To the nearly half-a-million Sri Lankans in the Kingdom, the elimination of Villupillai Prabhakaran, leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or LTTE, and the defeat of his separatist movement must come as a liberation of sorts.

The LTTE came into being three decades ago to establish a socialist state for ethnic minority Tamils, who made up almost 12 percent of Sri Lanka’s population of 20 million, according to a 2001 census. The Sinhalese majority account for 74 percent of the population, with the rest fairly divided between Muslims and Christians.

In light of its brutal and violent activities, and particularly against the Muslim minorities living in the northern part of the island, the group was designated as a terrorist organization by the US and the European Union.

The Sri Lankan Army began an offensive in January this year in the north to finally rid the island of this violent group, resulting in the capture of the LTTE’s political headquarters at Kilinochchi. The Tamil Tigers were driven to a strip of land on the coast near Mullaitivu where the final battle took place, and its leaders were killed or captured.

Pakistan, fighting extremism on its own territory, was at the fore as an ally in this military venture. It supplied much needed hi-tech military equipment that were used in the offensive that eventually helped in the destruction of the LTTE.

The government’s military response drew censure from much of the Western media with some sections condemning the Colombo government for not taking the lives of civilians trapped in the crossfire into account. Front pages of some Western newspapers carried reports about the number of civilian casualties growing as a result of the Sri Lankan Army’s offensive.

Later, such reports were relegated to the back pages when it was discovered that it was the LTTE that was actually using civilian population as human shields. UN officials had accused the LTTE of using hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians as human shields as they struggled to fight off government forces.

Even on the world stage there was a move by some of the Western countries to censure Sri Lanka’s military activities and a demand to probe alleged war crimes was defeated during a special session of the UN’s Human Rights Council in Geneva last week. The final resolution that emerged actually ended up praising the outcome of the offensive.

Dismissing Western criticism of the government’s actions, Sri Lankan Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe stated, “They are opposed to the independent action we took to counter and defeat, but they are silent about what is happening in Iraq, Afghanistan, and in Gaza.”

The offensive which finally freed the island from the menace of the LTTE had left many civilians displaced. They are now interned in several camps across the island nation. An estimated 300,000 people, mostly ethnic Tamils, are put in some 40 camps as the government embarks on the arduous task of relocation and resettlement.

Aid in all forms is essential and the government must allow unhindered access by international relief organizations to ensure the success of such programs. Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said on May 27 in Geneva, “It is essential that we obtain access to all internally displaced persons (IDPs) in order to provide medical care, water and other essentials, to verify treatment and conditions and to enable people to restore or maintain contact with their families.” He added, “Needs are great, especially for medical care, and those needs are not being fully met.”

The government has to weed out hard-core LTTE fighters and sympathizers from these refugee camps, but the coming days should be a time of healing, not vengeance. This is a humanitarian catastrophe of gigantic proportions and Sri Lanka cannot handle it alone.

It is time for all Sri Lankans to forge ahead by making retributions for the past, unite as one people irrespective of race, caste, or religion, heal as one nation, and rebuild Sri Lanka to the greater good of all its people.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his government must reach out to the country’s Tamil minority to prevent a renewal of resistance and violence. Let this island become a nation where every person has a right to live and equal opportunities irrespective of faith or ethnicity. Foreign governments and international humanitarian organizations must not remain on the sidelines, but work together to provide much-needed aid so that Sri Lankans can start rebuilding their country. They are a resilient people and can overcome today’s challenges.