The Sri Lankan government has denied that civilians were killed during the final stages of the 25-year war in the island. Gordon Weiss, who until the end of 2009 was the UN's spokesperson in Sri Lanka, says that up to 40,000 civilians may have been killed during the final phase. The government has taken extraordinary measures within and outside Sri Lanka attempting a cover up, but new evidence has emerged of the Sri Lankan security forces in war crimes and crimes against humanity. As the government's campaign to denigrate or threaten people exposing war crimes gathered momentum, and suspicions grew of attempts to play down the crimes and the UN itself, the Tamil community feels that evidence of events during the final stages of the war should be collected and recorded. This chronology includes events relating to the civil war in Sri Lanka and information on human rights violations, war crimes and the situation of the internally displaced persons. It covers the period September 2008 to January 2010.