Can the GoSL defeat the LTTE?
Wickramanayaka further said that there was no ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. He failed to acknowledge the Tamils’ grievances. Tamils have felt alienated by the State since 1956, eight years after Sri Lanka gained independence from Britain. If there is no ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka, how would Wickramanayaka describe the systematic violence, murder, rape, and looting against Tamils in 1956, 1958, 1977, 1979, 1981 and 1983. This targeting a particular community would fall within the globally acknowledged definition of systematic ethnic cleansing. The Tamils became a strong national identity until the State-sponsored holocausts in 1956. In 1983, nearly half a million Tamils were escorted from the Sinhala south to Jaffna by Indian ships because they were born to Tamil families, even though they had lived in the Sinhala south for centuries. India provided the escort after Tamil Nadu told New Delhi that Tamils in the south would be wiped out if they were not escorted back to their villages i
