"Occasionally I would see the Sinhalese tour buses parked along the roadside, or Sinhalese families picnicking in the shade of a tree. In Kilinochchi, the Tigers' former capital, several buses were stopped next to what looked like a giant funnel tipped onto its side.

It was a water tank that had been toppled during the fighting, the steel rebar reaching out from the concrete husk like tentacles. The government had turned it into a war memorial, planting a tidy garden with flowers and a large stone tablet declaring that the damage had been done by rebel "terrorists in the face of valiant troops."

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says it remains committed to their work in Sri Lanka and to providing assistance to vulnerable individuals, including detainees and families of missing persons.

The ICRC’s director of operations, Dominic Stillhart, who just returned from a visit to the island, said in an interview the organisation discussed a proposal to set up an independent process to clarify the fate of missing persons with the government, who received it “positively”.

“During the meetings in Sri Lanka, a proposal to set up an independent process to clarify the fate of missing persons was discussed and was positively received by government officials. This is a long-term effort that requires sustained political commitment,” Mr Stillhart said.

The Sri Lankan government has contradicted China’s foreign ministry, who quoted President Sirisena as saying the Port City project would resume.

A Chinese foreign ministry official said on Thursday, the visiting president had “promised” the controversial project would resume once problems are “sorted out”.

"He (Sirisena) stressed that what happened around the port city in Colombo is rather temporary, and he said the problem does not lie with the Chinese side and hopes to continue with the project after things are sorted out," said Liu Jianchao, assistant minister of foreign affairs, according to Reuters.

However Sri Lanka’s Deputy External Affairs Minister Ajith P. Perera on Friday dismissed the statement, saying the Port City project was not even a subject of discussion, reported the Daily Mirror.