Feb. 13, 2009
1:30pm
Ethnic violence in Sri Lanka has not been uncommon. The island off the coast of the Indian subcontinent has been absorbed in civil war for the past twenty-five years. The civil war has been driven by ethnic conflict between the Tamil and Sinhalese peoples. Groups of Tamils have broken off and have been fighting in a secessionist movement within the country, but have been crushed by the opposition Sinhalese people. Many analysts predict that the war will end soon, but the question of what to do after the war is pressing. Many fear a new kind of conflict between the groups based on the discontent of the youth groups on each side. An uprising of a new generation of violence could likely occur because of the environments in which many of the children – now young teens – have grown up in.
Sri Lanka is a particularly dangerous place for a new uprising to occur in the aftermath of a long conflict. The problem with disenfranchised youth, especially in poverty or perceived oppression, is that they are able to form militia groups in a similar fashion to child soldiers. Child soldiers have been used in the Sri Lanka conflict previously, which starts more generations of conflict because children lack education and are instead socialized into a war mentality. While things are looking to become more peaceful in Sri Lanka, I am skeptical of a declaration of peace specifically because of the generational difference between older people who are done fighting an ethnic war, and the youth who have new anger and aggression towards their situations and those who are against them.
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