The Mahinda Rajapaksa government that played a key role in defeating the LTTE was emboldened by its victory and validated the dominance of the Sinhala-Buddhist ideology. Since 2009, Sri Lanka has been under international pressure to investigate the accusations of war crimes committed by both the Sri Lankan military and LTTE.ĭespite global pressure for accountability, successive governments in Sri Lanka have either failed to deliver their promises or committed to half measures that have not satisfied global human rights advocates. However, a UN report noted that around 40,000 civilians were killed during the final stages of the war. The ethnic strife ended in May 2009 after the Sri Lankan army killed many top military top personnel, including Prabhakaran. The LTTE, an ethno-nationalist militant group, was founded in 1972 by Velupillai Prabhakaran, who fought for a separate homeland for the Tamil minority living in the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka experienced a highly protracted and intractable civil war between the government and the LTTE between 19. While successive Sri Lankan governments have made efforts to neutralize the movement through the process of Sinhalisation, Tamil diaspora groups have kept LTTE narratives of nationhood, persecution and struggle alive in their host countries. Their narratives of nationhood, persecution, and struggle play a pivotal role in internationalizing a subnational resistance movement under the framework of liberal peace engagement. While successive governments have made efforts to neutralize the movement through the process of Sinhalization, 1 sections of the Tamil diaspora have kept it alive in their host countries.
Some of these diasporic groups remain committed to their demands for a separate homeland. While the secessionist movement faced military defeat in 2009, its nationalist ideologies survive by means of a network of diasporic groups in third-party countries. The armed struggle by the now-defunct Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) formed in response to the discriminatory policies adopted by successive governments that strengthened the position of the majority and marginalized minority groups. Sri Lanka faced the ethno-separatist Tamil Eelam movement-in the pursuit of creating a separate homeland for the Tamils-from 1983 to 2009.
Several South Asian countries have been affected by armed conflicts that have undermined their sovereignty and territorial integrity.