A section of Tamil groups has reacted sharply over the government’s participation in the Jaffna Kite Festival in the northern city of Jaffna, once the stronghold of Tamil secessionist militant leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. 

The kite festival, popular among Sri Lankan Tamil ethnic minority, is being organized for years in the northern city, which had been the capital of rebels during the country’s three-decade-long civil war. However, this year the organizers decided to invite government representatives and some foreign diplomats.

Namal Rajapaksa, the country's minister for sports and the son of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, is scheduled to attend the festival this year. The government, dominated by the Rajapaksa family, who comes from the majority Sinhala Buddhist ethnic group, doesn’t enjoy smooth ties with the Tamil ethnic minority.  

The decision to invite the government officials goes against the Tamil norm, said the Tamil National People's Front (TNPF), a prominent Tamil group.   

"This Kite Festival has taken place in Valvettithurai for a long time. But, unusually this year, the organizers of the event were engaged in a move to hold the event with the participation and leadership of anti-Tamil forces. It is a move to destroy the Tamil Tradition," Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, the leader of TNPF, was quoted as saying by Daily Mirror. 

He said if this event was organized, this would be recorded as an incident of "a black mark" in Tamil history.

The Sri Lankan government which ended the civil in 2009 under the leadership of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, by brutally crushing the Tamil rebels known as LTTE,  has failed to take enough measures for reconciliations and prosecuting the officials accused of war crimes. 

Furthermore, the Rajapaksa government, which returned to power in 2019, is accused of reversing whatever little progress was made by the previous administration.  

"The Sri Lankan government has completely neglected the issue of Tamil People's accountability,” Ponnambalan said. “Relatives of the disappeared are still taking to the streets demanding justice.” 

(SAM)