Sri Lanka commemorates 14th War Heroes Day

Colombo, May 19 (PTI) Sri Lanka on Friday commemorated the War Hero’s Day, marking the 14th anniversary of the military’s triumph over the LTTE, which fought a three-decade-long armed conflict for a separate homeland for the minority Tamils.
     President Ranil Wickremesinghe, Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, the main opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, and the military top brass paid floral tributes to the fallen soldiers at the event, which marked the 14th anniversary of the elimination of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
     Wickremesinghe, the commander-in-chief of the troops, presided over the event, attended by many relatives of the dead.
     Marking the armed conflict's anniversary, some 402 military officers and 3,348 personnel of other ranks were promoted to the next ranks, the President's Office said.
     The bitterly-fought conflict, which started in 1983, was ended by the island nation’s military by killing the leaders of the LTTE, which fought for an independent state for Tamils in the country’s North and East.
     The armed conflict with the LTTE officially came to an end on May 19, 2003, when LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabakaran's body was found in the lagoon of the northeastern region of Mullaivaikkal.
     Some 28,619 soldiers died battling the LTTE, while over 27,000 more were injured, the Ministry of Defence said.
     Every year on May 18, while the armed forces celebrate the war victory, the Sri Lankan Tamils mourn their dead during the final phase of the conflict.
     The Tamils, who lost a large number of their men and women in the armed battle, commemorated their dead on Thursday at Mullaivaikkal in the northeastern district of Mullaithivu - the scene of the final battle on May 18, 2009.
     They said that the government failed to deliver justice to the victims of the brutal civil war.
     The Tamils allege that thousands were massacred during the final stages of the war that ended in 2009, a charge the Sri Lankan Army denies.
     At least 40,000 Tamil civilians may have been killed in just the final months of the civil war, according to a UN report.
     Sri Lanka has been subject to the UN human rights council resolutions since 2013, calling for accountability through international investigations of the incidents of alleged war crimes.
     Ousted president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the defence secretary during the final phase of the conflict, is accused of ruthlessly ending Sri Lanka’s civil war with Prabhakaran's killing in 2009.
     The island nation has had a long history of failed negotiations with the Tamils. An Indian effort in 1987, which created the system of a joint provincial council for the Tamil-dominated North and East, faltered as the minority community claimed it fell short of full autonomy.
     Wickremesinghe, who took over as the president last year amidst the unprecedented economic crisis and political turmoil, earlier underlined the need to fully implement the 13th Amendment to the Constitution to grant political autonomy to the minority Tamils in the country.
     The 13A provides for the devolution of power to the Tamil community in Sri Lanka. India has been pressing Sri Lanka to implement the 13A which was brought in after the Indo-Sri Lankan agreement of 1987.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)