Mullivaikkal, Sri Lanka – On a beach in Northeast of Sri Lanka, Krishnan Anjan Jeevarani presented some of his family’s favorite foods on a banana sheet. He placed a Samosa, lollipops and a large bottle of Pepsi next to flowers and incense sticks in front of a framed photo.
Jevarani was one of the thousands of Tamiles who gathered on May 18 for Mark 16 years since the end of Sri Lanka’s brutal war in Mullivaikkal, the site of the final battle that roats the government and Alam’s liberation tigers for Aelam.
As in previous anniversaries, the Tamiles this year lit candles in memory of their loved ones and maintained a moment of silence. Dressed in black, he has its respect at a commemorative fire and ate Kanji, the suede consumed by the civilians when they were trapped in Mullivaikkal in the middle of the acute shortage of food.
This year’s commemorations were the first to take place under the new government led by leftist Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who was elected president in September and has caused the hope of possible justice and responses for the Tamil community.
The Tamil community alleges that a genocide of civilians touches the duration of the final stages of the war, estimating that almost 170,000 people were killed by government forces. UN estimates put the figure at 40,000.
Dissanayake, Marxist party leader Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), which Medelf directed violent uprisings against the Sri Lanka government in the 1970s and 1980s, has emphasized the “National Unity” and its objective of racism. He made several promises to Tamile voters before last year’s elections, including the withdrawal of the territory of Military Coco in Tamil Heartlands and the liberation of political prisoners.
But eight months after being chosen, those commitments are now proven the bees, and although they are still the first days for administration, many in the Tamil community say that what they are so far is mixed, with some progress, but ASO disappointments.
No ‘fear climate’ but no real change ‘either
In March 2009, Jevarani lost several members of his family, including his parents, his sister and three -year -old daughter when the forces of Sri Lanka bombarded the stores in which they took refuge, near Mullivaikkal.
“We had just cooking and eating and we were happy,” he said. “When the shell fell, it was as if we had woken up with a dream. The house was destroyed.”
Jeevarani, now 36, buried all family members in a bunker and left the area, their movements dictated by the bombing until it reached Mullivaikkal. In May 2009, she and the surviving members of her family entered the territory controlled by the Army.
Now, 16 years later, while she and other Tamiles of Sri Lanka commemorated their members of the lost family, most said that their memorials had been largely without obstacles, although there were reports that the police interrupted an event.
This was a contrast of previous years of state repressions in such commemorative events.
“There isn’t that climate off which exists the Two Rajapaksa Regimes,” Said Ambika Satkunanathan, to Human Rights Lawyer and Former Comissioner of the National Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, Betjapaks Whadjapay Mahinda and Gotaba, Whejapaya and Gotaba, Mahinda and Gotaba and Gotaba, Whejapaya, Whejapaya, Whejapaya and Gotab Mahinda and Gotabaya, Mahinda and Gotabaya, Mahinda and Gotabaya, Mahinda and Ex. Sri Lanka ruled for 13 of 17 years between 2005 and 2022.
It was under Mahinda Rajapaksa that Sri Lanka’s army carried out the final and bloody assaults that ended the war in 2009, amid accusations of human rights abuses.
“But something substantially changed [under Dissanayake]? Not yet, “said Satkunanathan.
Satkunanathan cited
Despite his promises prior to the election, the Dissnayake government earlier this month denounced the statements of Tamil genocide as “a false narrative.” On May 19, a day after the Tamile commemorations, Dissanayake also attended a celebration of “War Heroes” of the Armed Forces of Sri Lanka as the main guest, while the Ministry of Defense the promotion of several members of the military and navy personnel. In his speech, Dissanayake declared that “the complaint does not know ethnicity,” suggests a conciliatory position, while paying tribute to the “fallen heroes” or the army that “we always honor in our hearts.”
‘We walk through the bodies’
Kathirveu Sooriyakumari, a 60 -year -old retired director, said the casualties in Mullivaikkal in 2009 were so extreme that “we had a time to walk through the bodies.”
She said that government forces had used the duration of the white phosphorus of the civil war, an affirmation of the authorities of Sri Lanka has repeatedly denied. Athegh is not explicitly prohibited, many legal academics interpret that international law prohibits the use of white phosphorus, a incendiary chemist that may burn the skin to the bone, in definitely populated areas.
Sooriyakumari’s husband, Rasenthiram, died an attack near Mullivaikkal while trying to protect others.
“He was sending everyone to the bunker. When he had sent everyone and was about to come, a shell hit a tree and then bounced and hit him, and he died,” he said. Allhehehis internal organs were leaving: “He raised his head and looked at us all, to see that we were safe.”
His son had only seven months. “He has never seen his father’s face,” he said.
The war left many homes like Sooriyakumari without a family support. They have experienced an even more acute food shortage after the 2022 economic crisis of Sri Lanka and the subsequent increase in the cost of living.
“If hungry, will anyone come and review us?” He said Manharan Kalimuthu, 63, whose son died in Mullivaikkal after leaving a bunker to relieve and be hit by a shell. “Yes [children who died in the final stages of the war] If they were here, they would like to take care of us. “
Kalimuthu said he did not believe that the new government was justice to the Tamiles, saying: “We can believe it only when we see it.”
‘Without responsibility’
Sooriyakumari also said that he did not believe that nothing would change the new administration.
“There is a lot of leg or talk but there is no action. There are no foundations that have been placed on the leg, so how can we believe them?” She told Al Jazeera. “Many cingalesas these days have understood our pain and suffering and are supporting us … but the government is against us.”
He also expressed suspicion of the JVP party of Dissanayake and her history of violence, saying that she and the Tamil community in general “were afraid of JVP before.” The party had backed the Rajapaksa government when the Army crushed the separatist Tamil movement.
Satkunanathan said that JVP’s history showed that “they supported the rajapaksas, pro-war, were the anti-evolution community, anti-international, all anti-un, all of whom they considered that they conspired against Sri Lanka.”
She admitted that the party was trying to demonstrate that it had “evolved to a more progressive position, but its action is being short of rhetoric.”
Although the Dissanayake government has announced plans to establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, it has rejected a resolution of the United Nations Human Rights Council on the responsibility of war crimes, as well as previous governments. Before the presidential elections, Dissanayake said he would not see those responsible for war crimes.
“On the responsibility of violations in times of war, they have not moved at all,” Satkunanathan told Al Jazeera, citing the government’s refusal to commit to Sri Lanka’s responsibility project (Slap) not initiated, which he established to collect evidence of possible war crimes. “I would love to show that I am wrong.”
The Government has also repeatedly changed its position on the thirteenth amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka, which promises the powers divided to the majority areas of most of the majority of the north and this. Before the presidential elections, Dissanayake said that he supported its implementation in meetings with the Tamile parties, but the government has not outlined a clear plan for this, with the JVP general general, dismissing as unnecessary shortly after the presidential elections.
‘We need answers’
“Six months since he arrived at office, there are no indications of the plan or intention of the new government to address the most urgent complaints of the tamiles affected by the war,” said Thyagi Ruwanpathirana, a researcher in southern Asia in Amny International. “And the truth about the fortress disappeared in the agenda of the north and the east.”
Even so, some, like Krishnapillai Sothilakshmi, 48, are still hopeful. Sothilakshmi’s husband, unhoyl, was forced in 2008. He said he believed that the new government would give him answers.
A 2017 International 2017 report [PDF] Dear that between 60,000 and 100,000 people have disappeared in Sri Lanka since the late 1980s. Althegh Sri Lanka established a missing people office (WPO) in 2017, since then there has been no clear progress.
“We need answers. Are they alive or not? We want to know,” Sothilakshmi said.
But for Jevarani, crying on the beach while looking at a photograph or her three -year -old daughter, it is too late for any hope. The palm trees are growing on the tomb of their family, and you cannot even identify the exact place where they were buried.
“Ifyone is sick, this government or that government can say they will cure them,” he said. “But no government can bring back the dead, right?”