Since 1983, the Sri Lankan conflict has devastated its divided nation over ethnic conflicts. The genocide of the Tamils led by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces has depleted the country’s numbers tremendously. In these numbers are children whose futures are being affected. Child lives are taken as both executioner and victim. They are taken as child soldiers to be taught a horrific world of violence. Children are being robbed of their unalienable rights in this gruesome battle. Childhoods are being sacrificed and physical/ mental well-beings are undermined to achieve the Sinhalese ideal nation.

Sri Lanka’s history suffers from a long-sustained animosity between two main ethnic groups, the Sinhalese and the Tamils. This antagonism between the two dates back to British colonial times where Sri Lanka was the former Ceylon. Prior to the country’s independence in 1948, the ethnic groups did not always carry their hostile rivalry. Tamils and Sinhalese joined forces in order to achieve their freedom from the British; this alliance clearly did not withstand to the present day. Being that Sri Lanka was experiencing colonialism, it had little practice with self-rule. After the country’s newfound independence, the fundamental issue was which group would come to power in the new democracy. Who knew that the British colonial legacy left in Sri Lanka would have paved the way for such volatile relationship between the Tamils and the Sinhalese?

The vehement debate between Tamils and the Sinhalese over which group should have power in the Sri Lankan government has in the end favored the Sinhalese people to accept official positions. Tamils argue that their indigenous heritage dates back farther than their adversary. Tamils originated from India and immigrated to Sri Lanka between the 3^rdth century A.D. The Sinhalese, an Indo-Aryan race, settled in Sri Lanka following the Tamils in the 5^th century B.C. Therefore the Tamils have claimed the lands before its rival. On the other hand, though Tamils have clearly settled before the Sinhalese, the Sinhalese hold majority of Sri Lanka’s population. The Sinhalese people have a whopping 74 percent of the population where Tamils occupy 18 percent of Sri Lanka. Religious and linguistic differences fuel the aggression between the two. The Sinhalese speak Sinhala, an Indo-Aryan language, and are mainly Buddhist where the Tamils speak a Dravidian language and are Hindu. This religious difference has played a major part for the Sinhalese claim that Sri Lanka is a Sinhala-Buddhist country. century B.C. and the 13

In order to achieve the Sinhalese belief of an ideal nation (Sinhala-Buddhist) the Sinhalese government has taken the path of a very Hitler-esque process. It started with driving the Tamils out of the country. About 1.3 million have left, however another 2 million remain under the hands of an oppressive government. Next involves making them internal refugees or IDPS (Internally Displaced Persons). An approximate 700,000 are living as refugees where 500,000 are in refugee camps or hiding in northern Sri Lanka and the other 200,000 seek refuge southern India. Thirdly, make the Tamils “vanish”. Sri Lanka takes lead in “involuntary disappearances” of the world. Finally, the final approach was to annihilate them. Killing them was not only done so with artilleries, but preventing survival activities (agriculture), destroying businesses, markets, or homes, and deny medicine to Tamils.

http://genocidesrilanka.blogspot.com/

Clearly this long going tension between the two main ethnic groups has brought the Sri Lankans a civil war. The two leading participants in this bloody crusade include the Sri Lankan Armed Forces (SLA) supported by the Sinhalese government and the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam). Of the combatants which include SLA and LTTE along with other Tamil guerilla groups including the Karuna, approximately 60,000 lives have been lost on each side. On a civilian level, the Tamils have without a doubt experienced much more genocidal acts and higher rates of casualties. Tamil Hindus are not only those that are being killed, but among the Tamils also include minorities of Muslims and Christians. Both Tamils and Sinhalese government are faulted with war crimes in UN reports.

http://www.life.com/image/85890853

                Sadly, children appear in both of the statistics above. Children are not only dying as civilians, but also as child soldiers. The young combatants are being recruited by the thousands to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. To obtain the children they use intimidation and threats; when this fails they simply abduct the children at night or when the child is walking in public. Children are forced to go through a rigorous military training to be skilled in dangerous units such as landmines, bombs, or heavy weapons. They are left to handle these explosive devices on their own. In one case, a girl mishandled a landmine where it exploded, and she lost a finger. If a child’s landmine did not go off, the punishment was to sleep on that landmine. These are children as young as nine years old or perhaps even younger. The commanders disregard ages and assign both younger and older children to the same unit. These younger children ( around 11 years old) are physically incapable of doing their task that the older trainees are able to doing. Unlike many other cases of child participants, the Tamil Tigers recruit both boys and girls to fight. Discipline in the LTTE is often ruthlessly brutal which involves harsh beatings or pouring boiling water on children. If a child attempts to escape, then the commanders beat the child in front of their unit to express the consequences of trying to flee. Other Tamil guerilla groups  also use child soldiers as a tactic include the Karuna, a group that separated itself from the LTTE in 2004, and the Vanni LTTE forces. The Karuna were defeated by the Vanni where about 2,000 children were momentarily released until the Vanni began a campaign to re-recruit the soldiers, including kids, into their own forces. There is also an emotional dimension to the use of child soldiers. The participants experience a forced detachment from their families. They are forbidden from speaking with their families and experience a forced detachment. Lack of family-like figures definitely takes a toll on the children especially in their growing years.

                The UN, specifically United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), has noted Sri Lanka’s recruitment of child soldiers a priority among its many other international problems. UNICEF is devoted to child protection and is working with the Sri Lankan government to organize child rehabilitation programs. UNICEF’s Action Plan is to broadcast the evils of child soldiers and emphasize child rights in order to advocate against child recruitment. UNICEF has been advertising to families in Sri Lanka with leaflets to report acts of abduction for use of child soldiers. There as been little involvement from the UN in a general sense of the war. Inquiries have been made because of war crimes committed during battle (including child soldiers). Logically, because the Sinhalese in the end won, there is not much the UN could do because they hold a huge majority of Sri Lanka.

                Conclusively, the Sri Lankan genocide is an ethnic conflict that has persevered for two thousand years until finally genocide occurred. Differences in culture, language, and religion have fueled the antipathy felt between the two groups. In this war, children are especially being affected. “War violates every right of the child—the right to life, the right to grow up in a family environment, the right to health, the right to survival and full development and the right to be nurtured and protected, among others.” –Graca Machel (Headed the study in 1996 of UN Study on the impact of armed conflict on children). Overall, civilians play only one role in this gory war, the victim. The child soldiers play both victim and assassin, meaning their lives are affected with each role’s consequences.

http://www.hrw.org/en/node/11900/section/7

http://www.hrw.org/en/node/11900/section/13

http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20080522_03

http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/40921

http://www.postcolonialweb.org/southasia/srilanka/history/palamkunnel1.html

http://www.enotes.com/genocide-encyclopedia/sri-lanka

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/sri_lanka_48286.html

The two pictures above are pictures that are a part of the campaign launched by UNICEF along with the Sri Lanka’s government emphasizing the immorality of child soldiers. The purpose of these pictures is to prevent further child recruitment and promote release of the young soldiers. This campaign is titled ‘Bring Back the Child’ what I say is a strong and proper name for the cause. These photos used in the national campaign symbolize the children before they were forced into a world of violence. The pictures represent the children as both civilian doing activities such as dancing or cricket (above) and as soldiers. Children are leaving their safe, buoyant lives to enter a grim war without family and security. I chose these pictures because they really display the dramatic change going through child soldiers’ lives. It is an artistic way to address the issue in recruitment of young combatants. This media campaign involves broadcasting through radio, television, billboards, posters, and more. Not only is this campaign highlighting the wrongs of this international humanitarian violation, but also advertises the rehabilitation services for released children. This reintegration program provides counseling, schooling, and tries to bring the child back to their family. I felt that it is necessary to not only cast attention on the genocide’s darkness, but to also show there is hope with the help of UNICEF.

http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20080522_03

http://www.essex.ac.uk/armedcon/story_id/000410.html

These two pictures are of child soldiers participating in the Sri Lankan conflict. Child soldiers are major war crimes. Though one is quick to say that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam are those that continue to transgress this international law, Sri Lanka’s government is also to blame. The Sri Lankan government dominated by the Sinhalese people enjoys seeing their adversaries falling under accusations of child soldiers. Often the government soldiers are recruiting these children for the Tamil guerilla groups specifically the Karuna. These young rebels are for the most part forcibly being recruited, but the LTTE defend this act by saying these child additions are voluntary. And yes, some of these children are voluntarily fighting under awful circumstances like no family/home. However, the use of child combatants, voluntary or not, is still an international humanitarian violation. Children are abducted as young as nine years old. In this particular picture (directly above), I estimate that the boys are no older than 16 years old. It is obvious that the children in these pictures have fallen to the threatening hands of rebels and even the government. What I personally take away from the picture directly above are three boys who have no choice but to kill or be killed.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1184614595?bctid=57460280001

A controversial video was broadcasted in August of 2009 by Channel 4 News. This gruesome video displays the tragedies that occurred during Sri Lanka’s conflict. Though the Sri Lankan government, governed by the Sinhalese, continues to defend this video as fake, official UN experts say that this video is authentic and has not been altered. This video shows the Sri Lanka Armed Forces (SLA) casually executing Tamils in a degrading and humiliating way. The Tamil men met their death while naked, blindfolded, and tied up. The way these Tamil men were being killed by the SLA demonstrates the strong animosity between the two groups. If the claims that this video has not been fabricated are true, then this video screams for an international investigation of war crimes. Reasoning for the government to conceal the truth of this video is to maintain a reputation and resist the imminent war crime investigation. Personally, I believe that this video was not fabricated and that the government is trying to convey respectable war behavior by arguing that the video is false. The Sinhalese dominated government are trying to mask their extensive list of war crime accusations. Overall, this shocking video expresses the harsh brutality seen in much of the Sri Lankan conflict.