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Sri Lanka is a small island nation off the coast of India that has been plagued with ethnic conflict and strife since its independence from Great Britain in 1948. The island's people consist mainly of two ethnicities: Sinhalese and Tamils. After centuries of British colonial rule, the Sinhalese gained political power over the country. The Sinhalese and Tamils have religious, linguistic, and cultural differences, and as a result, the Sinhalese-dominated government exploited feelings of ethnoreligious nationalism for their political gain at the expense of ethnic Tamils.
Legislation was passed to privilege the Sinhalese in education and employment. Laws declaring Sinhala the national language and attempts to make Buddhism the national religion were enacted. The Tamils, inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's nonviolent revolt in India, organized peaceful demonstrations and protests calling for the equality of all ethnicities in Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan government ignored these protests and often responded violently. In July 1983, known as Black July, Sinhalese mobs, armed with machetes and electoral voting lists given by the government, began brutal and indiscriminating attacks on Tamils. Confronting this oppression, a group of Tamils resorted to armed struggle, eventually led by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The conflict has lasted for over two decades, displacing hundreds of thousands civilians and costing over 100,000 lives.
Reporters without Borders has stated that Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places for journalists, and the government is hostile towards foreign agencies and aid groups. The dangers are perhaps most famously exemplified in the January 2009 murder of Lasantha Wickrematunge, a leading Sri Lankan journalist and freelance TIME correspondent, who spoke out against the Sri Lankan government. More recently, J. S. Tissainayagam, a Tamil columnist and editor, was jailed and sentenced to 20 years of hard labor. Tissainayagam was lauded by U.S. President Barack Obama as an unjustly persecuted reporter who righteously delivered the truth to his countrymen. Even after the war, the Sri Lankan government hesitates to grant foreign reporters access to the IDP camps.
In its post-war stages, Sri Lanka desperately needs a diplomatic solution to resolve ethnic tensions and prevent further armed conflicts. Human rights abuses by both the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE were widespread throughout the conflict. On October 22, the U.S. Department of State issued a 67-page report documenting crimes committed during the final stages of the war. The end of the war has left thousands of civilians injured and homeless. Nearly 150,000 Tamils remain interned without access to humanitarian aid, their families, or freedom of movement. The Sri Lankan government continues to refuse calls for Independent investigations into the war crimes.
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