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Sri Lanka's ethnic cauldron has long simmered |
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October 26, 2000
COLOMBO (AP) - The immediate provocation for Wednesday's attack on a rehabilitation center where 22 former child soldiers of the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels were killed was the taking hostage of Captain Ajith Abeyratne, from the majority Sinhalese community. Sri Lanka's modern civil war was born of an ancient conflict between two ethnic groups with their own distinct languages, cultures and history. The majority Sinhalese - who make up 76 percent of Sri Lanka's 18.6 million people - are mainly Buddhist, and are generally concentrated in the southern and central part of the Indian Ocean island nation off India's southern coast. Most of the Tamils, who are 18 percent of the population, are Hindus. They live largely in the country's north and east and in the tea-growing hill areas of central Sri Lanka. Some have been drawn to the capital Colombo in search of jobs, education and business. Colombo's thriving gold trade is dominated by Tamil artisans. The two groups have at times in their 1,000-year history clashed over territory, but decades before independence in 1948, they united to oppose their common foe - the British. They began drifting apart after the British left, in part because of rising nationalism among Sinhalese who believed their superior numbers gave them the right to rule. Ethnic clashes erupted in 1958, 1977 and 1983. The 1983 riot was the bloodiest: human rights groups have said that more than 2,000 Tamils were killed by Sinhalese. The rioting was sparked after an ambush on 13 soldiers by a fledgling Tamil rebel group in northern Sri Lanka. Many young Tamil people fled to the north to join the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which is seeking an ethnic homeland in the north and east. Though not all Tamils embrace the Tigers' extreme solution, many feel they are denied opportunities by the Sinhalese, who dominate the government and military. Several Tamil political parties which advocate a peaceful answer to the ethnic question are represented in the nation's parliament. President Chandrika Kumaratunga has proposed giving more autonomy to all the nation's regions, including one dominated by Tamils. But her governing party faces strong opposition from both Sinhalese nationalists, who say she is going too far, and Tamils, who want her to go further. |