Elephant Pass War Memorial

The Elephant Pass War Memorial (Sinhala: අලිමංකඩ යුද ස්මාරකය) has been set up on the wayside of the Kandy-Jaffna highway (A9), near the Elephant Pass in Kilinochchi District, Sri Lanka. It was unveiled in the presence of the then defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa in December 2010 (Hyndman & Amarasingam, 2014).

The monument

The 42 ft. high monument, designed by the National Design Center of Sri Lanka was erected at Elephant Pass to mark the unification of the A9 highway on 9 January 2009 that was under the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) occupation since 20 April 2000 (Hyndman & Amarasingam, 2014; Pieris, 2014). LTTE was a militant group designated as a terrorist organization by 32 countries and it was defeated by the government forces in May 2009 ending the 26 years long Sri Lanka Civil War.

The monument depicts four outstretched arms of four main communities hoisting a (unified) Sri Lanka as the Sri Lanka national flag flutters high above (Hyndman & Amarasingam, 2014; Pieris, 2014). The blooming flowers symbolize the defeat of terrorism and the birth of peace (Hyndman & Amarasingam, 2014). The monument is surrounded by four lions at the cardinal points.