The weapons of the Sri Lankan Civil War.

[MT2008]

Originally Posted by Ace Oliveira

Not Only that, but the Civil War started back In 1983 and the both the Sri Lanka Army (Composed almost entirely of Sinhalese) and the Tamil Tigers (Composed of Tamils) commited some small scale Genocide by commiting Massacres all over the country. The SLA raping and killing Tamil Civilians and the Tamil Tigers doing the same against Sinhalese only with some Car Bombs and suicide bombers in Civilian Locations. There was some trophy taking commited by both sides too Ala World War 2 and Vietnam too.

In conflicts like the Sri Lankan Civil War, atrocities on both sides tend to be the norm. That's how it often is in Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, etc. - no obvious good or bad guys, no matter what ideology or cause they claim to be fighting for (as far as I know, both the Sri Lankan govt. and LTTE claim to be "socialists" even though what they are in practice is ethnic nationalist/tribalist).

That being said, I'm just a tad bit more sympathetic to the SLA in this conflict, mostly because Prabhakaran has always struck me as one of those "Dear Leader" types. By most accounts, his rule in Tamil Eelam (while it lasted) was a lot like that of the Kims in North Korea - a cult of personality, press-ganging into military service, and starvation of Tamils who disagreed with the LTTE's agenda, among other things. I hear the LTTE even had something called a "life tax" - literally, they taxed Tamils for the right to be alive!