The LTTE prevented residents leaving the area during the conflict and as government troops advanced on the coastal strip, hundreds of thousands of people were trapped. An expert committee appointed by the UN estimated that at least 40,000 people were killed in indiscriminate military attacks on defenceless men, women and children. Around 300,000 fleeing civilians were eventually forced into Vavuniya and incarcerated in the army-controlled detention camps at Manik Farm. The last group of Mullaivaikkal residents were only allowed back into the area in May 2012.
World Socialist Web Site reporters recently visited Mullaivaikkal in the Vanni area of Sri Lanka’s Northern Province. The region is where the government military staged the final attacks on the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) that ended the island’s long-running civil war in May 2009.