Bitter wounds

Sri Lanka | The fighting may have stopped in Sri Lanka, but ethnic tensions are high as thousands of minority Tamils suffer in primitive camps | Jill Nelson

Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP/Getty Images

The streets of Sri Lanka were alive with celebration on May 19: The leader of the rebel Tamil Tigers, Vellupillai Prabhakaran, was dead and the government had declared victory over the rebels and the end of the country's 25-year-old civil war.

But not everyone was celebrating. During the final weeks of the bloody conflict, thousands of civilians were trapped in a four-mile strip of territory between Tamil Tigers willing to use their own people as human shields and government forces unwilling to suspend their offensive. Some died in the crossfire while others perished in makeshift boats they paddled out to sea. Those who made it out alive were ushered into internally displaced people (IDP) camps where misery is heaped upon misery and only a few aid groups (and no journalists) are permitted access.