Marty Gnanananthan
mathava@gmail.com

 Sri Lanka quick facts
 History of Sri Lanka
 Present day situation
 Humanitarian situation

 South of India
 20 million people
◦ 70% Sinhala (Buddhist)
◦ 18% Tamil (Hindu, Christian)
 Indian Tamils
◦ 8% Moors (Muslims)
 3rd world country
 Plantation  Industrialised

 Portuguese and Dutch 16 century
 British Colonisation 1815
 1948 Independence
 1956 Sinhala Only Act
 Race riots and Tamil nationalism
 Civil War

 Portuguese and Dutch used Sri Lanka as a
trading port
 Missionaries established particularly in the
North and East
 3 separate kingdoms (Sinhala, Kandyan and
Tamil)
 Unified under British Rule
◦ Tamil held top positions in British administration

 Leading up to independence SinhalaBhuddist nationalist
movement on the rise
 1948 became independent
 British handed over a single country to the majority Sinhalese
 Citizenship Act – Indian Tamil plantation workers denied
citizenship
 1956 Sinhala only act
◦ Sinhala official language
◦ Discrimination over university examination
◦ Discrimination over administrative positions
 1956 Race riot after Tamils protest legislation (150 dead)
 1958 Pogrom against Tamils (300 dead)
◦ Suggestion to change administrative language in the north and east to
Tamil

 Successive discriminative laws in 1950’s and
1960’s marginalised Tamils
 Frequent protests by Tamils demanding equal
rights and equal opportunity
 1977 Vaddukoddai resolution (300 dead)
◦ General election on secession, north and east held
by Tamil politicians
◦ Riots ensued
 1981 burning of Jaffna library by Sinhala
mobs aided by police
 1983 Black July pogrom - 3000

 1983 war between Tamil Tigers and Sri
Lankan Army
 Continued for 30 years till 2009
 Tamils Tigers fought for a separate state
◦ Tamil Eelam
 Mini state has school, courts, banks,
vocational facilities
 Freedom fighter vs. Terrorist (propaganda
war)

 20,000 civilians killed by Sri Lankan Army
shelling
 Hospitals targeted on 30 different occasions
in final months of war
 300,000 civilians in concentration camps
◦ No freedom of movement, no communication
◦ Lack of food, water, medicines and sanitary
facilities
◦ Abductions of Tamil youth, torture
◦ Forced separation of family members
◦ Indefinite detention

 No press freedom
◦ Press banned from reporting on Sri Lankan war or
in refugee camps
◦ 18 journalists killed in last 18 months
 Restrictions on Aid organisations
◦ At its peak only Red cross allowed
 White vans abduct opposition (mainly Tamils)
◦ 2000 incidents estimated

 Act Now
◦ http://www.act-now.info/Site/HOME.html
 Sri Lankan Crisis Fast Unto Action
◦ http://fastuntoaction.wordpress.com/
 Amnesty Internationl
◦ http://www.amnesty.org/en/region/sri-lanka