Sri Lanka.....A Tragedy....From Colonialism to Xenophobia to Civil War

      Sri Lanka's history created a land with ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity and has led it to its sorry state today. Most of the people migrated to the island over 2,500 years ago from India, in pursuit of trade and economic opportunity. Hinduism was the first religion and remains the faith of its largest minority, the Tamils. Budhism was introduced in the 3rd century B.C.E. and is the religion of the Sinhalese majority. Islam was brought in by the Arab/Moor traders in the 10th century and Christianity came in the 16th century, with the Portugeese and then the Dutch and the British. Budhists constitute 69%, Hindus 15%, Muslims 8% and Christians 8%, of the population.

      The Portugeese came to the island in 1505 and established settlements on the west and south coasts and tried to subjugate the rest of the island, but in 1612, the Dutch formed an alliance with the king of Kandy and defeated and dislodged them ( there were 3 major kingdoms, a Tamil kingdom in the north, a Sinhalese kingdom in the southwest and the kingdom of Kandy in the interior since the 13th century). For the next century and a half, the Dutch held sway, until they were ousted by the British in 1796. The British unified the island in 1815 and they ruled until Sri Lanka won its independence in 1948.

      Education was always a very important part of the island's history. First, it was the Hindu priests, the Brahmims, who controlled the educational system. Kings and other chieftains were educated by them and so education was closely tied to the religious history of the island. It was associated with high caste and priveledge. The Tamils benefitted greatly from this when the British took over and placed education in the hands of Christian missionaries. They established schools and charged fees, but also received grants from the British government. English was promoted and only Sri Lankans who spoke English were eligible to become teachers and to be recruited into the government services. As a result the better educated, high caste Hindu Tamils and those Tamils who converted to Christianity, were the ones who prospered. The Budhist Sinhalese majority were very resentful of this and when the got into power after independence, they were quick to enact legislation making Sinhalese the only official language and to place a quota on the hiring of Tamils and their entry into education, government service and in medicine and the sciences.

      The two major Sinhalese political parties, the UNP ( the United National Party), and the SFLP ( the Sri Lankan Freedom Party), competed for votes of the Sinhalese majority. The UNP governed from 1948-1956 and advocated a mixed economy, private enterprise and a parliamentary system, but in the 1956 election, the SFLP led by S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike encouraged xenophobic fears of the Sinhalese majority, allied themselves with the Marxist parties advocating nationalisation of banks and industries and Sinhalese Budhists extremists who wanted to make Sinhalese the official language. It worked and after their victory, they immediately proceeded to make Sinhalese the only official language and established quotas limiting Tamil entry into government service and higher education, particularly in the fields of medicine and the sceinces ( somewhat like the Afrikaans/ Boers did in South Africa.) Apartheid Sri Lnakan style but by the majority Sinhalese . The number of Tamil students admitted into these areas dropped by over 50%, and the drop was even more for government service and the police and the military.           


      The Tamils organised to protect their interests. Their protest sparked anti-Tamil riots and hundreds were killed in the violence that followed. In 1959, Bandaranaike was assassinated and the violence subsided somewhat. Both the UNP and the SFLP continued to compete for votes from the Sinhales majority in the 60s and the 70s. Tamil interests continued to be ignored. Their concerns grew as the rhetoric for Sinhalese support began to become more and more extreme.. The name of the country was changed to the Republic of Sri Lanka and the the parliamentary system was changed to a presidential republic, dominated by the Budhist Sinhalese majority. The Tamils were excluded from the constitutional process and their fears for their language, religion and customs... indeed, their culture and identity, grew.  
      In 1972, the Tamil New Tigers was formed. It was a militant nationalist group to defend Tamil rights. In 1976, it became the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) and calls for an independent Tamil state. In 1978,J.R.Jayawardene was elected president and his administration moved towards reconcilation, by attempting to grant autonomy to the Tamils. This would be under Indian supervision.......this was after much violence and India's offer to mediate. However this sparked fears among the Sinhalese about the partition of the country and Indian occupation. It failed. Other attempts at mediation failed also and the Indian government of Rajiv Gandhi tried to help the Sri Lankan government to suppress the Tamil insurrection. Gandhi was assassinated by a Tamil suicide bomber and in 1991 and two years later Sri Lankan President Prenadasa was also killed, allegedly by Sinhalese assassins after he proposed to grant substantuial autonomy to the Tamil areas.

      The madness continues and the violence has escalated with attacks and counter-attacks....suicide bombers used by the LTTE and massive bombardments by government forces. Cease fires and " no- fire zones", intervention by European and others to bring about peace, and even a tsunami, have come and gone. The civilian population continue to bear the brunt of the carnage. In 2004, a LTTE commander, Karuna Amman, split from the Tigers. The tsunami killed upwards of 30,000 and disputes over disaster relief raises tensions again. Mahinda Rajapaska is elected as President but the Tamil areas boycotted the election. In 2006, the worst fighting since 2002 ceasefire erupted and the government began to drive the LTTE from its eastern strongholds. The Tigers responded with an air strike during the World Cup Criket Final and hundreds of Tamils are expelled from the capital Colombo, until a court order halted the expulsions.

      The government troops captured Kilinochchi, de-facto capital of the LTTE, after 10 years and president Rajapaska calls on the Tamil rebels to surrender. In March 2009, former rebel Karuna is sworn in as minister of national integration and reconcilation and a new offensive is launched in the Vanni region. The government declares a 12 kilometre " no-fire zone", in the Mullativu coast and calls on civilians to move there, and thousands of them do so but others are trapped amongst the Tamil fighters, who may be using them as human shields. On April 22, two senior LTTE officials surrendered to government troops, and the government announced that they will no longer use heavy weaponry and aerial raids against the remaining rebels in the no-fire zone.

      There are still many die-hards continuing to resist. Will they surrender or will they continue to fight, using suicide bombers and other forms of terrorism? They are desperate and they are hardened by almost 30 years of constant violence. Perhaps like some of the remnants of the IRA, or FARC, who have also refused to lay down their arms, they will try to take their fight into the civilian population and also target high-ranking officials. Time which is longer on their side, will tell.

      Amnesty may work.