Rajavarothiam Sampanthan Dies: Veteran Sri Lankan Politician and Tamil Leader Passes Away at 91

Rajavarothiam Sampanthan, a veteran Sri Lankan politician and esteemed moderate Tamil leader, passed away last night while undergoing treatment at a hospital, announced the Tamil National Alliance.

Rajavarothiam Sampanthan, aged 91, served as the leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) from 2004 onwards, becoming just the second Tamil to hold the position of main opposition leader in Sri Lanka, a country where the Sinhalese form the majority. He had been in poor health for an extended period and had been absent from recent parliamentary sessions.

He was a moderate Tamil who had been leading the political movement to achieve a negotiated political settlement to the Tamil demand for political autonomy. Since gaining independence from Britain in 1948, Tamils have advocated for autonomy, which escalated into a violent armed conflict from the mid-1970s. Sampanthan assumed office as the opposition leader in 2015 and played a pivotal role in the constitutional drafting process until 2019.

A brilliant lawyer, Sampanthan entered Parliament for the first time in 1977 from the eastern port district of Trincomalee.