Rajavarothiam Sampanthan, one in all Sri Lanka’s most distinguished politicians and a veteran campaigner for the nation’s Tamil minority, has died on the age of 91.
Sampanthan, a lawyer and one of many nation’s longest serving MPs, died within the capital Colombo late on Sunday.
For the previous 23 years, he had led a various coalition referred to as the Tamil Nationwide Alliance (TNA)- the primary political group representing Tamils of Sri Lanka’s north and east.
Because the defeat of Tamil Tiger separatists in 2009 he continued to demand equal rights for his usually marginalised ethnic group.
His demise was confirmed by TNA chief MA Sumanthiran on X, previously referred to as Twitter.
In 2015, Sampanthan was appointed leader of the opposition, making him the primary member of the ethnic minority group to carry the parliamentary publish in 32 years.
In 2022, Mr Sampanthan despatched a letter to the UN’s Human Rights Council, calling on the worldwide physique to denounce what he alleged have been the Sri Lanka authorities’s “failure to analyze allegations of violations” in the direction of the Tamil minority.
His demise has seen tributes pour in from throughout Sri Lanka’s political divide.
Amongst these to pay tribute to him was former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, who oversaw the bloody finish to Sri Lanka’s civil battle in 2009.