With a Sinhalese majority ethnicity whom are people who mostly follow a peace / non- violence philosophy of Buddhism, Sri Lanka would like to be known as a peaceful country. But 30 years of armed conflict have marred the peace. Why? The Tamil ethnic minority - whom feel they are prejudiced against through discrimination and marginalisation - a social injustice which has been fought against using weaponry and violence by the infamous Tamil Tigers.
Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_Tiger
The Tamil Tigers have instigated a long running civil war against the Sinhalese majority government supported financially by ethnic Tamils living in countries overseas such as Malaysia. There is a Tamil majority in the neighbouring Southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu whom have often demonstrated to the Indian government to raise the profile of the situation of the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka. They use armed violence as their tactic and had previously murdered a former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Ghandi on 21 May 1999.
Now, with the Sinhalese army advancing into areas that were the stronghold of the Tamil Tigers, the Tamil Tigers leaders have been accused using civilians as a human shield meanwhile the Sri Lanka military has been accused of shelling schools and hospitals located in Tamil areas as part of the offensive. During U.N. relief efforts, Tamil Tigers have been accused by the U.N. of disallowing injured civilians, women and children to leave, shooting any that try and recruiting child soldiers.
Will the armed offensive into Tamil Tiger areas end the civil war once and for all? Will this bring peace to Sri Lanka and equal rights for Tamil minority population? Will the armed violence be justified in the future? Can peace in a civil context be achieved by armed conflict?
Sources: Aljazeera News hour broadcast 16/2/09; Aljazeera website Sri Lankas Tigers Deny War Crimes accessed 16/2/09 http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/02/2009217135117589149.html; WiKI Rajiv Gandhi accessed 16/2/09 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajiv_Gandhi
Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_TigerNow, with the Sinhalese army advancing into areas that were the stronghold of the Tamil Tigers, the Tamil Tigers leaders have been accused using civilians as a human shield meanwhile the Sri Lanka military has been accused of shelling schools and hospitals located in Tamil areas as part of the offensive. During U.N. relief efforts, Tamil Tigers have been accused by the U.N. of disallowing injured civilians, women and children to leave, shooting any that try and recruiting child soldiers.
Will the armed offensive into Tamil Tiger areas end the civil war once and for all? Will this bring peace to Sri Lanka and equal rights for Tamil minority population? Will the armed violence be justified in the future? Can peace in a civil context be achieved by armed conflict?
Sources: Aljazeera News hour broadcast 16/2/09; Aljazeera website Sri Lankas Tigers Deny War Crimes accessed 16/2/09 http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/02/2009217135117589149.html; WiKI Rajiv Gandhi accessed 16/2/09 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajiv_Gandhi
What's other choice of Sri Lanka government got? Terrorist attack is happening on Colombo like the plane that suicide bomber crash into the Inland Revenue this week. Are they supposed to do a non-violence just do nothing?
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