Part 1: The Birth of Civil War
80,000-100,000 Deaths - The deaths include 27,639 Tamil fighters, more than 21,066 Sri Lankan soldiers, 1000 SriLankan police, 1500 Indian soldiers, and tens of thousands of civilians. May it be Singhalese or Tamil, they are Humans!
The above is a result of the civil war in Sri Lanka, fought for the past 25 years. Finally it has come to an end with a real SAD note!. For those who are unaware about the civil war and its origin, and for those who had so far heard the different ethnic versions (supporting one of the groups). I would like to brief it in a nutshell rather than detailing the whole story, with a neutral view.(supporting Humanity).
Sri Lanka is a country bearing three ethnic groups that are found in majority, The Sinhalese( Who speak Sinhala), The Sri Lankan Tamil (Who speak Tamil but belong to Srilanka), and the Indian Tamil (Who came from India for various reasons and speak Tamil). The Sinhalese are the majority constituting 74% of the Sri Lankan population while 12.6 percent are Sri Lankan Tamils and 5.5 percent are Indian Tamils.
Sri Lanka was under the British rule till 1948. After the political independence granted by the British after peaceful negotiations, disagreements between the Sinhalese and Tamil ethnic communities flared up when drawing up the country's first post-independence constitution. It was the seed for the Civil war.
The problem was that, the Tamils who where the minority, occupied most of the government jobs. Percentage of educated Tamils where more, specifically with the knowledge in English, as during the British rule most of the Sinhalese where from rural areas and had no access to the urban areas like the Tamils had. Tamils outnumbered the majority Sinhalese drastically in all areas, education, economy, employment and more. This created a worry among the Sinhalese, and the government was under an immense pressure to handle this issue. Instead of designing a long term plan, the then government had messed up due to the pressure. The Government announced Sihala as the national language. Their true intention was to increase the percentage of Sinhalese in government job and in universities, having in mind that, by the time the Tamils learn Sinhala, the opportunities for both the group would be made even. Their intention was indeed rite but the solution they implemented could have been better. This created hatred among the ethnic groups. The Tamils believed that that decision was to suppress their ethnic group and get them out of Sri Lanka. This was further fueled by the then politicians who where always in a desire to get a separate country for Tamils, which would make them enjoy free powers. The people where unaware about all these and so a strong conflict between the ethnic groups began. The Tamils started fighting for a separate nation.This in-turn gave birth to revolutionary groups who started to fight for the Tamils. One of the major rebel group formed was the LTTE.
Then came another decision by the government, to fix high marks for the Tamils, compared to the Sinhalese to qualify for the universities to further their education. This again was with the intention to increase the percentage of the Sinhalese in universities who where drastically overtaken by the minority Tamils and moreover many Sinhalese who where in the rural areas had a better chance of getting seats in university. What else is required more than this! The Tamils rose to the peak of their emotions, well kindled and inflamed by the greedy politicians. The Rebel groups grew stronger and the revolution took more pace and intensity, seeking a separate nation for Tamils. The Civil War took its violent form.
Instead of peaceful negotiations, both the government and the Rebel groups opted for Non-violence. The civil war began with exchange of bullets and gifting of corpses. When questioned who began that, Each would blame the other! Like the question of, which came into existence first egg or the Hen?. It would never have an answer. May it be any one, who had begun that, one belonged to a nation that follows Buddha and the other follows Gandhiji. Had either one of them had really followed it, such thing would never have begun or would have been stopped in no time. But both failed.
Neither of them can be supported for their act, may it be the Government or the rebel groups that fought on behalf of the Tamils. Those who were killed where humans, may them be of any ethnic race!. The government should have opted for different plans or the Tamils should have understood the real scenario, rather than acting with ethnic emotions kindled by the greedy and insensible politicians.
The civil war that had began then, prevailed for almost 25 years resulting in a heavy loss of human life. Both, the Government and the rebel groups were reported to have violated human rights during the civil war all these years.
To make it simple, lets assume there are 80 pigeons and 20 sparrows but the number of grains available is just 20. What would happen if 10 grains are occupied by 10 sparrows and the rest 10 is to be shared by 80 pigeons. Hope you get the logic! What else is required to create a cloud of commotion and conflict! Being birds it can end up in any way. But Being a human, with six senses, there should have been a mutual understanding and equal sharing, which would have ended in harmony. But Nah!! The tale was so bad, with its pages filled with blood and scriptures of human right violations allover.
Me who belongs to the Tamil ethnic group might now be called as "Traitor" for not supporting my own ethnic group. May it be, as the ones who name me so, are my brothers too!. The one race I belong to, is Humanity, and would thrive for its peace and harmony at any cause. The SriLankans who were killed in Anuradhapura Massacre were my brothers and the Tamil's who where assaulted in Kumudini Boat Massacre in return, where my sisters. They where all the same. They all had the same pain while killed. The soil that bears their blood still smells the same. [ Continues]
------------------------------------------------------------------------End of Part 1---------------------------------------------------------
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at Wednesday, July 27, 2011
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The Island of Fortune - Sri Lanka
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