Long Shadow of War: Video Report

Heavy fighting between government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels has effectively nullified the 2002 cease-fire, leaving a nation with so much potential, and so much to lose, yet again on the brink of all-out war.

Ethnic tensions between Sri Lanka's Buddhist Sinhalese majority and Hindu Tamil minority have alternatively simmered and boiled since Sri Lanka's independence from Britain in 1948.

In 1976 the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), better known as the Tamil Tigers, was formed and began a campaign of violence, fighting for a separate homeland for theTamils.

Since that time nearly 60,000 people have died from the conflict, which finally seemed to reach a turning point in 2002 when a cease-fire was signed between the Tigers and the Sri Lankan government.

But escalating violence has all but scuttled the cease-fire and the long shadow of war seems to be cast over the nation yet again.

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VIDEO REPORT TRANSCRIPT

KEVIN SITES voice-over:
From the very beginning the Tamil Tigers have been a determined, and at times ruthless, rebel force.

Their use of suicide bombers and practice of wearing cyanide capsules around their necks, vowing to never be taken alive, has put them on the

It's a label they flatly deny. But they don't deny being willing to do whatever it takes to achieve their goals.

AGANALAGAN VELUPPILLAI, Tamil Tiger Fighter, on camera (through translator):
"We are prepared to follow any order we are given by our leadership."

KEVIN SITES voice-over:
They say it's the Tamil people who have been terrorized by the Sinhalese majority. And that's why they want a separate homeland, or at the very least, autonomy.

Since the 2002 cease-fire, they've had a taste of that in a northern stretch of territory where they've created their own police force and judicial system, as well as keeping their standing army.

Going into the region requires so many checkpoints, both Sri Lankan and Tiger, that it feels like you're entering another country.

But that delicate balance of power seems to have been lost again, as unchecked violence on both sides is reaching a fever pitch.

Sri Lankan Army soldiers

Corporal Wasana Pramakumara is with the Sri Lanka Army signal corps. On this day his unit is cleaning up around a Buddhist shrine. But in a few days, he says, they'll be sent to the Jaffna peninsula, a Tamil area and flashpoint for many of the conflicts in the past.

CPL WASANA PRAMAKUMARA, Sri Lankan Army, on camera (through translator):
"Normally, the Sri Lankan Army doesn't like to fight with them (the Tigers). So if they attack, we attack... Otherwise we don't want to attack; we help keep the peace in the country."

KEVIN SITES voice-over:
The scars of those past battles in Jaffna are everywhere — like this Christian church which got shelled during a government offensive to retake the region.

This man, Arthur, is the caretaker. He says during the ceasefire things were improving in jaffna, but now people are feeling insecure again.

The church, a symbol of violence past, could come to symbolize a kind of perpetual violence.

Other evidence of the past violence: the thousands of landmines still buried in the area — a problem that groups like the U.K.'s Halo Trust is trying to eradicate with patience and perserverence, even while the conflict threatens to boil over again.

STEPHEN PRITCHARD, Halo Trust, on camera:
"So far this year there have been two civilian accidents in the Jaffna Peninsula recorded according to government figures, and last year there were 17 according to government figures and four years ago there were 90. So we think yes, there has been some success in reducing the actual problem."

Demining Sri Lanka

KEVIN SITES voice-over:
That momentum could be stopped, though, Pritchard says, if donors feel the region is going to go — in his words — "pear shaped again."

And despite an embarrassment of man made and natural resources, Sri Lanka does indeed seem on it's way to going "pear shaped" again. It's a nation with an enormous amount to lose, including wildlife like the Asian elephant, beautiful rainforests and white sand beaches that could — if not hamstrung by civil war — help to turn Sri Lanka into both a regional economic powerhouse, as well as a first rate tourist destination.

But first it must pull itself back from the brink of this conflict, with both sides resolving, as they did in 2002, to achieving their ends through peaceful negotiations.

Reporting from the Hot Zone, I'm Kevin Sites in Sri Lanka.

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