Sixteen years after Mullivaikkal
by Subash Chandra Bose, South First, Hyderabad, India, May 16, 2025
While the international community has not formally recognised the May 2009 events in Sri Lanka as genocide, Tamil diaspora groups and Eelam supporters firmly assert that it was a planned extermination of Tamils.
The wave of protest against the massacre of Tamils in Sri Lanka extended beyond the island nation and India. Pictured is a ‘Tamil Genocide Monument’ at Chinguacousy Park in Brampton, Ontario, Canada. The monument was unveiled on 10 May 2025 amidst protest by the Sri Lankan government. (Sourced)
Synopsis: Tens of thousands of Sri Lankan Tamils were massacred when the Sri Lankan armed forces targeted a government-designated No-Fire Zone, Mullivaikkal, a narrow strip of sandy land in Mullaitivu, from all directions, air, land, and sea in May 2009. The island nation’s army also engaged in the indiscriminate massacre of civilians on 18 May that year. It bled Tamil Nadu, and the wounds of betrayal and brutality have not healed.
Haddows Road in downtown Chennai was as busy as usual on 29 January 2009. The day looked normal, even as a young man quietly, but hurriedly distributed pamphlets to passersby opposite the bustling Shastri Bhavan, a central government office complex.
Within minutes, the man picked up a can, opened the lid, doused himself in kerosene, and lit up. When the commotion his act had triggered settled, the man was seen lying face down, dead, with his arms stretched above his head.
Those within shouting distance heard the man’s final words: “Save Eelam Tamils,” he screamed before collapsing.
In a death note found later, he introduced himself. “My dear working Tamils, Vanakam! At a time you are busy getting to work, I am pained to have met you this way. But there is no alternative. My name is Muthukumar. I am a journalist working with a newspaper in Chennai.”
K Muthukumar was 27. Moments before he sacrificed himself, he had looked like any other protester, upholding the cause of Eelam Tamils.
Muthukumar: A reminder
Across the Palk Strait from mainland India, the final phase of the Eelam War was then unfolding. The Sri Lankan government had launched a decisive military offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who were fighting for the self-determination of Tamils in that island nation.
Last letter written by K Muthukumar. (Sourced)
Despite the LTTE and the Tamil civilian population expressing their willingness to engage in peace talks, the attacks continued unabated. Voices from across the world began calling for a halt to the war, with Tamil Nadu being the most vocal.
Since the 1950s, people in Tamil Nadu have staunchly supported the cause of Tamil Eelam (homeland).
News of the bloodshed in Sri Lanka pained Tamil Nadu. Muthukumar spoke about it in his death note.
“I, too, have read the news reports of the daily killings of our fellow Tamils in Eelam. Like you, I am also one of the countless Tamils who have been unable to eat or sleep…our blood relations in Eelam are dying,” it read.
The killing of thousands of Tamils in Sri Lanka burnt the conscience of many in India. Muthukumar could take it any more when no force intervened to stop the bloodshed.
“Do not cremate my body. Keep it like a rusted iron sheet—as a symbol to sharpen the struggle. Tamil Eelam is not just a necessity for the Tamils of Eelam, but also for Tamil Nadu,” he had written before torching himself.
He laid out 14 demands and called upon the people of Tamil Nadu to rise in protest.
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Ealem, a robust hope
A few months after Muthukumar’s self-immolation, the Sri Lankan civil war officially ended with the final battle fought on 17, 18, and 19 May 2009. Tamil activists claimed that around 70,000 people were killed in the final phase of the war.
Thirumurugan Gandhi, the organiser of the May 17 Movement. (Sourced)
In 2012, a report by the United Nations held the Sri Lankan government forces and affiliated paramilitary groups responsible for numerous extrajudicial killings. The report also accused the LTTE of killing civilians, including Sinhalese and Tamil Muslims, who opposed their ideology.
However, activists like Thirumurugan Gandhi of the May 17 Movement argued that the accusations against the LTTE were made under pressure from countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, and India to present a false balance between both sides.
May 17 Movement is a social and political Tamil nationalism movement, advocating the liberation of Tamil Eelam.
Sixteen years later, the flame of Tamil Eelam still burns in Tamil Nadu. Many Sri Lankan Tamils, both former LTTE fighters and members of other Tamil movements, have since settled in various European countries. Many in Tamil Nadu are still waiting for the formation of a Tamil Eelam government.
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Final thrust
Sri Lanka gained independence in 1948, a year after India had proudly unfurled the tricolour on an August midnight. The island nation’s population is composed of around 70% Buddhists, 12% Hindus, 9% Muslims, and 7% Christians. Ethnically, the population is primarily divided into Sinhalese and Tamils, both groups following major religions.
Tamils mostly lived in the rain-rich northern and eastern parts of the island and included many plantation workers who had migrated there generations ago. Tamil-Sri Lankan connections are also evident in classical Tamil literature, such as the Silappatikaram.
Following independence, discriminatory laws began to alienate Tamils. The 1948 Citizenship Act, the 1956 Sinhala-Only Act, and the 1972 Republican Constitution were seen as efforts to marginalise Tamils and promote Sinhalese dominance. In response, Tamil leaders raised their voice.
Leaders like SJV Chelvanayakam (known as “Father Selva”), Kavalur Navaratnam, GG Ponnambalam, Thondaiman, and later Velupillai Prabhakaran began offering resistance through various groups: Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), TELO, EPRLF, EROS, PLOTE, and the LTTE.
Among them, the LTTE emerged as the most prominent group to take the fight to the Sri Lankan state and Sinhalese majoritarianism.
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Peak of Eelam struggle
Two years — 2007 and 2009 — are widely regarded as the peak of the Tamil Eelam struggle.
However, according to Gandhi, preparations for the final offensive began as early as 2004–2006 under the Rajapaksa regime in Sri Lanka.
Safe zones were also attacked from all sides, air, sea and land, resulting in the massacre of Tamils. (Wikimedia/US Dept of State)
Former student leader Prabhakaran also echoed this view, saying that during the so-called peacetime between 2000 and 2006, the Sri Lankan government prepared for war, while the LTTE was not ready for a renewed conflict.
In January 2009, the LTTE lost control of Kilinochchi in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province. Civilians began moving toward the newly announced government “No-Fire Zones”—but these zones kept shifting, from Kilinochchi to places like Puthukkudiyiruppu and Vadduvakal, eventually ending in Mullivaikkal, a sandy strip of land.
Gandhi claimed that the Sri Lankan government bombed areas it had declared as “no-fire zones,” targeting civilians. This is corroborated by Gordon Weiss, the UN spokesperson in Colombo during the final stages of the war, in his book, The Cage: The Fight for Sri Lanka and the Last Days of the Tamil Tigers.
Weiss said up to 40,000 civilians, including children, were killed in the indiscriminate shelling. Despite declaring certain areas as “no-fire zones,” the Sri Lankan military shelled them, fully aware of civilians taking refuge there.
He also criticised the UN’s conduct during this period, highlighting its underreporting of civilian casualties and its failure to protect those at risk.
UN failure
In 2012, the Charles Petrie Report echoed these concerns, pointing to “systemic failure” on the part of the UN, including the premature withdrawal of staff from conflict zones and insufficient public advocacy for civilian protection.
At the same time, both Weiss’s book and the Petrie-led Internal Review Panel on United Nations Action in Sri Lanka report accused the LTTE of using Tamil civilians as human shields and committing serious human rights violations.
However, Gandhi stated that such false observations about the LTTE were included later in the report due to pressure from countries like India, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Gandhi pointed out that the Petrie report exposed how the UN significantly underreported Tamil civilian deaths during the final stages of the Sri Lankan civil war, particularly when Weiss was serving as the UN spokesperson in Sri Lanka.
He specifically referred to the situation around March 2009, when Weiss was preparing a report on the death toll resulting from the conflict. Gandhi stated that there was pressure to either downplay the number of casualties or to equally portray the atrocities committed by both the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE.
Importantly, Gandhi claimed that the directive was reportedly issued by Vijay Nambiar, who then served as the Chef de Cabinet (Chief of Staff) to the UN Secretary-General.
Although Petrie’s internal review originally included this detail, Gandhi alleged that it was later suppressed due to external pressure. He added that it was he and others who eventually revealed to the public that Nambiar’s name had been part of the report in 2012.
South First accessed the Report of the Secretary-General’s Internal Review Panel on United Nations Action in Sri Lanka, in which several portions appeared to have been redacted.
Nambiar was identified as the key figure in what came to be known as the White Flag Incident (massacre of surrendering LTTE leaders and their families). International journalist Marie Colvin, who served as a critical intermediary during the final phase of the war between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government, testified the incident.
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The betrayal
On 17 May, Balasingham Nadesan, a senior LTTE leader, contacted Colvin, saying the LTTE was ready to surrender and asked her to facilitate the process.
Colvin contacted Nambiar, the then-Chef de Cabinet (Chief of Staff) to the UN Secretary-General. She explained the situation, and Nambiar reportedly told her that if the LTTE leaders came forward holding white flags and crossed over to Sri Lankan-controlled territory, they would not be harmed, as per a promise given by the Sri Lankan president.
Though Colvin suggested that the presence of a third party would ensure safety, Nambiar, who had been deputed by the UN to the battlefield, responded that it was unnecessary and that the LTTE leaders could approach with white flags.
“The British, Americans, and the United Nations—Mr Nambiar, who was in Colombo, were all aware that they wanted to surrender,” Colvin said on the BBC Sinhala broadcast.
Trusting the assurance, Nadesan, Puleedevan, and several others came forward with white flags, along with their families. They were reportedly gunned down by the Sri Lankan army. Following this, 18th of May 2009, TV channels broadcast news that LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, too, had been killed.
Petrie-led Internal Review Panel on United Nations Action in Sri Lanka (published in November 2012) estimated that as many as 70,000 civilians may have been killed in the final phase of the Sri Lankan civil war, which took place between January and May 2009.
Eelam struggle’s impact on Tamil Nadu
Since the 1950s, there has been strong support for the Tamil Eelam struggle in Tamil Nadu—not only for the LTTE but also for several other organisations that fought for the cause.
While operational methods and ideologies differed among these groups, their ultimate goal remained largely the same. Political leaders in Tamil Nadu extended support to various such groups over the decades.
One significant moment was in 1972 when SJV Chelvanayakam met with Periyar at Periyar Thidal in Chennai to discuss the Sri Lankan Tamil issue—an event documented in Viduthalai magazine.
As early as 1958, a massive rally was organised in Chennai under the leadership of CN Annadurai to demand protection for the rights of Eelam Tamils. Two years before the rally, M Karunanidhi had proposed a resolution to safeguard Eelam Tamil rights at the DMK’s general council meeting in Chidambaram.
Again in 1961, following attacks on Tamils in Sri Lanka, Annadurai wrote to the UN calling for the formation of a fact-finding mission.
In 1977, the DMK organised a rally in Chennai in support of Eelam that drew five lakh participants, along with a signature campaign aiming to collect one crore signatures. This culminated in the 1985 formation of the Tamil Eelam Supporters Organisation (TESO), following consultations among leaders such as Karunanidhi, K Anbazhagan, Kamaraj Congress leader P Nedumaran, and Dravidar Kazhagam’s K Veeramani.
Throughout this period, various organisations and Tamil activists in Tamil Nadu continued to hold rallies, public meetings, hunger strikes, and protests in support of Tamil Eelam.
Even during the final phase of the war in 2007–2009, protest movements were active in Tamil Nadu. In 2008, the Communist Party of India organised a major demonstration in Delhi, while the DMK announced its intention to withdraw its MPs from Parliament—an action that was criticised by Gandhi for not being carried through.
Student protests also surged across Tamil Nadu—law college students, Pachaiyappa’s College students, and others from state colleges all took to the streets.
Relevance of Muthukumar
It was during this turbulent period that Muthukumar self-immolated on 29 January 2009 in support of Tamil Eelam. A funeral procession attended by over 50,000 people followed, in which Gandhi also spoke.
Kovai K Ramakrishan, President of Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam. (Sourced)
Gandhi noted that Muthukumar’s sacrifice was not isolated—within three months, 19 people in Tamil Nadu self-immolated for the Tamil Eelam cause. He named several of them, including Pallapatti Ravi (2 February 2009), North Chennai Amareesan (4 February), Sirkazhi Ravichandran (6 February), and Cuddalore Anand (17 March).
He also pointed out that this wave of protest extended beyond India. On 12 February, Murugathasan Varnakulasingham self-immolated outside the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, and Joseph Stephen did so in Malaysia, among others who laid down their lives in solidarity with Tamil Eelam.
Protests escalated to the Sri Lankan High Commission in India, and agitators vandalised a branch of the Ceylon Bank. Lawyers at the Madras High Court launched protests as well.
Recalling the political moment, Gandhi said that during the 2009 Indian general elections, several Tamil activists, including himself, campaigned against the former finance minister, P Chidambaram, in Tamil Nadu.
Kovai K Ramakrishnan, leader of the Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam, who led several protests during this period, recalled the final phase of the war between 2007 and 2009 as a time of deep sorrow.
“It was a tragic period—we would wake up every day to news of deaths, not only of Tamil civilians but also of LTTE leaders,” he said.
He remembered the death of Muthukumar as a turning point that triggered a wave of emotional and political mobilisation in Tamil Nadu, especially among students. “It was Muthukumar’s sacrifice that made thousands of students pour into the streets.”
The Nilambur blockade
Listing the protests he had organised during the war, Ramakrishnan said, “We held demonstrations at every location in Tamil Nadu where training was being given to Sri Lankan military personnel. We stopped training activities for Sinhala pilots at the Sulur Air Force Station near Coimbatore.”
One specific incident stood out in his memory: On 2 May 2009, they received intelligence that 82 military trucks carrying arms for the Sri Lankan army were being moved from Andhra Pradesh to Colombo via Kochi port.
“As soon as we got the information, we rushed to Nilambur, a stretch on the Coimbatore highway, where around 300 of us gathered and blocked all 82 trucks, refusing to let them pass,” he said.
He added that the Tamil Nadu police arrested and jailed them. “But we managed to stop the supply, even if temporarily. That was our way of resisting India’s indirect support to the Sri Lankan state during the war.”
Students keep Eelam hope alive
Among all the Eelam solidarity protests that took place across Tamil Nadu, the student-led agitations stand out as especially significant.
Prabhakaran participating in a protest, supporting the liberation of Tamil Eelam in 2014. (Sourced)
Prabhakaran, who coordinated many of these student protests, said, “Even though the war was declared over on 17 May 2009, protests did not end. While several Eelam-supporting leaders in Tamil Nadu went silent after the war, it was the photo of Prabhakaran’s son Balachandran’s death that reignited student outrage in 2013.”
“When the image of Balachandran, allegedly shot dead by the Sri Lankan army, surfaced, it triggered a wave of anger among Tamil Nadu students. The first response came from eight students of Loyola College in Chennai, who launched a hunger strike. Though the protest was quickly ended by police intervention, it soon spread to other colleges statewide,” he recalled.
This movement soon coalesced into a new network: Students Federation For Free Eelam (SFFFE), under whose banner college students from various districts began organising protests, sit-ins, and marches.
Prabhakaran said the student agitation played a direct role in key political developments in Tamil Nadu between 2013 and 2016. “For instance, the DMK’s decision to quit the UPA alliance, citing the Congress government’s position on Sri Lanka, was a direct outcome of student pressure,” he claimed.
He also cited the ban on Sri Lankan cricketers from participating in IPL matches in Tamil Nadu as another symbolic victory. “We ran a campaign saying Lankan players should not be allowed to play on Indian soil—and it worked. That year, they were excluded from the tournament.”
One of the largest coordinated efforts, he recalled, was a statewide bike rally in 2013, organised by the student federation. “We submitted four key demands: recognition of the Sri Lankan war as genocide, international investigation into war crimes, and related issues. The AIADMK government accepted all four demands and passed resolutions in the Assembly. That was a big win for us,” he said.
Karunanidhi, a traitor?
Among the most persistent criticisms aimed at the DMK and its former leader Karunanidhi, is that he had betrayed the Sri Lankan Tamils by aligning with the Congress and abandoning the Tamil cause during the final stages of the war.
However, three prominent activists who were active on the ground during that period—Ramakrishnan, Gandhi, and Prabhakaran—strongly rejected this narrative.
“Karunanidhi was someone who lost his government for the sake of Eelam Tamils,” Ramakrishnan said. “During the final phase of the war, the Tamil Nadu government had no real power—it was a powerless state government under pressure. He couldn’t do much even if he wanted to,” he explained.
Prabhakaran added that while J Jayalalithaa tried to mobilise public sentiment against the DMK, Karunanidhi’s support for the Tamil Eelam cause was long-standing and ideological, not opportunistic. “It’s true that he did not take bold steps during the final phase, which disappointed many. But that must be seen in the context of the constraints the Centre had then imposed,” he said.
Gandhi, however, presented a more nuanced view. He disagreed with the notion that Karunanidhi’s government fell solely because of the Eelam issue and admitted that Karunanidhi’s silence and symbolic hunger fast during the war’s final weeks did hurt the momentum of the protest movement.
“But to brand him a ‘traitor’ is unfair,” Gandhi asserted. “He helped Eelam-related initiatives in various ways over the decades. His contributions cannot be dismissed.”
Festering wounds of war
Although the war ended in 2009, the wounds of the conflict remain fresh, particularly for the Tamil community in Sri Lanka.
UL Mabrook, Sri Lankan journalist. (Supplied)
To this day, many are not granted full freedom to observe remembrance events for those who died in May 2009. Despite changes in governments, Sri Lanka has consistently refused to acknowledge the events of 2009 as genocide or as a war marked by mass atrocities.
A recent example is telling: when a memorial for the Tamil genocide was unveiled in Chinguacousy Park, Brampton, Canada, the newly formed left-leaning Sri Lankan government issued a statement condemning it, denying that any genocide took place. This, activists argued, is part of a long-standing pattern of denial.
While the international community has not formally recognised the events as genocide, Tamil diaspora groups and Eelam supporters in Tamil Nadu firmly assert that it was a planned extermination of Tamils.
Drawing a parallel with Gaza, Gandhi said, “Just like Israeli bombs wipe out innocent civilians in Gaza, Sri Lanka declared a ‘no-fire zone’ and then bombed it indiscriminately, killing everyone.”
UL Mabrook, an independent Sri Lankan journalist said that in recent years, remembrance events for LTTE members and civilians have been held in parts of the North, including Jaffna.
However, he pointed out that the recent statement by Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs suggested a tightening of restrictions. “The government might still allow commemorations for civilian deaths, but plans for any memorials for the LTTE is likely to be blocked,” he said.
Despite leadership changes, he added, “Every government—no matter the party—has maintained the position that what happened in 2009 was not genocide and that the state bears no culpability.”
But activists like Gandhi, Ramakrishnan, and Prabhakaran asserted that what happened in Sri Lanka was indeed a genocide.
They felt that an international justice inquiry is necessary, that justice must be delivered for more than one lakh people who were forcibly disappeared and the over 70,000 who were killed.
(Edited by Majnu Babu).