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Essays on sri lanka
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INTRO
Sri Lanka is a island that is made up of many different ethnicities, the Sinhalese who make up 75% population, the Tamils who make up 11% and 14% others. The differences amoung these groups on the basis of religion, language, and ethnicity has resulted in a 26* year long Civil War that began in July 1983 and ended in May 2009. The war was fought between the Sinhalese dominated state and militant Sri Lanka Tamil separatist movements. This paper will demonstrate how The Sri Lankan civlil war was truly a war against terrorism rather than an attempt at ethnic cleansing. It will do so by understand the history of the civil war, what the LTTE has done and the the Sri Lankan government has done.
HISTORY
The Sri Lankan Civil War was fought between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a separatist militant organization that was fighting for an Independent Tamil state, in the North East side of the Island and the Sri Lankan Government.() The war caused many hardships* for Sri Lanka, and estimated 80,000-100,000 people lost their lives.() The war stemmed* from a long history of religious identity, ethnic difference, and linguistic difference between the Tamils and Sinhalese as, Tamils are mainly hindu and originate from south indian. Sinhalese people speak sinhala, and are mainly buddhist and originate from northern india.
This divide* between the the ethnic groups emerged after Colonial powers took over the Northern coast that was mainly inhabited by Tamil populations. This led to Tamil people having an advantage over the Sinhalese as they English education first which led Tamils to dominate in certain careers.() The divide became more heated when the " Sinhala Only Act" was passed, this made Sinhala the official langua...
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...hat they have done to Sri Lanka and its people. They have both killed countless amounts of citizens and destroyed numerous buildings, and farms and effected the environment in Sri Lanka.
It is wrong to say that though the Sri Lankan government has taken a lot of fire for what happened during the war that it was an attempt at ethnic cleansing. The Sri Lankan government should be held accountable for they have done in the war, but that doesn't mean it was ethinic cleansing. War is a horrible state of affairs to be in, there so much pain and suffering and many get killed in the crossfire that have nothing to do with what is happen around them. Both sides are in the wrong, and both sides should be held accountable for what has happened. It is clear that what the LTTE was doing in Sri Lanka was terrorism, and the Sri Lankan government had to take a stand against them.
The world’s history is majorly shaped by mega wars that happen both inside and outside the boundaries of individual nations. Almost every sovereign state in the world had to forcefully liberate itself from its colonizers and oppressors mainly through warfare. For instance, America had to fight a long and exhausting revolutionary war against the British before it could attain its independence in 1783, likewise is the fate of many other nations. It is important to understand the two distinct types of wars that exist and their implications. Guerrilla warfare and the conventional military warfare are two types of war that are very different in their execution and military approach. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the similarities and differences existing between the American war in Vietnam and the American Revolution (Vetter, 1997).
Ung (2000) mentions that the Cambodian genocide is a product of a perfect agrarian vision that can be built by eliminating Western influence. More specifically, the Angkar perceives peasants and farmers as “model citizens” because many have not left the village and were not subjected to Western influence (Ung 2000:57). Moreover, the Khmer Rouge emphasized the ethnic cleansing of individuals from other races who were not considered “true Khmer” and represented a “source of evil, corruption, [and] poison” (Ung 2000:92). Lastly, the ideology centered on obtaining lost territory was based on a “time when Kampuchea was a large empire with territories” (Ung 2000:78). In essence, Ung successfully demonstrates that multiple causes encouraged the Cambodian
The Central American country of Guatemala fought a bloody civil war for over 36 years. The internal conflict began in November of 1960 and did not end until December of 1996. The key players that fought where the Guatemalan government and the ethnic Mayan indigenous people that where extremely leftist compared to the Guatemalan government. The indigenous people were joined by other non-government forces known as the Ladino peasantry and other rural poor. This civil conflict would escalate to a bloody series of events that would see the Guatemalan government regime held responsible for acts of genocide and other human rights violations.
The Civil War was a war fought between the the North and South in 1861. The Civil War happen because of hard tensions between the North and South over whether or not slavery rights follows with them in the new states in the westward expansion. The presidential election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 caused seven Southern states to secede from the Union and form the Confederate States of America, four more states later on joined them. The Civil War had many battles and the South had to go against the North and Confederate States which also made it hard for them. The Civil War ended in the
Political violence is action taken to achieve political goals that may include armed revolution, civil strife, terrorism, war or other such activities that could result in injury, loss of property or loss of life. Political violence often occurs as a result of groups or individuals believing that the current political systems or anti-democratic leadership, often being dictatorial in nature, will not respond to their political ambitions or demands, nor accept their political objectives or recognize their grievances. Formally organized groups, Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), businesses and collectives of individual citizens are non-state actors, that being that they are not locally, nationally or internationally recognized legitimate civilian or military authorities. The Cotonou Agreement of 2000 defines non-state actors as being those parties belonging to the private sector, economic and social partners and civil society in all its forms according to national characteristics. Historical observation shows that nation states with political institutions that are not capable of, or that are resistant to recognizing and addressing societies issues and grievances are more likely to see political violence manifest as a result of disparity amongst the population. This essay will examine why non-state political violence occurs including root and trigger causes by looking at the motivations that inspire groups and individuals to resort to non-conforming behaviors that manifest as occurrences of non-state political violence. Using terrorism and Islamic militancy on the one side, and human rights and basic freedoms on the other as examples, it will look at these two primary kinds of political violence that are most prevalent in the world ...
The Civil War was a battle between the northern states and the southern states. The southern states wanted to secede
Pape believes that the data proves that there is little connection between suicide terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism. Pape spends a sufficient time on many chapter of the book explaining to the reader that foreign occupation is the cause of suicide terrorism. The main agitator of suicide attacks is “the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, a Marxist-Leninist group whose members are from Hindu families but who are adamantly opposed to religion” (Pape pg. 9). The Tamil Tigers committed 76 of the 315 suicide attacks. The author clearly and convincingly gets his message across by supporting
In the article “Is Terrorism Distinctively Wrong?”, Lionel K. McPherson criticizes the dominant view that terrorism is absolutely and unconditionally wrong. He argues terrorism is not distinctively wrong compared to conventional war. However, I claim that terrorism is necessarily wrong.
World War I and II took a toll on many nations, one of them being Britain. After Britain finished fighting two world wars they were struggling with debt (India, 36). This is a major reason that leads them to withdraw from many of their colonies. There was also rising tension between Hindus and Muslims in this empire, which was getting out of control. The separation of Pakistan and India was beneficial for Hindus and Muslims alike.
Regardless of the victim, Structural violence is historically given and economically (or politically) driven (Farmer). Structural violence can manifest itself in state-sponsored terrorism or through a failure to provide proper medical infrastructure for ailing residents. Those at the top of the system impose the structure and allow lower-ranking tyrants or misinformation the opportunity to operate within this space. Yesterday and Agu are victims of structural
Its population is 21,866,445. The majority of their population are Buddhist the rest are either Muslim, Hindu, or Christian. Buddhism was brought to Sri Lanka in the 5th century B.C. The legend that is told states that Buddha ordered a group of his followers to travel to Sri Lanka and spread Buddhism. According to this legend Buddha said that Buddhism would strive in Sri Lanka for 5,000 years. (Flinkins,3) This legend holds true for the most part, the sinhalese Buddhists have taken down any threat that has been made to their religion. With the knowledge that Buddhism is a religion of nonviolence and peacefulness one may assume that Sri Lanka could be one of the most peaceful nations in the world. Unfortunately this assumption is very wrong. The way the Buddhist tackle the threats to their religion causes this country to be
The next category of terrorist is a group acting together in order to achieve their political or ideological agenda. These groups of people are often found living in oppressed conditions and are seeking extreme measures to bring about change. Such groups have been found in Georgia and Bosnia fighting over ethnic cleansing of a particular area after the Soviet Union disbanded (Wilkinson). Once a group looks at its neighbors and decides to improve its self-defense in order to...
In this essay I will discuss why the Third World has been the sight of most of the world's conflicts since 1945. The conflicts that have transpired have been mostly internal and not just between these countries and their neighbors. They range in wars regarding religion, liberation, rebelling, and civil wars to name a few. I will consider these conflicts and their make up in regards to countries involved in the most serious conflicts along with the impact on their infrastructures, and how these wars have been fought.
In conclusion, Lebanon civil war is a vary complex that last for all most 15 years. This war was a war of religion and sectors. The war had been through four major phases, first is the Sectarian violence and massacres, and second on was a continuing of the first phases and the begging of the third one. Third phases, was the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. The fourth phase and the last one was the pace phase. In the end, Syria had a major role in Lebanon.
Political violence is the leading cause of wars today. Personal agendas have led to many of the political objectives that cause violence today this has caused many problems throughout the world and will continue to do so until a solution to this issue is found. Political objectives have been advanced involuntarily dependent upon the kind of government a nation exercises. For instance, in a democratic nation political groups must worry about convincing the majority in order to advance ethically. Those who try to influence the majority through acts of violence are considered today as “terror” organizations. Though perhaps if it were not because of the recent 9/11 terror attacks that maybe such warrants would not be seen as terror attacks, but instead the result of partisan advancement. Acts of terrorism have been around throughout the evolution of mankind. Terror attacks have even been traced back as far as the religious roots of an ancient middle east (Ross, Will Terrorism End?, 2006). However as man evolved, so did terrorism. Today’s extremism involves some of the main characteristics of ancient terrorism, but much more developed. Political advancement is no longer the root cause of terrorism acts. Instead influxes of “holy” wars have been appended the prior definition of terrorism. Mistakably modern terrorism has been confused for Political violence with political objectives, but research will establish that the nature of terrorism is fundamentally different from other forms of political violence.