Sri Lankan protesters include Tamil victims in war memorial

By ERANGA JAYAWARDENA
Associated Press

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lankan protesters lit flames and offered prayers Wednesday remembering thousands — including ethnic Tamil civilians — killed in the final stages of the country’s decadeslong civil war. It was the first-ever event where mostly majority ethnic Sinhalese openly memorialized the minority group. Since Sri Lankan troops defeated the Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009, Sri Lankan authorities had widely prohibited Tamils from publicly remembering their family members and have denied allegations that Tamil civilians were killed. Protesters gathered outside the president’s office floated flowers in the nearby sea and prayed for all those who died in the civil war, including Tamil civilians, Tamil rebels and government soldiers. The civil war killed at least 100,000 people.