A clash of intense ethnic devastates Sri Lanka for centuries

A clash of intense ethnic devastates Sri Lanka for centuries, but the civil war that devastated the island from 1983 to 2009, where they clashed the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), has its origins in the nineteenth century. During the British colonization of Sri Lanka, Tamil 500,000 (originally from southern India) are deported to the island to cultivate the British plantations, but they are not welcomed by the local population and, at the end of the colonial period, they remain deprived of many rights. In 1976 thus saw the armed movement of the Tamil Tigers, which claims independence in the north-east of the island. In 1983, civil war broke out. An attempt at a peaceful resolution of the conflict is promoted in 2002 by the Norwegian mediation. This "cease-fire", however, is compromised in 2005, with the election of President Mahinda Rajapaksa nationalist, and in 2008, with the unilateral recession of the Sri Lankan government to a political resolution to the conflict. The resumption of civil war is violent and ended in 2009 with the conquest of government throughout the north-west and the defeat of the Tamil Tigers.

The mass graves and violence. Both the national army, the armed forces as the Tamil Tigers are responsible for extreme violence on the civilian population. In '98 is discovered a mass grave containing some 400 bodies of Tamil and between '96 and '97 have been lost in the news at least another 600 arrested by the Sri Lankan security forces. The displaced population from combat zones and crammed in the No Fire Zone (approximately 350,000) has not escaped the violent government bombings that killed at least 20,000 civilian deaths. After the war, the survivors - nearly 300,000 - were locked up in mass in military camps, prompting protests from the international community. The Tamil Tigers, for their part, as well as perform numerous suicide bombings, including against civilians, led a massive policy of recruitment of child soldiers. According to UNICEF, over two years would be 3,516 children abducted and forced to fight, and only 1,206 were issued.

Atrocities of war. Since the end of the war, the Sri Lankan government has imprisoned without charges over 250,000 ethnic Tamils ​​fleeing the conflict. About 300,000 civilians injured and malnourished, caught in the middle of fighting, without food and water, were held in internment camps run by the government in the northern province, deprived of medical care, clean water and sanitation. Humanitarian agencies face serious restrictions on access to the camps whose conditions do not meet international standards in many cases. The International Committee of the Red Cross by the end of July 2009 was not able to visit the main fields located in the North and has not been able to visit people held in detention facilities because it accused of links with the Tamil Tigers.

20% of children are abused. According to studies conducted on more than 1,600 children from a pediatrician prof. Harendra De Silva, former President of the National Child Protection Authority in Sri Lanka 20% of males and 10% of females under the age of five has been sexually abused. 25% of males of poor class has been sexually abused compared to 15% of the children of the middle classes. The poor girls the incidence is 7% compared to 3.2% (more than double) of girls in social class averages. Thanks to an anonymous questionnaire given to 899 students of higher school and university level has shown that 18% of boys and 4.5% of girls admitted to having been abused during childhood.

Child soldiers. The use of child soldiers in Sri Lanka is a horror recognized internationally. The main recruiters of children were the rebels of the LTTE (Tamil Tigers), and in particular by the Karuna (a breakaway faction of the LTTE). From 2003 to 2009, thousands of children were abducted by the rebel group, the Tamil Tigers, who used them for the illegal drug trade, for stirring up racial hatred with shipments of ethnic cleansing and acts of torture. According to UNICEF, 2003-2008, the number of child soldiers forced to fight by the Tamil Tigers amounts to about 6,000. Of these, approximately 60% is represented by males whose average age is 16 years. In October 2008, again Unicef ​​has reported 1,424 outstanding cases of child recruitment by the LTTE and 133 by the TMVP (Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal - former Karuna Group) Currently, the former child soldiers of the LTTE are held in rehabilitation camps with better conditions to which access is allowed to adjust UNICEF and other organizations.

The project @ uxilia. And 'reserved for mothers of child soldiers on the island. A three-year project to support microimpreditoria with microcredit for women in Sri Lanka, mothers of former child soldiers, is the new initiative of @ uxilia. That comes into contact with the local in December 2004, following the tsunami disaster that results in the death of 31 thousand people and thousands missing. In recent years, @ uxilia has started a project sponsorships for the mother-infant pairs and has built 4 schools; care also projects of education, training and teaching. Currently, at the Vocational Training Center @ uxilia the region of Batticaloa, eastern Sri Lanka, one of the areas most affected by the war between the Tamil and Sinhalese women learn income-generating activities thanks to @ uxilia courses run by the organization. The war has been a surge in the issue of gender empowerment. Tamil women have attained the need for decision-making roles both inside and outside of the family is crucial now and then the creation of a training and start-up company of women.

The Objectives of the Millennium svilippo @ uxilia work in Sri Lanka in an effort to achieve the Millennium Development Goals: the promotion of gender equality and women's autonomy, by 2015. "Today, yet two thirds of illiterate people in the world are women - says Massimiliano Fanni Canelles, President @ uxilia Fund - But where the women have been given the opportunity to get an education and to work in small businesses, families are stronger, so did the country's economy. Objectives the Millennium Development Goals, to be achieved by 2015, are therefore the improvement of the conditions of poverty and hunger, improving literacy in a global sense, and above all the opportunities offered to women and their autonomy. "