CARTOON HISTORY
BREAKING WAVES
The Sri Lankan war of 2009 marked the termination of a long and
bitter fight for autonomy for the island’s Tamil community. Benjamin Dix
and Lindsay Pollock tell the story of Vanni, the Tamil region on the island’s north.The Ramachandrans are an ordinary family. In 2001,
they live in a coastal village called Chempiyanpattu.
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and Michael are helpful, cheerful and attentive.
Community is strong in Vanni – a stronghold of the
LT TE or ‘Tamil Tigers’.
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the island achieved independence in 1948, the
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and a community they had deliberately divided on
ethnic lines, laying the foundations for Tamil and
Sinhala nationalism.
Over coming decades minority communities (notably
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by Sinhalese administrations. In 1956, The Sinhala
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From the early 1960s Sinhalese police and military
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established in the north and east to defend
Tamils from state-sponsored violence. Headed
by the charismatic military strategist Vellupillai
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- renamed in 1976 as the Liberation Tigers of
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groups and gained control over the north-
eastern Tamils.
Government forces and the LT TE clashed
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The bloodletting triggered a huge emigration
of Tamils from the island, creating a vast
diaspora across multiple countries, principally
India, Australia, Canada and the UK.
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became one of the most ruthless, violent and militarily successful rebel groups of modern times,
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