, Mullaitivu was captured by the Sri Lankan army. The LTTE thus lost its last controlled city. According to the United Nations, around 250,000 civilians were trapped in the combat area. According to government reports, the military was also able to capture the last stretch of coast controlled by the LTTE in May. The LTTE's sphere of influence was now concentrated in a region of just a few square kilometers in the northeast of the island.

The fighting between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan army resulted in thousands of civilian deaths in the spring of 2009, up to 200,000 people had to leave the region held by the rebels and were only inadequately cared for. UN estimates based on daily censuses up to April 2009 put around 7,000 civilians killed. Some aid workers estimate that up to 1,000 civilians could have died every day. Unofficial estimates by UN officials in Sri Lanka during the final phase of the conflict say that more than 20,000 people (possibly up to 40,000) could have died between January and May 2009. In view of the humanitarian situation, the United Nations Security Council issued an official statement on the civil war in Sri Lanka for the first time on May 13, 2009 and called on the parties to the conflict to work for the safety of the trapped population and to care for the refugees.

End of the civil war

In view of the territorial gains in May 2009, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa declared the LTTE defeated and the civil war over on May 16, 2009. The remaining rebels were surrounded by the military , initially nothing was known about the fate of the rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran . The LTTE announced through the Tamilnet website that it would abandon its weapons in order not to endanger the civilian population any further.

Like the entire elite of the LTTE, Velupillai Prabhakaran was shot dead while fleeing government troops on May 18, 2009. A few days later his death was confirmed by the LTTE.

According to official government information from Secretary of Defense Gotabaya Rajapaksa, 6,261 soldiers, police officers and paramilitaries died between the start of the military operation in August 2006 and the end of the fighting in May 2009 . 29 551 members of the security forces were also injured. Since 1981 the civil war has cost the lives of 23,790 soldiers, police officers and paramilitaries. No information was given about the LTTE's losses. There are no confirmed figures on the number of civilians killed in the final phase. A study by a UN expert group came to the following assessment in its final report for the period 2007 to 2009:

“On May 19, with the death of the LTTE's leadership, the Government claimed victory in the war. The final phase of the decades-long Sri Lankan conflict was catastrophic. The Panel of experts stated that '[a] number of credible sources have estimated that there could have been as many as 40,000 civilian deaths'. Some government sources state the number was well below 10,000. Other sources have referred to credible information indicating that over 70,000 people are unaccounted for. ”

“On May 19th, with the death of the LTTE leadership, the government declared its victory in the war. This final phase of the decades-long conflict in Sri Lanka was catastrophic. The expert group states that '[a] number of credible sources estimate the number of civilians killed at 40,000'. Some government sources put the number well under 10,000. Other sources refer to credible information that over 70,000 people are missing. "

At the beginning of February 2009, the government began to intern refugees (including rebels) in camps. About 290,000 people were detained shortly after the war ended. This number was greatly reduced, particularly in the fourth quarter of 2009, and was still 76,568 at the beginning of May 2010. Access to the camps is difficult for outsiders. Even after international appeals, the government did not want to allow any or only limited foreign aid organizations into the camps. There is a lack of medicine and food in the camps themselves, reports continue to report that women are being raped and that paramilitary organizations are abducting children from the camps. With the government banning independent journalists from visiting the camps, there was little substantiated evidence.

The war crimes in the final stages of the civil war

In January 2009, soldiers from the Sri Lankan Army reportedly executed prisoners. On several occasions between January and May 2009 the LTTE reportedly also forced boys and girls, some of whom were not older than 12 years, to join the LTTE cadres.

At around 3 a.m. on January 24, 2009, security forces shot at the UN distribution station for the World Food Program on an open sports field north of Suthanthirapuram Junction, within the first "No-Fire Zone" (NFZ ), which included Suthanthirapuram, Udayaarkaddu North, Vallipunam, and Thevipuram. At least 11 civilians were killed and several wounded, including women and children. A World Food Program driver was shot in the back of the head. UN vehicles and bunkers were damaged. On or around February 4, hundreds of civilians near the A 35 Road near Udayaarkadda tried to cross the front line in the west in the first commercial vehicle. A group of LTTE cadres stood in their way and asked them to go back. As they moved on, they shot into the air. When they still did not stop, they shot into the ground. Over ten civilians were injured and one person was killed. Then the crowd dispersed.

Security forces shelled Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) hospital several times on February 1, damaging various facilities, including a ward with women and children and a church. International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) staff were present during the attacks. The ICRC said there were over 500 inpatients in the hospital and more injured people were being admitted continuously. The next day the ICRC announced that on February 1, 9 patients were killed and 20 others injured. On February 6, the Sri Lankan Air Force bombed Ponnambalam Memorial Hospital. The bombardment severely damaged the rear of the main building and destroyed an annex across the street that housed patients. The site was bombed again later that day. More than 75 patients were killed.

Putumattalan Hospital was shelled around February 17, killing and injuring patients. In late March, hundreds of people north of Putumattalan Hospital and the UN compound tried to flee west across the lagoon. The LTTE surrounded them and separated the men from the women and children. Some who were not married were forcibly recruited into cadres, including children believed to be only 14 years old. The remaining men were taken away to build shelters for the LTTE, while the remaining women and children were allowed to move on. The families protested, but the LTTE beat them with sticks and PVC pipes.

On March 18, another case of forced recruitment of youths, some of whom were only 14 years old, occurred at the Catholic Church in Valayanmadam. The LTTE took hundreds of them to training camps in Mullivaikal. The protesting parents were again beaten with sticks and PVC pipes.

Two makeshift hospitals were set up in Mullivaykkal: the first was established in late February at Mullivaykkal Secondary School, which worked with Putumattalan Hospital. The second was set up in another school further east after the first came under intense fire. Security forces shelled the first hospital in Mullivaykkal on April 30th, and then fired a second time, even more heavily, on May 2nd. A witness saw an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) over the area in the latter attack. Many civilians were killed or injured. The medical staff tried to move as many supplies and as many injured people as possible to the second hospital.

On May 11th, security forces shelled the entire Mullivaykkal area. On May 12, after many injured people were taken to the second hospital, security forces shot at it. Several civilians and medical personnel were killed or injured. From the evening of May 12th until the end of the fighting, the hospital was practically paralyzed.

There was food shortage and malnutrition, especially among the displaced young and older. The government promised to provide sufficient supplies of food and medicine. However, most reports indicate that there was insufficient food, medicine and clean water in the camps and in the “no-fire zones”.

Demands for a processing of human rights crimes and for a UN tribunal

On June 22, 2010, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed a three-person panel of experts to advise him on the war crimes committed in Sri Lanka during the civil war between the government and the Tamil Tigers (LTTE). After Minister Wimal Weerawansa , leader of the Jathika Nidahas Peramuna (National Freedom Front), urged the public to rearrange the UN office in Sri Lanka and take UN staff hostage until UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon made his decision to reverse the appointment of an advisory body for Sri Lanka, the UN closed its office in Colombo. The heads of the missions of the United States, Europe, Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Romania and Norway in Sri Lanka disapproved of the actions of the Sri Lankan government.

In a report published on September 16, 2015, the UN Human Rights Council accused both parties to the conflict - the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan army - serious human rights abuses and called for the establishment of an international UN tribunal to investigate these crimes. The Sri Lankan government under Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe , who has been in office since January 2015, and the President Maithripala Sirisena , who has also been in office since then, rejected an international tribunal, but promised to set up a "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" to deal in particular with the allegations made against the Sri Lankan authorities. Lankish Army is to be raised to pursue. The predecessor in the presidential office, Mahinda Rajapaksa , had flatly rejected such investigations. In a statement, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said the UN's investigation revealed "a terrible level of violence and ill-treatment" that has occurred in Sri Lanka. These included "shelling of civilian targets, extra-legal killings, disappearances , horrific reports of torture, sexual violence, child recruitment and other serious crimes". Only an international court would be able to cope with the daunting task of coming to terms with the human rights violations from the nine years up to 2011.

In 2018, a mass grave was discovered near Mannar , from which 230 skeletons had been exhumed by November 2018. It was the largest mass grave discovered to date from the time of the civil war.

Movies

  • Sri Lanka - Against forgetting. 56-minute documentary by Vanessa Dougnac and Fabrice Launay for Arte (France / India, 2016)

literature

  • Pascal Sadaune, Christoph Trinn: Asymmetries in Sri Lanka - The Structural Ratio of Political Conflicts , in: Buciak, Sebastian (Ed.): Asymmetrical Conflicts in the Mirror of Time, Verlag Dr. Köster, Berlin 2008, ISBN 3-89574-669-X .
  • Anton Balasingham: War and Peace Armed Struggle and Peace Efforts of Liberation Tigers , London 2004 "Fairmax Publishing Ltd"
  • Rohan Gunaratne: War and Peace in Sri Lanka , Kandy 1987.
  • Dagmar Hellmann-Rajanayagam: From Jaffna to Kilinocchi: Change in the Political Consciousness of the Tamils ​​in Sri Lanka , ISBN 9783899135442 , Würzburg 2007
  • GC Mendis: Ceylon today and yesterday , Colombo 1957 (3rd edition 1995)
  • Jakob Rösel: The Civil War in Sri Lanka , Baden-Baden 1997.
  • Jakob Rösel: The Shape and Origin of Sinhala Nationalism , Berlin 1996.
  • Jakob Rösel: The Shape and Origin of Tamil Nationalism , Berlin 1997.
  • Chandra Richard de Silva: Sri Lanka - a History , New Delhi 1987 (revised 2nd edition 1997)
  • North East Secretariat on Human Rights (ed.): "So that we don't forget ..." Tamil massacre 1956-2008. With an introduction by Prof. Dr. Peter Schalk. Translated from English, revised and expanded by Jan Alexander van Nahl and Peter Schalk, Heidelberg 2012, ISBN 978-3-937603-71-1 .

Web links

Commons : Sri Lanka Civil War  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sri Lanka: Civil war claimed 100,000 lives. In: Spiegel Online . May 20, 2009. Retrieved June 9, 2018 .
  2. ↑ http://www.suedasien.info/nachrichten/2423
  3. ↑ http://derstandard.at/?url=/?id=2549689
  4. ↑ Jane's Defense Weekly, Apr. 29, 2009, p. 34
  5. ↑ http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=24157
  6. ↑ http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080103/ap_on_re_as/sri_lanka ( Memento from January 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7168528.stm
  8. ^ Death and displacement on the holiday island ( Memento from December 29, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ http://www.taz.de/1/politik/asien/artikel/1/sri-lankas-armee-vor-militaerischem-sieg/
  10. ↑ Sri Lanka reports conquest of "rebel capital" ( Memento from March 3, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ↑ General: Civil war in Sri Lanka ended "95 percent" ( Memento from February 10, 2010 in the web archive archive.today )
  12. ^ Sri Lanka's army continues to advance Neue Zürcher Zeitung, January 27, 2009
  13. ^ Civilians Between the Fronts, Amnesty International, February 6, 2009
  14. ↑ Neue Zürcher Zeitung : Army recaptures the last coastal strip of Sri Lanka from May 16, 2009.
  15. ↑ Tamil rebels surrounded Colombo is confident of victory ( Memento from May 19, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  16. ↑ a b c War Crime in Sri Lanka Asia Report N ° 191 - 17 May 2010 International Crisis Group ( Memento from July 10, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  17. ^ Neue Zürcher Zeitung : "Human protective shields" in Sri Lanka from May 14, 2009.
  18. ↑ Die Welt : Sri Lanka declares Tamil rebels defeated by May 16, 2009.
  19. ^ Dignity and respect for our people is all we ask - Pathmanathan . tamilnet.com. May 17, 2009. Retrieved July 3, 2011.
  20. ↑ Die Zeit : Rebels Lay Down Their Arms, May 17, 2009.
  21. ↑ Sri Lanka's army chief announces end of fighting LTTE leader allegedly killed ( Memento from May 20, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  22. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento from May 19, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  23. ↑ derStandard.at, 6,261 soldiers killed in offensive (May 22, 2009)
  24. ↑ http://www.un.org/News/dh/infocus/Sri_Lanka/The_Internal_Review_Panel_report_on_Sri_Lanka.pdf
  25. ↑ Vanni IDP Camps and Hospitals Information ( Memento June 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  26. ^ Joint Humanitarian Update ( Memento of July 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  27. ↑ End of the civil war in Sri Lanka refugee camp behind barbed wire ( Memento from May 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  28. ↑ Children kidnapped from refugee camps in Sri Lanka ( memento from January 25, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  29. ↑ shocking video
  30. ↑ Sri Lankan Ministry of Defense denies executions
  31. ↑ UN investigation confirms authenticity of the video
  32. ↑ Report to US Congress (PDF; 2.8 MB)
  33. ↑ “Sri Lanka: Vanni hospital shelled”, press release, ICRC (Colombo / Geneva), February 1, 2009,
  34. ↑ “LTTE clamps on civilian outflow: Mounts artillery batteries inside No-fire zones - Mullaittivu”, January 31, 2009,  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.defence.lk  
  35. ↑ “UAVs show frantic Tiger attempts to bury weapons”, The Nation, February 15, 2009, ( Memento from October 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  36. ↑ “Foreign Minister briefs diplomatic community on the current situation in the North”, February 18, 2009
  37. ↑ “Troops maneuvering to open main road access to NFZ; hostage rescue mission continues ”, April 19, 2009, ( Memento from May 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  38. ↑ “The humanitarian mission will continue”, April 27, 2009, ( Memento of April 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  39. ↑ UN Secretary General Appoints Advisory Board on War Crimes in Sri Lanka
  40. ↑ Minister calls for the UN office in Sri Lanka to be blocked
  41. ↑ UN Closes Colombo Office
  42. ↑ The EU and the new states disapprove of Sri Lanka's actions
  43. ↑ a b UN Human Rights Council urges Sri Lanka was crimes court. BBC News, September 16, 2015, accessed September 16, 2015 .
  44. ↑ Anbarasan Ethirajan: Sri Lanka mass graves: 230 skeletons found at country's largest site. BBC News, November 22, 2018, accessed September 16, 2015 .