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Anjali Wijesooriya 860328 8849Stockholm UniversityDepartment of political scienceIntermediate level: Individual research project
The ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka and its impact oncivil society; predominantly children
 
Introduction p 3Method and material p 4Analyzing raw data 1: The cultural and political background of Sri Lanka p 5Ethnic conflict and separatism: The background of the ethnic conflict p 6Out break of civil war: the 1983 riots p 7Escalation of violence: Eelam war 1, 2 and 3 p 8The present situation: end of the ceasefire and peace talks p 9Analyzing raw data 2: The impact of the war p 10Impact on children in the north east p 10Impact on civilians in general p 13Future prospects and possible solutions p 15Concluding remarks p 16References p 16Appendix p 17
 
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Introduction
“Wednesday 28
th
of November 2007 two bomb explosions have struck the Sri Lankancapital Colombo killing at least 16 people and injuring 37” and a few weeks ago “aTamil Terrorist suicide bomber disguised as a pregnant woman, spontaneously combustedin central Colombo, Sri Lanka, killing 8 people. Her intended target was Lt GeneralSarath Fonseka - the Commander of the Sri Lankan Army, who is in hospital in serious but stable condition along with 27 others”
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.There is an ongoing civil war in the Democratic Socialist, Republic of Sri Lanka which isof immeasurable importance and significance in the country at present. This war involvesthe second largest ethnic group the Tamils who’s rebelling against the government. Sincethe year 1983 there has been on and off civil war between the government and theterrorist group known as the liberation tigers of the Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a separatistmilitant organization who is fighting to create an independent state named the TamilEelam in the north and east of the island.My study and the core purpose in this paper is to investigate this ethnic conflict inquestion and its impact on the civilians; particularly the children in the north of Sri LankaMore transparently and precisely my hypothesis is:
the ethnic conflict is causing thecollapse of civil society
. This conflict is affecting civil society in many harsh ways. Thecountry has met with effects such as the downfall of the economy; the value of the rupeehas fallen, and the degradation of health care, education and various development programmes etc. The main reason is that funds that should have been used to financedevelopment are being spent on warfare instead.My aim is to get a picture of this conflict by scrutinizing various aspects of it such as the background of the actual ethnic war; its origins, the present situation of the country andfinally its various impacts on the civilians specially the children in the north; where thewar is taking place.I will be conducting a case study to achieve my goals. I will refer to “state nation andethnicity in contemporary southeast Asia” by Ishtiaq Ahmed and “The Bottom Billion-
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BBC homepage,28.12.07.
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