Background
Sri Lanka has experienced over twenty years of civil war. Since 1983, over 60,000 people have died and more than 750,000 have been displaced as a result of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's (LTTE's) fight against the Sri Lankan Government army forces to create a separate Tamil state in the North and East. A cease-fire agreement was signed between the parties in February 2002, and while this fragile cease-fire saw the beginnings of peace negotiations, the situation has now returned to armed conflict in the north and east.
