[Sharan]

Sri Lanka, as most of us are aware is an Island Nation, being part of South Asia.

The multi religious, multi ethnic, multi linguistic culture of this nation serves as a common factor with India.

This nation certainly features amongst more favoured destinations for tourists, from all over the world.

But perhaps what has indeed deterred foreign nationals from visiting this nation in larger numbers is its troubled state of affairs.Infact even the locals have often fled their houses never to return, and to stay in refugee camps even in foreign nations in order to stay alive!.

The government of SriLanka, has ofcourse tried to bring a decisive end to the long standing civil war, conflict, but in vain.

It is generally believed that the government of Srilanka spends more than 850 million Dollars annually towards the aforesaid effort.
More than 100000 srilankan troops have been committed to battle the Tamil Militia.

The L.T.T.E., Or the liberation tigers of tamil eelam has been the largest & strongest of the tamil militia.For their part, the 'tigers' have proclaimed that they will not stop fighting the government until they have secured an independent homeland for the tamils living in that region.


L.T.T.E , is a militant organization that has been waging a violent campaign against the government since the 1970s.The Head of this militant organisation is its founder, VeluPillai Prabhakaran.
In 1987 the LTTE established the notorious Black tigers, an elite unit of the LTTE responsible for conducting suicide attacks against political, economic and military targets, and launched its first suicide attack against a Sri Lanka Army camp, killing 40 soldiers.

Among the other known tamil militant organisations are, T.E.L.O, E.R.P.L.F Etc. Most of these groups have either been attacked by the L.T.T.E as part of their Internecine Campaign, or have been forced to toe their line.

It is a widely known truth that both the warring sides have little or absolutely no regards for the International Humanitarian Law.

The war has indeed brought about massive civilian loss, enormous loss to the health and education sectors etc. It has caused at least 65,000 deaths, displaced up to one million people, resulted in severe human rights abuses, and slowed Sri Lanka’s once-promising development.

A country that had attained commendable levels of literacy, high life expectancy and low infant mortality rates about a couple of decades ago, can hardly even boast of the same in current times.

The following are the key issues that I managed to gather from various sources, that have indeed been stumbling blocks on the road to peace in that nation,-

1]the intense rivalry between the two main Sinhalese political parties, the Peoples Assembly (PA) and the United National Party (UNP);

2]the fierce opposition of the Buddhist clergy to any accommodation of Tamil grievances, which they view as threatening to Sinhalese Buddhism;

3] government reluctance to accept outside, third-party assistance; and the apparent unwillingness of the LTTE to entertain any settlement short of a separate state.

4]The U.S. has not given Sri Lanka’s conflict the attention it deserves.

5]The designation of the LTTE as a terrorist organization has contributed to marginalizing the group and has not resulted in changes in behavior.

As if this nation's woes were not enough, given the civil strife, assassinations, civilian displacements,etc, A natural catastrophe in the form of Tsunami hit the Island in 2005.It would bring with it untold misery, deaths, destruction and sufferings.

The mediation by Norway, has perhaps been the only silver lining, in the ongoing conflict.
But given the very fragile nature of the 'truce' that has ever so often been wrecked, owing to the aforesaid reasons, Peace, it seems will continue to elude Sri Lanka..

[satish]

You are right Sharan.
LTTE is threat not only to the SriLanka but also to the entire Deccan peninsula the recent attack on the refinary of IO is the proof of that.
Now it's an open secret that UPA government is afraid of entering into the trouble water beyond the Palk Strait.
SriLanka going to China and Pakistan for the arm deal is nothing but the falure of our much hyped foreign policy.