Rajavarothiam Sampanthan, one of Sri Lanka’s most important officials and a former advocate for the country’s Tamil majority, has died at the age of 91.
Sampanthan, a attorney and one of the region’s longest serving MPs, died in the investment Colombo later on Sunday.
The Tamil National Alliance ( TNA ), the main political party representing Tamils in Sri Lanka’s north and east, has been under his leadership for the past 23 years.
He has continued to require equal rights for his frequently underrepresented racial party since the Tamil Tiger secessionists were defeated in 2009.
TNA chief MA Sumanthiran confirmed his death on X, a platform that was formerly Online.
In 2015, Sampanthan was appointed leader of the opposition, making him the first member of the ethnic minority group to hold the parliamentary post in 32 years.
In 2022, Mr Sampanthan sent a letter to the UN’s Human Rights Council, calling on the international body to reject what he alleged were the Sri Lanka administration’s “failure to investigate complaints of transgressions” towards the Tamil majority.
Since his passing, Sri Lanka’s social divide has become increasingly entrenched.
Erstwhile president Mahinda Rajapaksa, who oversaw the terrible end of Sri Lanka’s civil war in 2009, was one of those who paid tribute to him.