ABSTRACT
How does a successful war end? Using the case study of the Sri Lankan conflict, this chapter explores how counter-terrorism creates continuing state violence. The international ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) transformed a conflict in one state into a broader, violent terrain. The Sri Lankan conflict is now a transnational war against the Tamil diaspora that enables the continued repression of political aspirations both in Sri Lanka and abroad. The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) declared the end of the SinhalaTamil conflict on 21 May 2009. In its military annihilation of the LTTE, the Sri Lankan military is estimated to have killed tens of thousands of Tamil civilians at the end of the civil war alone.1 There is credible evidence that the Sri Lankan state was responsible for serious breaches of human rights and international humanitarian law, amounting to crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide: summary executions of combatants and civilians, enforced disappearances and the deliberate shelling of declared no-fire zones and hospitals (UN 2011). Tens of thousands more people were displaced, and 280,000 Tamils were confined in internment camps across Sri Lanka. Dire conditions in the camps include subjection to severe deprivation of liberty, sexual violence, enforced disappearances, death and serious health problems as a result of deprivation of food, water and sanitation (ICG 2010). Around 12,000 suspected LTTE combatants were detained without charge or trial at the end of the war, many with tenuous links to the LTTE: an estimated 8,000 remained interned as of June 2010 under Emergency Regulations (ICJ 2010).
