மக்களின் கணக்கேடுThe Human Ledger — What Happened to the People of the North-East
Every figure attributed 'as published by [source] in [year].' ICRC ~16,000 tracing requests; OMP located 16 alive of ~6,000 inquiries; UN PoE 'as many as 40,000' as a floor at Mullivaikkal; OHCHR 'tens of thousands'; Petrie on the UN's own suppressed data; Northern Province ≈4% of national GDP in 2024.
No aggregation in TLTE voice. No individuals named. The point is not a single TLTE number — the point is that the ledger has never been closed, and the gap is itself the finding.
§1The disappeared
OMP Sri Lanka (2018–24): ~6,000 inquiries received; 16 located alive. ICRC (2016): more than 16,000 still missing tracing requests open. UN WGEID: Sri Lanka among countries with the highest outstanding caseloads in Asia. OMP lacks prosecutorial power.
§2Mullivaikkal — Jan–May 2009
UN PoE (31 Mar 2011): 'as many as 40,000 civilian deaths' — explicitly a floor. OISL A/HRC/30/CRP.2 (16 Sep 2015): 'tens of thousands of civilians were killed'; reasonable grounds to believe war crimes and crimes against humanity by both parties; para 234 rejects the GoSL 'zero casualties' position. Petrie 2012: a 'grave failure of the United Nations.'
§3IDP camps
OCHA (17 Jul 2009): Manik Farm 221,119; total across districts 281,621. UNHCR (2012): Manik Farm formally closed September 2012 — 40 months after opening; ~115,000 still displaced at closure (IDMC Oct 2012). HRW characterised the camps as de facto detention.
§4War widows and women-headed households
IRIN (26 Oct 2010): 'tens of thousands of war widows cannot be reached due to a lack of funds.' Northern Provincial Council Vital Statistics (31 Dec 2023): WHHs concentrated in Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi DS divisions.
§5Land
CPA Land Restitution work (2016, 2023). Oakland Institute — Endless War (2024) on Trincomalee. 672 acres released in 2025 (GoSL Oct 2025) implies the cumulative unreleased balance is large. PEARL — Erased (2024) on Sinhalisation patterns.
§6The economic floor
CBSL Provincial GDP 2024: Northern Province ≈4% of national GDP — essentially unchanged from the immediate post-war period. The promised 'development dividend' is, on the published CBSL and World Bank ledger, largely absent.
Sources
- ◇UN Panel of Experts (Darusman) 2011. Resolve
- ◇OHCHR OISL 2015 — A/HRC/30/CRP.2. Resolve
- ◇Petrie — Internal Review Panel (2012). Resolve
- ◇Office on Missing Persons — Sri Lanka. Resolve
- ◇PEARL — Disappearances briefings. Resolve
- ◇PEARL — Erased (2024). Resolve
- ◇CPA — Land Restitution work. Resolve
- ◇Oakland Institute — Endless War (2024). Resolve
- ◇Central Bank of Sri Lanka — Provincial GDP 2024. Resolve