Sri_Lanka_Conflict

`The Tamils had no choice but to use violence through the Tamil Tigers in their fight for more equality' Do you agree' Explain your answer. (12 marks) Introduction For more than two decades, Sri Lanka has been embroiled in a violent civil war between the ruling Sinhalese majority which forms the government, and the Tamil minority, whose cause are championed by the LTTE or Tamil Tigers, as they are more popularly known. Main Essay I disagree that the Tamils had no choice but to resort to violence to achieve equality. If we look back at the history of the conflict, the Tamils had actually considered peaceful political solutions to the problem at the beginning, long before the differences erupted into violent conflict. In the early 1950s, the Federal Party (a Tamil political party), had asked for formation of self-governing Tamil states within a federation of Sri Lanka. They had actually considered the non-violent political option first. For more than 20 years, these demands were not met and yet they had not resorted to violent means. In 1976, after their demands were still not met, yet another Tamil political party, the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) asked for a separate independent Tamil state, to be called Tamil Eelam. This shows that the Tamils did not see violence as a first option even after being rebuffed for more than 20 years. However their demands fell on deaf ears as the Sri Lankan government rejected their demand for an independent and separate Tamil state. Frustrated and angry at the government for not granting their request, some of the Tamil Youths decided to form the now notorious militant group the LTTE. In other words, it was only after peaceful attempts in bringing across their demands for equality had failed did the Tamils resort to violent means. Since then, for more than two decades, the LTTE had launched numerous attacks against Sinhalese, Tamil members of the police force and ruling party, as well as Tamil politicians who do not support a separate Tamil state. The LTTE are notorious for having committed atrocities against civilians, high profile assassinations of politicians as well as bombing attacks on government buildings, military barracks and police stations. The Tamil Tigers is considered a terrorist organization. They hope that by launching a civil war against the Sinhalese government, they will be able to form a separate and independent Tamil state. To date, the conflict has claimed the lives of more than 70 000 people from both sides. Conclusion To conclude, it would be wrong to say that the Tamils had no choice but to resort to violence though the Tamil Tigers to fight for equality. As we have seen, they had indeed considered peaceful solutions as their first option. It was only after several attempts at a peaceful political solution had failed did the differences escalate to violent conflict. Even then, this was only because the disgruntled and angry Tamil youths had seized the initiative of fighting for Tamil rights through militant means. It was not as if the LTTE were appointed by the larger Tamil community to fight for their cause. Although the Tamil Tigers claim to be freedom fighters of the Tamil cause, they do not have unanimous support among the Tamil population for their violent tactics. This is because there are Tamil policemen who work for the government as well as Tamil politicians who do not support them.