About Sri Lanka
Confronting this oppression the Tamils resorted to armed struggle, eventually led by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The conflict has lasted for over two decades, displacing hundreds of thousands civilians and costing over 75,000 lives.
Human rights abuses by the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE were widespread throughout the decades of conflict. Meanwhile, government pogroms of sponsored communal violence targeted Tamils, and failed to differentiate between civilians and combatants. Since the Tamils reside primarily in the Northern and Eastern regions of the island, years of economic embargos were used against these populations to bleed the community into submission.
In 2002, a Cease Fire Agreement was established between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE to stop all hostilities and peace talks began. However, the agreement was infringed upon by both parties.
In 2004, an Indian Ocean tsunami spread throughout South and Southeast Asia, leaving 30,000 dead in Sri Lanka. The World Bank estimated 60 percent of the devastation caused by the tsunami in Sri Lanka to have affected the Northern and Eastern regions. Since much of these areas were under the control of the LTTE, a joint aid mechanism was established between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government to enable international aid to reach the suffering population. However, this mechanism was declared unconstitutional and tsunami refugees are still languishing.
On January 2nd, 2008, the government of Sri Lanka formally withdrew from the ceasefire, causing the nation to plunge into open conflict. Doctors Without Borders ranks Sri Lanka as one of the ten most under-reported crises in the world. Some 800,000 Tamils have already fled from Sri Lanka to India, Europe, North America, Australia, and Africa. Another one million Tamils have already been displaced internally and many more are suffering daily. As the Asian Human Rights Commission has reported, “As long as this situation remains, life will remain a nightmare for all civilians in the country,” which can be seen in the dire statistics and statements below: Over half a million displaced people suffering effects of intensifying conflict (Amnesty International) Half a million people in Jaffna peninsula cut off from the rest of the island with insufficient food and medicine for more than one year (Amnesty International, Human Right Watch joint report, 12/8/2007) 1,212 people disappeared or killed in the first eight months of 2007 (UN) “The government is using extra-judicial killings and disappearances as part of a brutal and counterproductive counter-insurgency campaign” (International Crisis Group, 6/14/07) Well over 5,000 people killed since 2005 in near-daily air strikes, land and sea clashes and ambushes (Reuters, 1/2008) 43 aid workers killed in the past two years, including three Red Cross workers; 14 aid workers missing (AFP, 9/4/07) “Impunity for human rights violations by government security forces, long a problem in Sri Lanka, remain the norm” (HRW, 8/6/07). Ongoing recruitment and abduction of children, direct attacks against civilians and impeded access to humanitarian actors (UN SC report on children and armed conflict, 12/21/07) Indiscriminate arrests of more than 2,000 Tamil civilians in November 2007 (AP, 12/4/2007) Third most dangerous place in the world for journalists (Press Emblem Campaign, 12/17/07) In June, after more than 300 Tamils were forcibly expelled from the capital Colombo, human rights groups expressed alarm that this could be “the start of an ethnic cleansing campaign” (NY Times, 9/16/07) “The government has tried to silence those who question or criticize its approach to the armed conflict or its human rights records” (HRW, 8/6/07) Learn more about disappearances in Sri Lanka Photo: BBC |
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Sri Lanka, a small island nation off the coast of India, has been plagued with conflict since obtaining independence from Great Britain in 1948. The island is composed predominantly of two ethnic communities: the Sinhalese, which are the majority, and the Tamils. After centuries of colonial rule, political power was distributed to the Sinhalese majority. As a result of the ethnic differences between the Sinhalese and the Tamils, which involved religious, linguistic and cultural differences, ethno-religious nationalism was manipulated for political gain at the expense of the Tamil minority. Legislation was passed to privilege the Sinhalese in education and employment, declare Sinhalese the national language, and enshrine the Buddhist religion. For two decades, Tamils organized peaceful demonstrations and protests calling for equality for all ethnicities within Sri Lanka, inspired by the rhetoric and cause of Mahatma Gandhi. The government of Sri Lanka ignored such protests, or responded to them with violence. Successive governments failed to offer a lasting solution that would protect all citizens’ rights.
