Colombo: Nearly 8,000 people were killed in the final phase of Sri Lanka’s war against Tamil Tigers in 2009, according to government figure released today.
The casualty statistics by Lanka’s Census Department for the first time in a war says that 11,172 people were killed in 2009 at the height of the country’s civil war, a figure in stark contrast to estimates by international rights groups.
The report does not indicate the number of Tamil Tiger combatants killed during the last days of civil war. It says that between 2005 and 2009 some 22,329 people had died in the country’s north. The military campaign against the LTTE began in mid 2006 and ended in May three years later. Some 4,156 people remain untraceable during the time of the military conflict.
The report, however, has not separated the number of civilians from the number of LTTE fighters who were killed during the military campaign. (PTI)
