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Eelam War IV
The war in Sri Lanka has officially commenced. Again.
‘Eelam War IV’ kicked off on Wednesday 15 January 2008 with the collapse of the five-year long Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL).
The government is calling this the ‘war to end the war’.
Almost every day since we arrived two months ago, civilian lives have been lost in this conflict that ravages the beautiful island of Sri Lanka.
Over 70,000 persons have been killed since the conflict began nearly 30 years ago.
AND FOR WHAT? In short…
There are two majority ethnicities in Sri Lanka:
1. Sinhalese
2. Tamil
Since the British made Sinhalese and English the two ‘official’ languages of Sri Lanka more than fifty years ago, the Tamils have been pretty pissed off about their lower-class status. (Many other things have pissed them off, but this is a starter and a good example of how they feel discriminated against by the government etc).
A long time ago some Tamils formed a terrorist organisation called the LTTE. They want part of Sri Lanka (in the North) to be their own land/country – and they want to call it Eelam.
They have been fighting the GoSL for recognition of Eelam for nearly 30 years.
I have encountered many Tamils living in the hill country (lots of them breaking their backs picking tea), and they are lovely. The ones I met got along famously with the Sinhalese in the village.
NOT all Tamils are Tamil TIGERS.
BUT, many, many Sri Lankans – Tamil or Sinhalese – have suffered in this civil war, and many, many more surely will.
In 2002, with the help of Norway, a ceasefire agreement was achieved.
The fighting never entirely ‘ceased’, yet has been escalating, according to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), particularly since President Mahinda Rajapaksa won office in November 2005.
An editorial in the Daily Mirror (a private Sri Lankan newspaper) likened the CFA to a marriage certificate of a couple that was constantly at loggerheads but kept the marriage legally intact.
Certainly, with bombs exploding in Colombo and on civilian buses in the recent months that we have been here, the existence of a ceasefire seemed a little far fetched.
But now the government has given up all hope of peace. The government has decided to abandon the CFA and end this war with violence, death and destruction.
A young man at a Tiger training camp
Source: www.sangam.org
Army Commander Sarath Foneska has vowed to defeat the LTTE by the end of the year.
LTTE frontliner P. Nadesan has told the BBC that they had faced similar threats in the past, but they have carried on their 30-year struggle and will continue to do so.
A bus carrying over 90 civilians was blown up on Wednesday, the first official day of war in this country.
Some 27 people were killed, including schoolchildren, and 65 injured, either in the blast or by the Tamil Tigers reportedly shooting survivors from nearby trees.
Tamil Tigers on the march
Source: http://asapblogs.typepad.com
Who knows what will happen by the end of the year. Will the Tigers be defeated? Will the government prosper from this war? They have certainly been given much overseas aid in the name of fighting these ‘terrorists’, yet further aid is looking shaky since they have thrown peace talks out the window.
How will Sri Lanka and her people fare from this?
How many civilians will die for this? The members of the SLMM – made up of Scandinavians who monitored and recorded attacks – have packed their bags. Who will ever know the number of Lankans that will die in this war?
Fortunately, I can afford to stay snug in my little surfing paradise and not get on any more buses (promise, Mum). But my God it’s sad to see such brave, beautiful people on the edge of further suffering.
This country has suffered enough. Will Eelam War IV end this endless War?
Bangkok21
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