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HISTORY OF TAMIL STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM IN SRI LANKA
A PHOTO ALBUM

"The history of Sri Lanka is the history of the Sinhalese race."
- D.C. Vijaywardhana - an influential Sinhala leader (1953)

Majority of Sinhala people believe that the entire island of Sri Lanka belongs to the Sinhala-Buddhists, and that all others (including Tamils and Non-Buddhists - Hindus, Moslems and Christians, ) are "Undesirable Foreigners."
In order to establish an ethnically pure,  "All Sinhala-Buddhist-Island-State",
programs have been implemented to drive out the so called "undesirable foreigners."

From 1950 onwards, the government of Sri Lanka instituted a so called "colonization scheme" to settle Sinhalese in Tamil homelands. The Tamils were (and still are being) forcibly driven out of their villages (Tamil homes flattened with bulldozers) to make way for the Sinhala settlers.
The Sinhala settlers are also armed by the government and the Buddhist clergy takes an active role in expanding these colonization schemes.

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Sinhala colonists and a Buddhist priest with guns
This Buddhist Priest, who calls Sri Lanka 'The Sinhala Dheepa' (The Sinhala Island), has publicly exhorted Sinhala people to terrorize Tamil people into fleeing the island.

"Witnesses also confirmed allegations made to us that whole (Tamil) villages have been emptied and neighborhoods have been driven by the army from their homes and occupations... We can say, without doubt, that the Government is driving Tamils from their homes and does intend to settle Sinhalese people in these areas..."
- Robert Kilroy-Silk MP and Roger Sims MP
UK Parliamentary Human Rights Group Report (1985)