A Brief Look at Sri Lanka

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INTRO
Sri Lanka is a island that is made up of many different ethnicities, the Sinhalese who make up 75% population, the Tamils who make up 11% and 14% others. The differences amoung these groups on the basis of religion, language, and ethnicity has resulted in a 26* year long Civil War that began in July 1983 and ended in May 2009. The war was fought between the Sinhalese dominated state and militant Sri Lanka Tamil separatist movements. This paper will demonstrate how The Sri Lankan civlil war was truly a war against terrorism rather than an attempt at ethnic cleansing. It will do so by understand the history of the civil war, what the LTTE has done and the the Sri Lankan government has done.

HISTORY
The Sri Lankan Civil War was fought between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a separatist militant organization that was fighting for an Independent Tamil state, in the North East side of the Island and the Sri Lankan Government.() The war caused many hardships* for Sri Lanka, and estimated 80,000-100,000 people lost their lives.() The war stemmed* from a long history of religious identity, ethnic difference, and linguistic difference between the Tamils and Sinhalese as, Tamils are mainly hindu and originate from south indian. Sinhalese people speak sinhala, and are mainly buddhist and originate from northern india.

This divide* between the the ethnic groups emerged after Colonial powers took over the Northern coast that was mainly inhabited by Tamil populations. This led to Tamil people having an advantage over the Sinhalese as they English education first which led Tamils to dominate in certain careers.() The divide became more heated when the " Sinhala Only Act" was passed, this made Sinhala the official langua...

... middle of paper ...

...hat they have done to Sri Lanka and its people. They have both killed countless amounts of citizens and destroyed numerous buildings, and farms and effected the environment in Sri Lanka.

It is wrong to say that though the Sri Lankan government has taken a lot of fire for what happened during the war that it was an attempt at ethnic cleansing. The Sri Lankan government should be held accountable for they have done in the war, but that doesn't mean it was ethinic cleansing. War is a horrible state of affairs to be in, there so much pain and suffering and many get killed in the crossfire that have nothing to do with what is happen around them. Both sides are in the wrong, and both sides should be held accountable for what has happened. It is clear that what the LTTE was doing in Sri Lanka was terrorism, and the Sri Lankan government had to take a stand against them.

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