Who Owns the Gold? The East and North Still Wait

For thousands of Tamil women in Sri Lanka’s war-torn North and East, gold bangles and necklaces were more than ornaments. They were security, dowry, and dignity. But in the dark years of war, many of these heirlooms were snatched — some “voluntarily donated” to the LTTE under duress, others forcibly stripped away.

Now, nearly 15 years later, the fate of that gold is still in limbo.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) told Colombo Chief Magistrate Asanga S. Bodaragama this week that out of some 10,000 gold items unearthed in LTTE camps, makeshift banks, and hidden vaults across the Northern and Eastern Provinces, 6,000 pieces have been sent to the Central Bank of Sri Lanka after being weighed and examined by the National Gem and Jewellery Authority.

But the question echoes in court corridors and community kitchens alike: when will these treasures reach their rightful owners?

Lawyers argue the items are evidence of both coercion and survival — each bangle a story of a mother bargaining for her son’s life, each chain a family’s shield against starvation. For now, the courts say investigations continue to determine which pieces were seized by force, and which were given under circumstance.

Until then, the jewellery sits locked away in vaults in Colombo, far from the women who once wore them on wedding days and funerals. In the North and East, the wait feels endless.

“Gold is not just metal,” one former resident of Kilinochchi told us. “It is our history, our blood, and our protection. We are waiting for it to come home.”