Rajavarothiam Sampanthan, one of Sri Lanka’s most prominent politicians and a veteran activist for the country’s Tamil minority, has died at the age of 91.
Sampanson, a lawyer and one of the country’s longest-serving parliamentarians, died on Sunday night in the capital, Colombo.
For the past 23 years, he has led a diverse coalition called the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the main political group representing Tamils in northern and eastern Sri Lanka.
Since the defeat of the Tamil Tiger separatists in 2009, he has continued to demand equal rights for often marginalized minorities.
TNA leader MA Sumanthiran confirmed his death on X (formerly Twitter).
2015, Sam Pantan appointed leader of the oppositionmaking him the first minority member to hold parliamentary office in 32 years.
In 2022, Sampanthan wrote to the United Nations Human Rights Council calling on the international body to condemn what he called the Sri Lankan government’s “failure to investigate allegations of abuses against the Tamil minority.”
Condolences for his death came from all sides of Sri Lanka’s political divide.
Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who oversaw the bloody end to Sri Lanka’s civil war in 2009, was among those paying tribute.
