planet earth looks blue

The small beautiful island of Sri Lanka has been plagued by fighting since 1983, but the roots of the conflict go back even further.  Sri Lanka is made up of three ethnic groups - the majority Sinhalese, who make up over 70% of the population and control the government, the Tamil, most of whom have lived on Sri Lanka for centuries, but also some are the descendants of the laborers brought by the British during the colonial period, and the Burghers, who are the descendants of the European colonists and the Sri Lankan tribesmen, the Veddhas.  Since Sri Lanka gained it independence in 1948, ethnic tensions have been rising between the Sinhalese and the Tamils.  The Tamils, who have a different language and religion (they are Hindu or Christian, while the Sinhalese made Buddhism the state religion) have felt increasingly alienated.  Over the years they have protested for autonomy.  In 1983 the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam was formed to fight for the independence of the Tamil people.  

Since then, fighting has more or less been on-going, with the Tamil Tigers taking and holding parts of Sri Lanka.  Just this month the fighting has increased.  The Sri Lankan forces took back the village of Elephant Pass, which the Tamil Tigers had for nine years.  Today they announced the takeover of Mullaittivu, a village that the was under rebel control for 12 years.  The Sri Lankan military has been criticized by the international community for its high level of civilian casualties.  

With more than 70,000 people dead, the violence continues.  Journalists and humanitarian aide workers have been banned from the areas where there is heavy fighting.  Just in the past 2 years, 14 journalists have been killed.  Others have left the island for fear of being imprisoned and tortured by the government.  Without the presence of journalists, or an international community such a long-standing ethnic conflict can only get worse.  With the Tamil Tigers acting as a terrorist organization, and the Sri Lankan government in the role of military dictatorship, doesn’t this spell recipe for disaster?  Is this going to be added to the long list of conflicts around the world that we will read about in years to come, that students will say to their teachers - why didn’t anyone do anything?