Sri Lankan Conflict

            Sri Lanka is a small country located off of the southeastern coast of India. Throughout its history, it has experienced great magnitudes of violence and unrest politically, economically and ethnically. Probably the most extreme example of this is the genocide of the Tamil minority by the Sinhalese government. The bloody conflict between the Sri Lankan government, and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) began in June of 1983. The bloody clash lasted almost three decades and killed around one hundred thousand people, massacring not only Tamils but also anyone who spoke up against the government or supported the Tamils. Although the conflict was reportedly finished in 2009 when government authorities killed the leader of the LTTE, Vellupillai Prabhakaran, Tamil guerilla forces are nonetheless rising up against the Sri Lankan government. Because of this, the Sinhalese are still oppressing Tamils.

Child Soldiers recruited by the Tami Tigers

            Although the genocide officially started in 1983, conflicts started in the early 1950’s. Sri Lanka had previously been a British colony named Ceylon. Sinhalese people and communities began to protest and demand independence. Britain granted them independence through peaceful means in 1948. After Ceylon’s independence, the Sinhalese thought that the British had favored the Tamils greatly in terms of employment and jobs. What actually happened was that the British constructed Christian schools, which the Tamils joined. As a result of this, the British accepted Tamils more readily than others in Sri Lanka at the time. The Sinhalese hated the Tamil, not only because they took over many of the jobs, but also because they were of a different religion, it being Buddhism. Due to this hatred and the fact that the Sinhalese had 82% majority over the Tamil, the government turned the official language from English to Sinhala, changed the former name of the country, Ceylon, to Sri Lanka and made the country’s official religion Buddhism. After this went into affect the Tamils were enraged. Tension grew within Tamil communities and rebel groups started forming. The most powerful one being Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam lead by Vellupillai Prabhakaran.

            The skirmishes and fights between the LTTE and the government started to change into what some people might call a “conflict.” As time drew on, this “conflict” developed into civil war, two ethnic factions fighting over control for the country. But as the fighting continued, the civil war evolved into a full-fledged massacre or genocide of the Tamil minority by the Sinhalese government.

An effective way to get rid of the thousands of Tamil corpses

            There was not a great abundance of foreign help in the Sri Lankan genocide. The only great contributors were the United States of America and India. Although these two countries were the only ones that were involved directly, thirty other countries tagged the LTTE as a terrorist organization. Despite the fact that both the USA and India sent in troops and contributed in other ways to the conflict, they did not necessarily always side with the oppressed Tamils. In the 1970’s India sent in troops in aid of the LTTE, and to arm and train Tamil soldiers, but after so-called “terrorist activities” that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam committed in the 1980’s, India withdrew their aid. After they withdrew they sent another militant group in in 1987, but this time supporting the Sri Lankan government. India called them “peacekeepers” who were trying to end the violence between the two combatants, but they did just the opposite. The peacekeepers failed to do their mission of creating and maintaining a peaceful status and then proceeded to fight alongside the Sinhalese, contributing to the huge atrocities of the genocide. This ceased in 1990 when the Sri Lankan president, Ranasinghe Premadasa, forced them to leave. Although India did leave on a bad note with Sri Lanka, they have reestablished peaceful terms with them, currently including multi-billion dollar bilateral trade.

The United States’ involvement in the conflict was much less dramatic. Not only did they not provide as much military aid, but they also did not side with the oppressors. From the time of Sri Lanka’s independence to now, the USA has contributed more than $3.6 billion to the Sri Lankan cause. Most of this help was given in the form of food aid. This is because in 2007 Sri Lanka was accused of violating human rights and also the LTTE had been put on the terrorist list years before. Along with military and food aid, the US has also set aside $12 million to help reconstructing both the country’s government and also regional governments in the north and central provinces of Sri Lanka. This “reconstruction” involved installing a democratic rule and improving security in areas that had little.

A Tamil sculpture representing Hinduism

            The Tamil people are not only native to Sri Lanka. They also originated and are present in India. Tamil is both an ethnicity and a language. Some people may call themselves Tamil but not speak the Tamil language, while others may speak the Tamil language but not identify as ethnically Tamil. Although the Tamils stemmed from Sri Lanka and India, they have emigrated to all over the world, the most notable locations being Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa and France. This widespread activity outside of their native borders is what the Tamil people are known for. Tamil traders and religious leaders in southeastern Asia played important roles in the Indianisation, or spread of Indian culture and traditions, in that area. Also, Tamil brass sculptures have been looked at as symbols of Hinduism. This small ethnicity has been coined the last surviving classical civilization on Earth.

            Although it has been officially stated that the Sri Lankan civil war has ended and the Sinhalese have effectively defeated the opposition, guerilla Tamil forces are still rising up and attacking and will continue to do so. Although violence will still resonate throughout Sri Lana, the finish of the bloodshed is not necessarily the key to ending unrest in the Sri Lanka. The way to establish peace is to find a way to integrate the Tamil minority in with the Sinhalese. This peace can be initiated through cooperation and willingness from both the government and the Tamil. The government has to show enough interest and be given enough incentive to move forward with the plan and the Tamil have to agree to stop the violence they are showing.

            The conflict in Sri Lanka has come a long way, starting off as a small dispute about who will take power and govern Sri Lanka. As time went on, it developed further. The Sinhalese took power and the Tamils were discriminated and abused. This spurred the Tamils to rise up and revolt, thus forming rebel groups. As more and more blood got shed, the conflict soon progressed into a civil war and then finally a genocide. This incident will go down not only in Sri Lankan history, but also world history as one of the most brutal events, second only to the Rwandan genocide and the genocide in Darfur.