Sri Lanka on the difficult road to reconciliation

While on a vastly different scale and context, there is hope that the end of the long running civil war in Sri Lanka will provide a window of opportunity for the nation to move forward and to grow into a regional power.

Sri Lanka is dominated by the Sinhalese ethnic majority which makes up an estimated 75% of the population, with Tamils the largest ethnic minority with almost 20% of the population.

A Tamil-backed insurgency fought for more than 25 years against the Sri Lankan government, and the conflict resulted in the deaths of more than 80,000 people.

The conflict grew out of the sense of injustice felt by the Tamils during the 1970s and early 1980s when they believed they were being marginalised by the Sinhalese majority who were perceived as being indifferent to their concerns.

The war came to a bloody conclusion in 2009 when the Sri Lankan armed forces cornered and destroyed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in a final showdown.

There have been allegations of crimes against humanity levelled at both sides, particularly in the final desperate days of the conflict.

Many Tamils were placed in camps as the authorities sought to identify any combatants within local populations.

The nation has embarked on a difficult process of reconciliation and reconstruction since that time.

Those detained in camps are being released and a new normality is slowly returning to the areas formerly under the sway of the LTTE.

It is important for the Sri Lankan government to win the peace, which can often be more challenging than winning the war.

A first step must be to de-militarise the former war zone and establish civilian policing and administration.

Serious investment in Tamil communities also has the potential to unleash the economic drive of those regions of Sri Lanka and encourage investment by the huge Tamil diaspora.