Battle of Mullivaikkal and the end of the war

01The sandbar

After Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu fell, the LTTE and the civilians it held fell back into the coastal strip near Puthumathalan and Mullivaikkal, which the government declared a ‘no-fire zone’. The Tigers kept people there by force, and shelling fell on the camps of tarpaulin and palm leaf; the UN Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts later held that both sides had committed grave violations. In April the army broke the LTTE bund at Puthumathalan, and tens of thousands of civilians crossed to the government lines.

0218 May 2009

In mid-May the last pocket at Mullivaikkal was overrun. The LTTE’s political and military leaders died in the final days, and on 18 May 2009 the army found Prabhakaran’s body by the Nandikadal lagoon. The government declared the war over. The number of civilians who died in the final months has never been settled; the UN panel cited credible reports of a very high toll. 18 May is kept by many Tamils as a day of remembrance and by the state as Victory Day.