A starting point for everything you always wanted to know about the Sri Lankan Civil War

[Harold Schiffman]

Monday, May 18, 2009

A starting point for everything you always wanted to know about the
Sri Lankan Civil War (7/23/83 - 5/17/09)

The 7/23/83 to 5/17/09 (just a day ago) time period covers open
fighting between the LTTE - Tamil separatists and the Sri Lankan
Government. For an outline of events, go to this Wikipedia page. I am
sure a lot of the missing & if any, inaccurate, information will be
discovered & corrected in the years to come.

Had to take a break from my blogging break to pass this link along.

>>From the page:

"The root of modern conflict goes back to British colonial rule when
the country was known as Ceylon. A nationalist political movement from
Sinhalese communities arose in the country in the early 20th century
with the aim of obtaining political independence, which was eventually
granted by the British after peaceful negotiations in 1948.
Disagreements between the Sinhalese and Tamil ethnic communities
flared up when drawing up the country's first post-independence
constitution.

Prime Minister S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike's declaration of the "Sinhala
Only Act" language policy was the spark that led to conflict. The
civil war is a direct result of the escalation of the confrontational
politics that followed. Communal uprisings in the 1950s, 1977, and the
formation of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) with its
Vaddukkodei (Vattukottai)) resolution of 1976 were key events. These
led to a hardening of attitudes on both sides.

The TULF supported the armed actions of young militants who were
dubbed "our boys." These "boys" were the product of the post-war
population explosion. Many partially educated, unemployed Sinhala and
Tamil youth fell for simplistic racist and violent revolutionary
solutions to their problems."

http://diyfilmmaker.blogspot.com/2009/05/starting-point-for-everything-you.html
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