MULLIVAIKKAL, Sri Lanka, May 18, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Sri Lanka's minority Tamil 
community marked 15 years since the end of the island nation's civil war on 
Saturday in an emotional ceremony that proceeded despite fears authorities 
would attempt to prevent its staging.

Public events celebrating the Tamil Tigers separatist group -- which fought a 
no-holds-barred battle to establish an ethnic minority homeland -- are 
illegal and authorities have blocked past memorials.

Tamils say the events are held to remember all victims of the decades-long 
war, which concluded in 2009 after a military offensive in the last Tigers 
stronghold. The operation was condemned internationally for the 
indiscriminate bombardment of civilians. 

"Thousands died here the day before the war ended," a 41-year-old Tamil 
village official, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal, told 
AFP at the memorial site in Mullivaikkal.

"There were lots of wounded people crying for help," he added. "This will 
haunt me for the rest of my life."

Several thousand Tamils had travelled to the village for the remembrance, 
where they lit oil lamps to commemorate the dead.

Sri Lankan authorities have repeatedly disrupted similar memorials in the 
island's former war zones over the years and arrested participants, but 
Saturday's ceremony went ahead without incident. 

This year it was attended by Amnesty International's global chief Agnes 
Callamard, the most senior foreign dignitary so far to attend a remembrance 
event in Sri Lanka's battle-scarred north.

The rights watchdog has for years pressed Sri Lankan authorities, who have 
repeatedly refused to permit an international probe into wartime atrocities, 
to properly investigate and prosecute those responsible for abuses.

"We are appalled by the fact that after 15 years there is still no response 
to the demands of the people to know what happened" to those still listed as 
missing after the conflict ended, she told reporters afterwards.

"We are here to remind the international community that there are people in 
Sri Lanka waiting for justice. That impunity right now is prevailing and that 
needs to stop."

- Intimidation continues -

Tamil residents near the ceremony site told AFP that security forces had been 
noticeably more active in their communities as the anniversary neared. 

"There is heavy surveillance of the people, and it is intimidation," one 
Tamil resident said Thursday, asking not to be named for fear of harassment.

Saturday marked 15 years since the killing of the Tamil Tigers' charismatic 
but reclusive leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, who had led the separatist group 
in open rebellion against Sri Lankan forces since 1972.

His death in the village of Mullivaikkal was the culmination of the lightning 
military offensive that killed at least 40,000 civilians in the final months 
of the fighting, according to UN estimates. 

Sri Lankan forces were accused of indiscriminately shelling civilians after 
telling them to move to "no fire zones" to clear the path of their assault.