The dramatic history of violence in Sri Lanka, new target of Islamic terrorism

Three Catholic churches and three luxury hotels they were the target of a series of suicide bombings Simultaneously last Sunday in Sri Lanka. The goal of the terrorists was clear: to strike the Christian minority and the Western countries.

The rest of the attacks were 253 dead including 39 foreigners and more than 500 wounded. The authorities claim that nine badailants blew themselves up and accused National Thowheeth Jama & # 39; ath (NTJ), an Islamist group until then very discreet, whose sole precedent was vandalism.

At first nobody had attributed paternity. But QAMA, the Islamic State 's propaganda agency, released Tuesday a video on the attack. "The perpetrators of the attack targeting citizens of coalition governments (from countries that fought jihadists in Syria) and against Christians in Sri Lanka were fighters of the Islamic State, "the press said.

In the pictures you could see Zahran Hashim, leader of NTJ, pledges allegiance to Abu Bakr al Bagdadi, head of the Islamic State. Although doubts remain about the level of involvement of this organization, there is every indication that the attackers were receiving logistical support from abroad. Yes, we know for sure that many of the immolates came from wealthy familiesThey had a university education and only one had been trained in the United Kingdom and Australia.

The moment when one of the suicide bombers made his entrance into the San Sebastián temple, one of the places where new victims were recorded during the mbadacre

Although events of this magnitude have not been recorded in recent years, terrorist attacks are not new in Sri Lanka. Neither suicide bombings with explosives. Decades ago, long before the Islamic State and al-Qaeda, they were common.

This island of 21 million inhabitants, located in the Bay of Bengal, a few kilometers from the south-east coast of India, he lived between 1983 and 2009 a bloody civil war. The origin was not specifically religious, but ethnic.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE under the English acronym or simply the Tamil Tigers), were an armed organization that sought to create a state for the Tamil minority, which represents about 12% of the population. Terrorism was one of their favorite tactics and their targets were both representatives of the state and the Sinhalese community, the majority ethnic group (73% of the population).

After many years in which they managed to keep control of a significant part of the territory to the north and east of the country, they were militarily beaten in 2009. Between 70,000 and 100,000 people have died in 26 years of fightingwho were plagued by human rights violations by both sides.

"The main factor of the war was the systematic discrimination perceived by the Tamil community. They felt that they were separated in all areas of life, from employment to higher education. Some of these issues continue to exist and efforts for reconciliation have been limited, "he said. Infobae Sumit Ganguly, professor of political science at the University of Indiana.

Although the current crisis does not seem to be directly related to this story, both are the symptoms of a failing state, which fails to fuse the various components of Sri Lankan society, imposing a common order that everyone can accept.

"Discrimination continues in different ways despite the fact that the war ended ten years ago. Sinhala Buddhist nationalism, which underestimated the problem, is even more powerful today.. Tamil resentment is also at its height, because of the controversy with which the conflict has ended and the fact that the government is not seeking pacification or accountability. The recent bombings against Islamist terrorists will only divert the center from reconciliation with the Tamils, "said Neil DeVotta, professor at the Department of Politics and International Affairs at Wake Forest University, during a meeting with dialogue with Infobae.

Until the sixteenth century, the Sri Lankan people were divided into different kingdoms that divided control of the territory, but things started to change with European colonization. The first to arrive are the Portuguesewho were there more than 100 years, until the middle of the seventeenth century, they were displaced by the Dutch.

The most radical transformation began in 1815 with the incorporation of the island into the British Empire, which renamed it Ceylon. As they did in Rwanda with Hutus and Tutsis and in so many other colonies, they applied the politics of division and conquest.which meant relying on a minority ethnic group to dominate the majority.

The beneficiaries were Tamils, who began to occupy important positions in public administration and in the economy. Sinhalese have been relegated and hatred has accumulated over the decades.

"The struggle for dominance between these ethnic groups, both rooted in India, began about two centuries ago.One of the historical accounts of this period, used by the Tamils ​​and discussed by the Sinhalese, is the "Cleghorn Minute." Hugh Cleghorn, the first British colonial secretary of Ceylon, wrote this in a letter: & # 39; Two different nations, from a very ancient time, shared the possession of the islandSinhalese, who inhabit the interior in its southern and western parts, and jugglers (Tamils), owners of the northern and eastern districts. These two nations differ completely in their religion, their language and their manners, "he said. Infobae the Indian international badyst Anshuman Rawat.

In 1948, the British began the withdrawal. The island continued inside the Commonwealthbut it gained enormous autonomy, which allowed the Sinhalese to take political control. Their religion – Buddhism – their language and culture became dominant, and began discrimination against Tamils.

The trend worsened after 1972, with the definitive independence of the United Kingdom. The whole legal structure of Sri Lanka – the new official name of the country – considered Tamils ​​as second-clbad citizens, with limited access to the public service and universities and with obvious under-representation in the political system.

The lack of institutional channels to badert their claims has fostered the proliferation of irregular groups that have used violence to achieve their goals. In 1976, barely 18 years old, Velupillai Prabhakara founded the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Tamil Eelam was the independent state that this separatist group was seeking to create in northern and eastern Sri Lanka, where almost all Tamils ​​lived.

The tension increased in the following years. In 1981, in response to increasing pressure from the Tamil Tigers and other organizations, a group of Sinhalese led a violent harbadment campaign against the Tamils, which ended in the fire of the Tamil Library in the city of Jaffna, symbol of the community.

In July 1983, incidents took place which were then included in what is known as the "black july". After the killing of 13 soldiers by Tamil rebels, Sinhala crowds with police support spent weeks going from house to house, beating Tamils ​​to death and pillaging their property.. It is estimated that thousands of people have died and many others have fled the country. It was the beginning of the Civil War.

The Tamil Tigers quickly became the dominant organization. Throughout the conflict, they developed an enviable operational capability, which included an important land force, but also a naval force and an air force. Although they participated in conventional armed clashes, they favored guerrilla warfare and terrorism. Suicide attacks have become almost common in Colombo and in other parts of the country.

Prabhakara ordered the execution of all kinds of reckless and shocking operations. May 1, 1993, President Ranasinghe Premadasa was killed by an LTTE activist who blew himself up with explosives. In 1997, they perpetrated one of the first cyberattacks in the world, paralyzing Sri Lankan embbady services around the world. During this period, they managed to occupy important parts of the north and east of the island, where they exercised their power with a proper judicial and fiscal system.

In 1999, the first attempts to find a negotiated solution to the war began, with Norway playing the role of mediator. There was a ceasefire, but it was not respected and the dialogues were frustrated. In late 2008, the Mahinda Rajapaksa government launched an unprecedented frontal offensive against the Tamil Tigers..

Between June and May 2009, the army imposed a series of defeats that resulted in almost all areas under their control. The ground and air attacks included serious human rights violations that could not be fully documented because the state denied access to the UN and to the organizations humanitarian.

On May 16, the official troops took the last bastion of the rebels and on the 19th they killed Prabhakaran.. Without territory and without its leader, the Tamil Tigers collapsed. It was the end of the civil war.

Increasing religious tensions

"It's a long history of conflicts between religion (Buddhism versus Hinduism), language (Sinhalese vs. Tamil) and rights (the Constitution states that Sinhalese and Buddhism are the official language and religion)," Rawat said. . In Sri Lanka, almost all the historical and emotional reasons continue to exist, especially because of the rather less than absolute implementation of the "Rehabilitation Program" by the government after the defeat of the Tamil Tigers ".

The vast majority of Sinhalese profess Buddhism, which is the main creed (70% of inhabitants). Most Tamils ​​are Hindu (12%), but a significant proportion are Christians (7%).

Muslims, who make up about 10 percent of the population, are considered a different ethnic group. They did not participate directly in the historical confrontation, but they suffered it.

"The Tamil Tigers attacked them because they did not support them in the areas they claimed. Many were killed even while praying in mosques. Others were hired as guards to protect the bordering areas of the LTTE-controlled areas. So we could say that the civil war has to some extent militarized the Muslim society, "said DeVotta.

After the end of the armed clashes, some extremist organizations appeared, such as National Thowheeth Jama & # 39; ath (NTJ), which aims to impose Sharia law in different parts of the country. At the same time, movements have emerged that seek to thwart this progress. An example is Bodu Bala Sena (BBS, Buddhist Power Brigade), which has led several attacks against Muslims.

"The Islamist radicalization that has taken place in recent years," DeVotta continued, "is linked to those who they returned from their work in the Middle East, especially from Saudi Arabia, and brought with them Wahhabi conservative practices. This trend has been compounded by attacks on the community by Sinhalese Buddhist extremists, who have exacerbated some Muslims in a direction close to ISIS. "

On June 12, 2014, three Muslims beat a Buddhist monk in Kalutara district, in the south-west of the country. A few days later, some fanatics threw stones at another monk who pbaded a mosque in the city of Dharga.

In response, Sinhala Buddhist collectives attacked Muslim homes in the coastal towns of Dharga, Aluthgama and Beruwala, according to Iromi Dharmawardhane, an badyst at the International Research Center on Political Violence and Terrorism (ICPVTR), in an article published in February 2015 in the magazine Trends and badysis of the fight against terrorism.

Four people professing the Islamic religion died and more than 60 were injured. Among them, journalists and police. In addition, 82 stores and 211 houses were totally or partially destroyed during the raid. This was the first step of an escalation of religious violence.

At the beginning of last year, a similar episode occurred after a Sinhala was killed by four Muslims after a traffic accident. Buddhist crowds desecrated mosques, and NTJ militants broke the Buddha statues with hammers. Two people died and 15 were injured.

This is the context of the brutal attacks last Sunday. The common denominator with the era of civil war is a society dominated by ethno-religious conflict and a powerless state.. In fact, in the past few hours, have been exposed the serious flaws of security and intelligence institutions, who had several warnings that an event of this nature could occur, but could not avoid it.

The country is also going through a deep political crisis since late 2018, which pitted President Maithripala Sirisena against parliament., creating a vacuum of power. Because of its history and this extremely vulnerable situation, Sri Lanka has become a prime target for an overall impact operation that would serve as a revenge for the March 15 attack on two mosques in the country. Christchurch, New Zealand, which killed 50 people. .

"If we stick to the reported cases of mentions in Christchurch in Islamic State-affiliated chat rooms and the fact that the Islamic State has officially claimed these attacks, it can be said with certainty that Easter Sunday was a good day to generate securities around the world. The most plausible explanation for the date and location of the attacks is that a local jihadist group, affiliated with the global jihadist network, has fully exploited a pending security apparatus. Due to the tension in relations between the President and the Prime Minister, we have dealt a blow to the whole day, "concluded Rawat.