Sri Lanka bows to international pressure, four years after war ended

(FILES) In this photograph taken on April 24, 2009, an elderly Sri Lankan Tamil sits among the rubble of a village near Puthukkudiyiruppu. Sri Lanka was to begin compiling a death toll from its ethnic conflict November 28, 2013 as it seeks to fend off growing pressure over allegations of mass killings at the end of the war. Some 16,000 officials are expected to fan out across the island at the start of a six-month operation to compile a definitive toll from the conflict, which dragged on for 37 years and was one of the bloodiest in post-colonial Asia.

Troops walking amongst debris inside the war zone on May 17, 2009 when they helped evacuate the last of the Tamil civilians from the area.