Sri Lanka

Arunachalam.S Ananth.I

Sri Lankan Tamil people (Tamil: ஈழத் தமிழர்,) are an ethnic group native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka who predominantly speak Tamil. According to anthropological evidence, Sri Lankan Tamils have lived on the island since the 2nd century BCE. Most modern Sri Lankan Tamils descend from the Jaffna Kingdom, a former kingdom in the north of the island and Vannimai chieftaincies from the east. They constitute a majority in the Northern Province, live in significant numbers in the Eastern Province, and are in the minority throughout the rest of the country.

Since Sri Lanka gained independence from Britain in 1948, relations between the majority Sinhalese and minority Tamil communities have been strained. Rising ethnic and political tensions, along with ethnic riots and pogroms in 1958, 1977, 1981 and 1983, led to the formation and strengthening of militant groups advocating independence for Tamils.

At first, the concept of Tamil Eelam conceived by the Federal party was a state within a united Sri Lanka, The demand for a separate statehood of Tamil Eelam is believed to have grown as a result of job opportunities and university admissions being severely curtailed for Tamils because of discriminatory government quotas; and continuing decline of economic opportunities

As a result the people began to believe that a separate state would win back their opportunities and the concept of Tamil Eelam was welcomed enthusiastically throughout Tamil areas To add to the Tamil people's separatist sentiments, acts of mass violence, rape, extrajudicial executions, whole scale round ups, forced detention, torture and other forms of inhuman treatment by members of Sinhalese dominated Sri Lankan security forces within the North and East provinces have created communal tensions among the Tamil people Thus Tamil people believed that only Eelam



Jaffna has been an important Tamil cultural centre for centuries. Some books such as Yalpanam Vaipavama —a history of Jaffna—were literally irreplaceable, as the library contained the only existing copy.



Nothing, however, can be done about the thousands of priceless Tamil books, manuscripts and ola [dried palm] leaf documents that went up in flames in 1981.



The library, which was inaugurated in 1841 and then moved to a more majestic building in 1950, had one of the finest collections in South Asia and was known throughout the world



A group of racist thugs, instigated by the United National Party (UNP) government, carried out the arson. They arrived by truck in the dead of the night of May 31, 1981 and set fire to the library buildings

The

individuals

belonging

to

the

younger

generation, often referred to by other Tamils as "the boys" formed many militant organizations. The most important contributor to the strength of the militant groups was the Black July pogrom, in which between 1,000

to

3,000 Sri Lankan Tamils were killed,

prompting many youths to choose the path of armed resistance

This led to form movement which is later

Their first major operation was the assassination of the mayor of Jaffna, Alfred Duraiappah in 1975. Initially the LTTE gained prominence due to devastating attacks such as the massacre of civilians at the Kent and Dollar Farms in 1984 and the Anuradhapura massacre of 146 civilians in 1985. In July 1987, the LTTE carried out their first suicide attack: "Captain Miller" of the Black Tigers drove a small truck with explosives through the wall of a fortified Sri Lankan army camp, reportedly killing forty soldiers.

From may 2008 LTTE starts losing its states to Srilankan Army one by one till date. On February 5, 2009 the military captured the last Sea Tiger Base in Chalai, reducing the territory under rebels' control to less than some 200 sq. km. Over 2,00,000 tamils were in this area. They are struggling.

The fighting has driven more than 800,000 Tamils from their homes to other places within Sri Lanka as internally displaced persons and also overseas, prompting the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to identify them in 2004 as the largest asylum-seeking group. The country with the largest share of displaced Tamils is Canada, with more than 200,000 legal residents, found mostly within the Greater Toronto Area India has provided refuge to over 100,000 in special camps and another 50,000 outside of

Many Tamil leaders all over expected the ceasefire to save the tamils. London: The British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, names former defence secretary, Mr. Des Browne to be an envoy for Sri Lanka yesterday to try to ease hardship caused by the country's longrunning civil war and to help in the search for a political solution. The Indian President Mrs.Prathiba Patil urged the srilankan govt. to stop the war immediately and solve thro’ political solution in her speech at parliament yesterday. So the ceasefire can come at any time.