Human rights situation in Sri Lanka is steadily deteriorating despite call by nations, UN agencies and other non-governmental organizations for immediate action to prevent gross human rights abuses.

Much of the violence and violations are directly related to the Ethnic conflict which has been the single most national issue in the mind of Sri Lankans as well as others who are interested in promoting human and civil rights in Sri Lanka.

In this two-phase report on the human rights situation in Sri Lanka, first phase here provide background to the Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict.

Sri Lanka is a pear-shaped island off the coast of India slightly larger than the state of West Virginia. Sri Lanka is a multi-ethnic, and multi-religion society. However, the ethnic Sinhalese, who speak Sinhalese language, are mostly concentrated in the south and western part of the island. Ethnic Tamils mostly inhabit1 the north and east of the island. Ethnic Sinhalese and Tamils have co-existed for many centuries and have maintained their traditional homelands even during the colonial periods in the last few centuries. Though the ethnic Sinhalese and Tamils share common cultural traits, they also have their own distinct cultures, language and religions as well as different socio-economic and political structures. Both Sinhalese and Tamils in fact were separate Sinhalese Kingdoms and Tamil Kingdoms up until the British rule was enforced during 19th century.

European colonization of the island started with the arrival of Portuguese in 1505, the Dutch in 1658 and the British in 1795.

The colonizing powers set up separate administrative structures that reflected the distinct identities of the Sinhalese and Tamil peoples and ruled them until in 1833 for administrative convenience the British combined them and ruled the island as one country. The forceful amalgamation of the majority Sinhalese and the minority Tamils under the British colonial system laid the basis for the current conflict.

SriLanka, formerly known as Ceylon, gained independence in 1948. When the British ruled formally ended, they installed a unitary Constitution, handing over the government to the majority Sinhalese with some "entrenched clauses" to safeguard minorities.

The minority Tamils was left politically vulnerable and the Sinhalese leaders explicitly told them that they would not be discriminated against.

With the Citizenship Act of 1948, the Sinhalese majority quickly used its parliamentary majority to assert its dominance over the entire populace of Sri Lanka, then called Ceylon. They tied citizenship to descent. Three generations of paternal descent on the island was required to be granted citizenship. There were no provisions for citizenship by birth. This act was to target the Tamils of Indian decent who was brought by the British to work on the plantations of Sri Lanka, and the ethnic Tamils attribute this action to planned action to undercut Tamil influence in the political life of the country. Nearly a million Tamils were disenfranchised overnight by this legislation.

Sinhalese majority Parliament started to exercise their hegemony and discriminated against Tamils in every sphere of activity, including education, employment and development. The Government set about to change the demography of, primarily, the Eastern province by state-aided colonization. As a result, the percentage of Sinhalese in the Eastern Province increased from a little over 4% before the independence to a current figure of around 32%.

In 1956 legislation was brought in the parliament to make Sinhalese the only official language of the island. Tamils tried parliamentary methods and non-violent demonstrations to obtain redress, all of which were met with the violence of Sinhalese mobs backed by complicit state forces. A pact was signed in 1957 between Prime Minister Bandaranaike and Tamil leader Chelvanayagm that proposed the establishment of Tamil Regional Councils. This pact was literally torn up in February1958 due to protests by the other major Sinhalese party - the UNP - and Sinhalese Buddhist priests and communal attacks against Tamils were instigated. In the explosive 1958 riots, the Sinhalese Prime Minister Mr. Bandaranaike deliberately waited 24 hours to declare a state of emergency in a calculated move to punish the Tamils. As a result thousands of Tamils lost their homes, several hundreds were slaughtered and vast amounts of Tamil property were destroyed.

Discrimination against the Tamils in every sphere of activity including education, employment and development of Tamil areas continued and the Tamils non-violent, peaceful sit in protests also continued. The 1961, a non violent, peaceful sit in campaign for Tamil rights lasted nearly three months and the government responded to the peaceful actions by declaring a state of emergency and letting the military loose on the Tamils and were beaten mercilessly. Tamil leaders were arrested and Tamil areas came under army occupation for the next two years. Tamils non-violent protests continued and in 1965 another pact was signed between the Tamil leaders and the Sinhalese Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake to establish Tamil District Councils in Tamil areas. The Sinhalese majority started opposing this and this pact also was abrogated in 1968 without being implemented. In 1972, a new Constitution was approved by the Sinhalese majority parliament. It reaffirmed the status of Sinhala as the sole official language of the island, afforded special protections to Buddhism, the majority Singhalese’s religion. The clauses, which were put in by the British in the 1948 Constitution to protect and safeguard the minorities were all scrapped. The ‘policy’ of every Sinhalese political party was “ethnic outbidding,” offering to adopt more and more anti-Tamil (and pro-Sinhalese) measures if elected to power. More discrimination and all kinds of violence affected the Tamils and the Federal Party of Tamils sought and obtained an overwhelming mandate from Tamils to request the Government a federal type of solution. The majority government simply ignored this mandate. In 1977, the Tamils, as a last resort, gave their representatives an overwhelming mandate to ask for separation. The 1977 General election was followed by some of the worst violence unleashed on Tamil civilians by government-sponsored Sinhalese hoodlums, which the newly elected Prime Minister, Jayawardene, a long-standing anti-Tamil, did nothing to control. Instead, he offered ‘war’ to the Tamils since they voted for separation. Hundreds of civilians killed, shops and homes owned by Tamils burned and thousands lost property. In 1978 another new Constitution was passed giving more prominence to Buddhism and all minority rights were completely ignored. Tamil representatives protested but to no avail. The Constitution was passed without the Tamils vote. By this time, disillusionment with the possibility of political reform was on the rise. Militancy was growing among Tamil youths and students.

In June of 1983 the Sinhalese armed forces had gone on a frenzy in the Tamil cities of Trincomalee and Vavuniya, shooting civilians and setting shops, churches and houses ablaze. The Tamil militants responded with a well-orchestrated ambush on July 23 1983, killing 13 Soldiers and sending shockwaves through the racist Sinhala establishment.

July 24,1983 the worst anti-Tamil violence was unleashed by the Government of SriLanka. The Government media ran inflammatory headlines and the Sinhalese hoodlums went on an anti-Tamil rampage. More than 3,000 Tamils were killed and 150,000 were made homeless in Colombo city alone. The Police and Armed forces did nothing to enforce the Law and order. They stood by as the hoodlums killed, raped, burned Tamils owned shops and industries and homes. All Political prisoners were killed in the prison. The rampage went on for 3 days and finally, due to international media head lines, on 28th July 1983, The president ordered the armed forces to stop the mayhem.

Years of violent repression proved that the non-violent tactics of the old guard were not a viable method of struggle. The ranks of the Tamil militants started to swell. Tamil armed struggle for the right of self-determination continues. The violence and the economic embargo by the state armed forces in SriLanka’s Tamil dominated areas continues unabated with no regards to any humanitarian concern. At present there are more than a million internally displaced Tamil people living in temporary camps with no hope for end of their sufferings. Today, Sri Lankan is prosecuting a war against the separatist Tamil militants. It is widely believed that the warring parties cannot dominate each other militarily and only a negotiated settlement can bring permanent peace. Both sides are accused of human rights violations. To prosecute the war, Sri Lankan armed forces appear to have a carte blanche without regard to the basic human rights. Disappearances, extra-judicial killings and extortion of money, forced colonization are rampant in the country now. In our second phase of this report, we will analyze and report on the human rights situation in Sri Lanka in more detail.