The Sinhalese and Tamils are ethnic groups that migrated from India and have been present in Sri Lanka for at least 2,500 years. There is a strong Sinhala belief that the Sinhalese were chosen by the Buddha to possess the island.

Though both communities have co-existed in their own kingdoms as stable national entities ruled by their own kings, there is disagreement as to which community has a longer history on the island.

There has been much positive community interplay yet unfortunately ‘the collective memory has tended to concentrate on the tensions and hostility which were generated at times of unrest.’

Long-standing tensions

The Sinhalese who control the Government are largely Buddhist. They constitute about 74% of the country’s 20 million people. The largely Hindu Tamils make up about 18% of the population. Each group has strong, distinct cultural, historical and linguistic identities.

Long-standing tensions between Tamils and Sinhalese over political control of their respective parts of the island are at the root of the conflict. The bottom line is the determination by successive Sinhalese dominated Sri Lankan Governments and their backers, to turn multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-lingual, multicultural Sri Lanka into a Sinhalese- Buddhist country.

The Tamils claim that if this is the objective (now even enshrined in the Constitution), there is no alternative to a separate Tamil State, Eelam. The principle Tamil rebel group, the LTTE, control a swathe of the island’s northern end, and continue to demand full independence there.

Germany has called on the international community to persuade both parties to the conflict to seek a political rather than military solution. It has also called on the European Union to impose sanctions unless the hardline government abandons its militarist path. According to reports, Germany has already frozen new development cooperation projects with Sri Lanka and, because of the deteriorating security situation, was withdrawing half their development personnel from the island as well as closing the German Development Bank in Sri Lanka.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have also demanded that the Government and the LTTE improve the protection of civilians because of enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests, detentions and internal displacement of people.

The Human Rights Council in Geneva has been urged to call on both sides of the conflict to improve this protection by complying with international human rights standards and international humanitarian law and a strong monitoring mandate by the United Nations.