The military offensive in Sri Lanka in the recent months has made headlines in newspaper around the world. The `liberation of the North’ as it has been described by the Sri Lankan government, occupied by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), has led to a very violent war in the country and caused the deaths of thousands of Tamil civilians.  This caused outrage amongst the Tamil diaspora around the world as well as numerous humanitarian organisations and also led to controversies about the methods being used by the Sri Lankan army in this war. A number of images transmitted led to speculation about what exactly was happening and the fate of the thousands of Tamil civilians caught up in the war zone and of course what would this war finally lead to. Christine Nayagam looks back at eight months of the current war and 26 years of armed struggle between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government.

``I remember of a region very rich in natural resource, with large green meadows and beautiful beaches where I bathed with my brothers and sisters. I remember the corner grocery store from where we used to buy sweets and the school where I studied to become someone important. I remember the colourful temples, the sunsets in the coconut trees in front of my house. I remember my town, Jaffna, vibrant and full of life and then the war began and we all were forced to move far away, away from this madness and today I have nothing,’’ reminiscences a tamil doctor who is a political refugee in Switzerland.

As the sun set over Killinochi, the smell of death is everywhere. The community graves are full. Full of deadbodies stacked one against the other. The souvenirs of the holocaust of 1939-45 come to the mind. Thousands of men, women and children are killed, their faces impoverished, the injured, blind, handicapped, exploited, families without a roof over their head or food to stay alive. Just fear or outrage or sorrow of having lost a loved one. This is all that remains as the outcome of the war today.