The Current (2005) Sri Lanka Conflict

Location and Parties Involved in the Dispute.
The Sri Lankan self-determination dispute is located in the country Sri Lanka, situated on the latitude 7 00N and longitude 81 00E. Sri Lanka is at the foot of the Asian continent, measures 65,610 sq km and comprises of two main ethnic groups, the Sinhalese majority (76%) and the Tamil minority (18%). These groups have long shared the island, which was once separated into two sovereign States. When Sri Lanka fell under foreign domination the British merged the two nations in 1815 and when the country received independence in 1948 a Sinhalese government was set up to govern over the whole. This government discriminates against the Tamil minority and denies the Tamil people the right to a separate State and self-determination. The conflict is therefore between the Sinhalese government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a separatist terrorist group who fight for the independence of the Tamil people from Sinhalese rule, and for a separate sovereign state in the North-East of the island. …