ABSTRACT
From the late 1970s until 2009, no issue dominated the debate in Sri Lankan society as much as the conflict between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the government. The government began an offensive in 2008 that gradually reduced the territory held by the LTTE until the government trapped the last remnants of the LTTE and about 250,000 civilians on a small strip of seaside land in Mullivaikal, Mullaitivu. The breakaway faction, led by Colonel Karuna, began a program of attacking unarmed LTTE political operatives working in government-held areas and kidnapping Tamils in the east and elsewhere. Communications between the Sinhalese and Tamil leadership was poor before the war and continues to be nearly nonexistent. Since the end of the war, there has been movement of Sinhalese into the Northern Province and statements from the president and other United Front leaders that no area of the country belongs to one ethnic group.
