Sri Lanka is torn between contradictions. On one hand it is a land of peaceful people with diverse cultures; however, on the other hand, Sri Lanka is a place known for years of bloodsheds between the Tamil Tigers and the government Sri Lanka. The war between culturally different ethnic groups has created even bigger distance between them.
The Tamil Tigers, representatives of Tamil minority group, started the war against the Sinhalese majority in the mid-1970s. They claimed to defend the rights of Tamil people who remained underrepresented and discriminated for years. The rebels aimed to create a separate state in the north and east of the island, the regions traditionally populated with Tamil people (Video Encyclopedia of the World, n.d.).
In 2002 the Tigers gave up demanding for a separate state and agreed to work on the compromise with the government; a Norwegian-brokered ceasefire has been signed; however, the tension remained high between the Tamil rebels and the government (Video Encyclopedia of the World, n.d.).
The Indian Ocean tsunami of the year 2004 took away thousands lives. The disaster should have created a background for cooperation and peace between the two sides; however, the violence only increased. The issue of aid relief equal distribution between Sinhalese and Tamil people has triggered a new conflict which remained unnoticed by the international organizations (Video Encyclopedia of the World, n.d.).
More than 500,000 people have been displaced by the conflict in Sri Lanka. Nearly 70, 000 people have been killed. The war has taken away the lives of thousands civilians, and this is the responsibility and fault of both sides who failed to find the compromise. One of the Tamil Tigers representatives, interviewed by Kevin Sites, a war reporter, confidently stated there was no way for them to coexist with the Sri Lankan government (Sites, n.d.).
References
Sites, K. Documentary: "A World of Conflict" Ch.13 - Sri Lanka. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91ZaW-cqyPQ
Video Encyclopedia of the World. Circle of Violence - Sri Lanka. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiPv5x3Z7Ok
