Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka The Sinhalese and Tamils

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Ethnic Conflict in Sri LankaThe Sinhalese and
Tamils

• Shen Zhen Yao
• Lee Zheng Lin
• Guo Bing Kun

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Contents

• Brief Introduction
• History of the conflict
• Long term political solutions
• Ensuring long term social stability
• Bibliography

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Introduction

• Statistics of many ethnic groups in Sri Lanka
• -The peopling of Sri Lanka has been a continuous
  process of migrants from India with indigenous
  and other earlier migrant groups
• -The Sinhala or Sinhalese (74)
• -the Sri Lankan Tamils, who inhabit the north and
  east form 12.6
• -Indian Tamils (19th century migrants for work on
  plantations) 5.6 of the population

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• THE ORIGINAL SETTLERS
• -The original settler and the most powerful and
  dominating of settlers were the Sinhalese.
• -Sinhalese occupied most of Sri Lanka, and
  Sinhalese kingships and royal families governed
  various regions of the island.
• -The Sinhalese people, though they were the
  majority, lived peacefully with the non-Aryan
  populations of the island.

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• ARRIVAL OF THE TAMILS
• -Originated from the southern part of India.
• -Various tribes from southern India invaded and
  settled in northern parts of the island,
  spreading down the northeast and northwest
  coasts.
• -Due to the differences in religion and language
  and tensions over land rights, the Tamil Kingdom
  of Jaffna was often at war with Sinhalese kings

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• The conflict
• -The conflict between the Tamil Tigers and the
  Sinhalese has grown during the past couple of
  decades on the island of Sri Lanka.
• -The history of ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka is
  the history of emergence of consciousness among
  the majority community, the Sinhala, which
  defined the Sri Lanka society as
  Sinhala-Buddhist, thus denying its multi-ethnic
  character.
• The growth of this consciousness impinged on the
  minorities in Sri Lanka to the extent that
  internal resolution of the problems become
  impossible.
• -An essentially domestic problem, arising from a
  minority ethnic group's attempts to overcome acts
  of discrimination and oppression, acquired over
  time a regional and an international dimension

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History

• External colononisation and its effects
• 1505-1948
• -In 1505, the Portuguese landed on Sri Lanka and
  successfully negotiated a trade agreement with
  the Sinhalese Kingdom of Kotte.
• -Dutch forced them out in 1658.
• -The colony remained firmly in Dutch hands until
  the middle of the 18th century, when British
  imperial ambitions in India brought Britain to
  Sri Lanka in attempt to drive the Dutch from the
  Indian subcontinent.
• -When british assumed control of the country,
  they built the islands society around
• plantation agriculture, and initially began with
  the main crop being cinnamon.

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• -However due to the lack of labor and the various
  agricultural disasters throughout the 19th
  century,ethnically similar Indian Tamils were
  brought in to work on plantations.
• -effectively created a new ethnic rivalry on the
  island, Severing 900 years of Sinhalese and Tamil
  coexistence
• -Through WW1, Ceylon was colonised
• -major Sinhalese and Tamil political
  organizations banded together to form the Ceylon
  National Congress.
• -The British colony of Ceylon gained independence
  from Britain in 1948 after passage of the Ceylon
  Independence Act.

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• 1948-1978
• -The first prime minister,Don Stephen
  Senanayake,was elected.
• -He claimed to preserve the Sinhalese hegemony as
  a descendant of the original Buddhist
  monarchs.Thus, he passed legislation to
  disenfranchise and even deny citizenship to many
  estate Tamils who were brought to Ceylon from
  India by the British
• -This angered the tamils who then formed the
  Tamil Federal Party and wished to create a Tamil
  state on Ceylon.
• -New prime minister,Solomon West Ridgeway Dias
  Bandaranaike, was elected.
• -Discrimination against the Tamil people
  continued as Sirimavo continued to promote
  Sinhalese hegemony.

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• 1978 - 2002
• -Rise of the LTTE (Liberation tigers of Tamil
  ealam
• -strongest of the militant Tamil separatist
  groups materializing from the former Tamil
  Students Movement
• -Responsible for many bombings and criminal
  activities
• -Coincidentally, TULF (tamil united liberation
  front) have long pursued the creation of a
  separate tamil nation.
• -TULF lost representation in the government due
  to a defeat in the voting tables.
• -The indian government took numerous attempts as
  mediating the Sinhalese and the Tamils but to no
  avail.
• -Thus, armed intervention was utilized

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• -However this failed due to the inability to
  differenciate guerillas from citizens, resulting
  in the killings of about 200 innocent civilians.
• -President Premadasa, the elected president in
  1993 , was assassinated.
• -Peace talks with the LTTE took place when
  Chandrika Kumaratunga was elected as president.
• -LTTE accpeted the peace treaty only under 4
  conditions
• 1. The embargo of food, gas, and other
  supplies to the North was to be lifted.
• 2. Tamil fishermen should be allowed
  to fish in the North.
• 3. A military camp should be removed
  from the North.
• 4. LTTE members should be able to
  carry guns in the government-controlled East.

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• -Agreement was made over the first two terms but
  the thirld and fourth were still under serious
  colnsideration
• -LTTE extended the dateline for the terms to be
  met but backed out of the agreement in April 1995
• -LTTE continued to commit terrorist activities
  throughtout the 1990s
• -Finally in 2002, a formal ceasefire was declared
  between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government,
  moderated by the Norwegian government.

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• 2002 2008
• Beginning of the war
• -A new crisis leading to the first large-scale
  fighting since signing of the ceasefire occurred
  when the Sri Lankan government closed down the A9
  Highway which is the only affordable access for
  the Jaffna peninsula people to southern Sri
  Lanka. The Government closed the road to deprive
  the Jaffna peninsula people which counts more
  than 600,000 of their basic human needs such as
  food, medicine etc., which led to the rise in
  price for commodities which is already higher
  than most people can afford to buy,
• -in retaliation LTTE closed the sluice gates of
  the Mavil Aru reservoir and cut the water supply
  to 15,000 villages in government controlled
  areas.

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• Government bombed the reservoir and LTTE opened
  the gates.
• Government military forces continued their attack
  on LTTE posts around the reservoirs.
• The war between LTTE and Sri Lankan government
  started on July 21, 2006
• LTTE wasnt so successful, losing to the
  government forces at almost all the battles.
• Many leaders of LTTE were killed.

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• LTTE murdered then Sri Lankan Foreign Minister
  Lakshman Kadirgamar, a Tamil well-respected by
  foreign diplomats.
• Other countries lost their faith in LTTE being
  the victim in the conflict

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• In January 2, 2008, the Sri Lankan government
  officially pulled out of the Ceasefire Agreement.
  Donor countries USA, Norway and Canada show deep
  regrets.
• LTTE mentioned its disappointment as it respected
  the CFA and was ready to follow it 100.
• (CFA was considered as defunct since the
  beginning of war in 2006)

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Long term political solutions

• Recognizing the fragility of the Sri Lankan
  government, significant changes must be made in
  order to ensure a peaceful and successful state
  in the future. Recent developments have proven
  that the leaders of the Sri Lankan government are
  willing to cooperate with the Tamil rebels
• President Kumaratungas resolve to form an
  agreement with the Tamil rebels will be a main
  factor in determining the future of the Sri
  Lankan government.

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• If Kumaratunga follows her current plan, peace
  between the Sinhalese and the Tamils will be a
  possibility.
• Under a new governmental plan, the Sri Lankan
  government will have the ability to bridge the
  gap between the Tamil rebels and the government
  which has been preventing peace for twenty years.

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• Incentives (Tsunami Aid)
• Sri Lanka has been promised about 3 billion in
  tsunami relief, on top of 4.5 billion promised
  in reconstruction help to follow a peace
  settlement.
• This monetary offer will accelerate
  reconstruction plans and help develop the Sri
  Lankan government.
• This aids the peace process by giving the
  government incentive to form an agreement.

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• Local government integration (After agreement)
• Integration of the Tamil people into government
  at the municipal level.
• Norway to oversee the process
• Following peaceful Tamil integration and
  assimilation into government on the municipal
  level, integration should commence at the
  provincial level. (future years)

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• National political integration should begin with
  ongoing Norwegian oversight (future years) .
• The integration should include equal
  representational rights for Tamils and Sinhalese.
  
• The Tamil and Sinhalese people should have the
  right to join any political organization of their
  choosing.

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Ensuring Long-Term Social Stability (Examples)

• By planning the reconciliation, education, and
  economic development of Sri Lanka, we can attempt
  to mitigate repercussions of the conflict.

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• ReconciliationAccording to a Médecins
  SansFrontières study, 10 percent of Sri Lankans
  have witnessed the death of their child, 48
  percent have been separated from their family,
  and 24 percent have had a member of their family
  attempt suicidePeople must reconcile and form a
  new national identityGovernment must provide
  equal treatments

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• Education
• Create a new generation of responsible, informed,
  successful Sri Lankans
• Sri Lankan government needs to modify and expand
  its current education system use language, a
  former boundary between the Sinhalese and the
  Tamils, as a uniting factor for the Sri Lankan
  people
• Increase number of libraries and standards of
  instituition

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• Economic Development
• Ensure that ethnic violence does not again erupt
• Establishment of a national apparel or clothing
  brand because Sri Lankas top exports are apparel
  and textiles.
• Gain strength in the global market
• Create new jobs for the Sri Lankan people
• Since this will tie the economic futures of the
  two people together it will decrease the
  likelihood of future conflict

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Conclusion

• The conflicts that happened in Sri Lanka is very
  serious. Coupled with the damages done by the
  tsunami, Sri Lanka had suffered greatly. To be
  able to reach the peace agreement, the Tamils and
  the natives should work together to form the Sri
  Lankans and do their best for Sri Lanka

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• http//www.lankalibrary.com/pol2.html
• http//www.lankalibrary.com/pol.html
• http//www.infolanka.com/org/srilanka/issues/kumar
  i.html
• http//www.tip.duke.edu/summer_programs/internatio
  nal_affairs/position_paper_2005.pdf
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_lanka_civil_war
• (and other relevant links)

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• Data

Thank You