The Silent War

(Source: Al Jazeera News)
Since 1983, Sri Lanka has been consumed by an ongoing Civil War. The war is being fought between the Tamil separatists to the Northeast and the Sinhalese Sri Lankan government. The fighting has been on and off much much of the 2 decades. Perhaps the 'routine' nature of the prolonged war explain away its lack of coverage in the media, but once again, things have flared up and the crisis deserves attention.

BBC World reports that in a mere 11-hours of fighting on Wednesday, hundreds were left dead with hundreds more missing and wounded. Both sides reported conflicting stories of success as journalists are denied access to the conflict torn Northwest region and unable to verify either account:

The military said 43 soldiers died and 33 were still missing, but insisted the offensive was a success.

More than 100 rebels were also killed in fighting which ended after 11 hours on Wednesday, the military said.

The rebels put their losses at 16. They said they had killed more than 100 soldiers and wounded about 500.

Al Jazeera News reports that hospitals in and around Colombo (the capital) have been filled with wounded soldiers.

As the Tamils maintain a firm hold on the Northwest region of the country and the Sinhalese government shows no signs of devolving any degree of autonomy to the Tamil rebels, it is unlikely that the violence will end any time soon. It will likely continue in its current state: heated violent clashes on the front-line followed by retreats and temporary silence. Both sides displayed signs of national unity following the December 26, 2004 tsunami that devastated much of the coastal land in the Southeast-Asian oceanic region. However, as the urgency of tending to the destruction left behind by the tsunami faded, so too did signs of reconciliation and peace.