Three Years After Civil War Tamils In Sri Lanka Remain Isolated And Stigmatized
By PALASH R. GHOSH: June 28, 2012
Two boys walk past local government election campaign posters in Jaffna(Photo: Reuters)
Three years after a civil war between the Sri Lankan government and Tamil separatists, tens of thousands of Tamils in the country lack national identity cards (NIC), making it difficult for them to access public services and subjects them to police and army harassment.
In Sri Lanka, all citizens aged 16 or above are required to carry an NIC -- however, in 2009 during the final days of the deadly conflict between the Sri Lankan armed forces and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), many Tamils were displaced from their homes by the fighting and lost everything, including their identity papers.
BBC reported that more than 100,000 Tamils, who tend to concentrate in the northern region of the island nation, have either lost or damaged their identity cards. Moreover, in areas that were controlled by the LTTE during the civil war, such identity cards became meaningless as the Tamil rebels were seeking to form an independent nation anyway.
