Conflict and consequence Sri Lanka

Duration of the conflict
The conflict in Sri Lanka began in 1983. In 2002 a cease-fire was proclaimed, but hostilities continue till present.

Type of conflict
Ethnic with both political and territorial dimensions:

Initially, the territorial conflict concerned the legitimacy of ethno-political claims to the North-East.
Political struggle about equal individual and group rights of Tamils and Sinhalese and the right to co-constitute the political system of the country.
The conflict between the political groupings of the SLFP/PA and the UNP/UNF is connected with the ethno-political North-South conflict.

Humanitarian aspects
Human Development Index (HDI): 99 (2006: 93)
The war claimed the lives of an estimated 64,000 people and uprooted more than one million others. Some 200,000 people fled overseas, 460,000 are internally displaced (even though the government initiated a major return programme in Batticaloa and Trincomalee in 2007). On December 26, 2004, a tsunami hit the Sri Lankan coastline; it caused over 30,000 deaths and displaced over 1 million people.

Child soldiers
The latest statistics from ADB reported that between February 2002 and April 2005, the LTTE (also know as ‘Tamil Tigers’) recruited 1572 child soldiers.

Country's current phase
Many people in Sri Lanka suffer from the civil war between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE, also known as ‘Tamil Tigers’) and the government army and the consequences of the 2004 tsunami. Read more

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