The roots of the conflict go back to British colonization.
When the island of Ceylon obtained its independence in 1948, the Sinhalese and Buddhist majority took power.
The Tamil, Hindu and Christian minority are accused of having been close to the settlers and find themselves marginalized.
In 1972, Ceylon becomes Sri Lanka and Buddhism state religion.
But in the northeast of the country, the Tamil separatists are getting organized and an armed movement appears: the Tamil Tigers.
They demand the creation of an independent state, Tamil Eelam.
Ethnic tensions are on the rise.
In 1977, clashes between young Tamils and police degenerated.
Anti-Tamil riots break out across the country and cause several hundred deaths among the minority.
Tamil youth is becoming radicalized.
The Tigers guerrillas carry out operations against the Sri Lankan army.
In 1983, 13 soldiers were killed in an ambush.
In retaliation, throughout the country, pogroms are organized against the Tamils.
They will make several thousand victims.
It is the beginning of the civil war.
It will last until the guerrillas of the Tigers are definitively eliminated, in 2009. The conflict will leave at least 100,000 dead, hundreds of thousands displaced and several tens of thousands missing.
Most of the civilian victims are Tamils.
Thirteen years later, reconciliation remains very difficult.
The current president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, is considered a hero by the Sinhalese, but he is accused of war crimes by the Tamils.
In the former war zone, in the northeast of the country, tens of thousands of women have lost their husbands in the conflict, killed or missing.
They struggle to get out of it and know the truth.
For them, mourning is impossible.
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