Short History Of Sri Lanka and Culture
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A long-awaited deal between Sri Lanka's government and the rebel Tamil Tigers (LTTE) was concluded in early 2002. However, fighting became much more serious in 2006. Much of the country became no-go areas for tourists. The most serious fighting was in the northeast part of the country where the Tamil people were in majority. There were isolated attacks, however, throughout the rest of the country, notably in Colombo with a suicide bomb and in Yala National Park.
In 2009, the government, which had escalated their offensive, announced that the leader of the LTTE, Velupillai Prabhakran, had been killed during a gun battle. It ended 26 years of fighting with the LTTE – time will tell whether the LTTE has finally stopped fighting. Immediately after the war was declared over by the government, it set up camps for 250,000 displaced Tamils. However, these camps were condemned by some human rights organisations because it is alleged they were used to find rebels, and then execute them.
In January 2010, Mahinda Rajapaksa won a landslide election against former army chief General Sarath Foneska who led the final attack on the LTTE.
In August 2010, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office removed the final travel restrictions across all of the country. It has effectively allowed tourists (who previously wouldn’t have been able to get insured) to tour the entire country for the first time since the 1990s. In 2009, the Sri Lankan stock market was one of the best performing in the world.
Religion:
Buddhist majority (70%), with Hindu, Christian and Muslim minorities.
