MP
Charles Chauvel lighting a candle on Mullivaikkal Remembrance Day 2010 in
Wellington,
New Zealand '' staff donating blood on Mullivaikkal Remembrance Day 2013 in
Jaffna, Sri Lanka The
Sri Lankan Civil War was an armed conflict where the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) led an insurgency against the
Sri Lankan government to create an
independent state in the Tamil-majority
northeastern regions of Sri Lanka called
Tamil Eelam. By 2007, the civil war had cost an estimated 70,000 lives. Amongst those killed, Sri Lankan Tamils alone made up a total of 54,053 deaths and 25,266 Sri Lankan Tamils went missing or "disappeared". The
final months of the civil war, between late 2008 and early 2009, witnessed particularly brutal fighting between the
Sri Lanka Army and the LTTE. Around 300,000 civilians were
trapped between the two sides. Both sides committed and were accused of major human rights violations. The civil war ended on 18 May 2009 with the killing of
Velupillai Prabhakaran, founder and leader of the LTTE. A
United Nations report found that as many as 40,000 Tamil civilians may have been killed in the final months of the civil war, mostly as a result of indiscriminate shelling by the Sri Lankan military. There are widespread allegations that both sides committed atrocities and human rights violations, including
war crimes. The
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is currently investigating the alleged war crimes.
Commemoration banned The
Sri Lankan government, which formerly declared 18 May as
Victory Day, celebrates the day with military parades. The day is also a commemoration for dead military personnel who are celebrated as "war heroes". However, there was no official commemoration for the thousands of Tamil civilians killed in the civil war despite the government's own
Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission recommending that all citizens killed during the war be commemorated on
National Day (4 February). Instead, the government has virtually banned Tamils from commemorating their war dead. In the run up to 18 May, security is tightened in the Tamil-majority
Northern and
Eastern provinces and schools and universities are closed to prevent any public commemoration. The government and its security forces regard any commemoration by Tamils to be commemoration of the LTTE, not civilians. The security forces claim that Tamils may commemorate dead LTTE members in private but there have been reports of the military entering homes to prevent commemoration. Under the presidency of
Mahinda Rajapaksa, 18 May was known as Victory day, but when
Maithripala Sirisena came to power in 2015 the date was renamed as
Remembrance day. The date was also moved to 19 May. ==Commemorations==