Mesmerized by the situation in Lebanon, the world has paid little heed as Sri Lanka's ceasefire has disintegrated and the country slips back into war. While the conflict in Sri Lanka is not as old as that in the Middle East, it appears every bit as intractable. The international community has mediated, but neither side appears truly committed to making and keeping peace. Absent that will, and a determined effort by outside forces to enforce it, Sri Lanka will remain a deeply and bitterly divided country.
The Tamil struggle for a homeland in Sri Lanka is one of Asia's longest conflicts. The country is divided between a Buddhist Sinhalese majority and Tamils, a Hindu group that is predominant in the north and has long complained of discrimination. Fighting erupted in 1983 and has been vicious: The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, better known as the LTTE or "Tamil Tigers," has made wide use of children soldiers and suicide bombers, and has shown no compunction about killing Tamil moderates who favor dialogue over war. For its part, the government has made little effort to discriminate between combatants and civilians, alienating many Tamils who might otherwise opt for compromise.
In 2002, international mediators helped broker a truce to end fighting that had claimed an estimated 65,000 lives. Ceasefire monitors from five Nordic countries were deployed in the north and east of Sri Lanka; they halted the open conflict, but individual incidents of violence continued. The pace has intensified in the last year: It is estimated that as many as 1,400 people have been killed since December. Ominously, the ceasefire monitors say they have lost count. Since April, fighting has spread throughout Tamil territory, displacing as many as 128,000 people.