Sri Lanka's minority ethnic Tamils who are concentrated in the country's north, say the area still suffers from a lack of development, despite promises by its new President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
As defence minister during the civil war, he oversaw a campaign which led to the defeat of the Tamil separatist movement.
Analysts say despite the building of a new railway and road linking the peninsula and mainland, the gulf between the majority Sinhalese and Tamil community is still wide.
Al Jazeera's Charles Stratford reports from Mannar, in northern Sri Lanka.
