Indrananda de Silva, convener of the Equal Rights Movement and Central Committee member of the Frontline Socialist Party, stated that the final phase of Sri Lanka\u2019s civil war was used mainly to turn figures like Mahinda Rajapaksa into national heroes, while the thousands of innocent Tamil civilians killed in the North continue to receive little attention or discussion.<\/p>\n
He made these remarks while speaking at a special seminar titled \u201cDid History End with Mullivaikkal?\u201d, organized in Colombo by the Equal Rights Movement.<\/p>\n
Speaking further, he said that since 2009, May 18 has been remembered very differently by Sinhala and Tamil communities. While many Sinhala people celebrate it as a victory, Tamil people remember it with deep sorrow and grief.<\/p>\n
He noted that the final stage of the 30-year war was presented to the public as a humanitarian operation by the government at the time. However, incidents such as the white flag controversy and other allegations later led to widespread international discussions about the brutality of the war.<\/p>\n
According to him, the suffering of thousands of innocent Tamil civilians killed during the war still receives insufficient recognition. He also highlighted that many young men and women who surrendered to the military during the final stages of the conflict remain missing even today.<\/p>\n
Indrananda de Silva stressed that the people of the North experienced severe losses because of the war and argued that such a victory cannot truly be celebrated. He further accused successive governments of using war commemorations to fuel ethnic divisions between the North and South.<\/p>\n
He stated that rulers often blamed the war alone for Sri Lanka\u2019s economic problems, yet the country still entered a major economic crisis years after the conflict ended, proving that explanation incomplete.<\/p>\n
The speaker also emphasized that Tamil armed resistance did not emerge in isolation, but developed after decades of political oppression, including events such as the burning of the Jaffna Public Library and the anti-Tamil violence of 1983.<\/p>\n
He claimed that even after nearly two decades since the war ended, many of the underlying issues remain unresolved. Lands taken over by the military in the North have still not been fully returned, and the region continues to experience heavy military presence and surveillance.<\/p>\n
He also referred to detainees arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, stating that many remain imprisoned without justice. In addition, he argued that artists and writers in the North still lack complete freedom of expression.<\/p>\n
Indrananda de Silva criticized both past governments and the current administration led by Anura Kumara Dissanayake, alleging that promises regarding reforms and justice have not been fully fulfilled. He warned against introducing new laws that could further restrict freedoms.<\/p>\n
He further called for meaningful power-sharing arrangements, equal political rights for Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim, and Hill Country Tamil communities, and reforms such as a bicameral parliamentary system with equal representation for all ethnic groups.<\/p>\n
Concluding his speech, he stressed the need for unity among all communities in Sri Lanka to break what he described as a continuing cycle of ethnic division, oppression, and political exploitation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Indrananda de Silva, convener of the Equal Rights Movement and Central Committee member of the Frontline Socialist Party, stated that the final phase of Sri Lanka\u2019s civil war was used mainly to turn figures like Mahinda Rajapaksa into national heroes, while the thousands of innocent Tamil civilians killed in the North continue to receive little …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1375,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1374"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1376,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1374\/revisions\/1376"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}