"Why should we be scared of the LTTE?" said Kandiah, a resident of the village, who lost his son in the war. "Here, the army will protect us and we do not have to take orders from the LTTE. The army officers do not give us orders, they make requests

UPeace Asia Leaders Fellow Aingkaran analyzes the conflict in Sri Lanka within the framework of the relationship between political power and modern ethnic identities.

This paper is about three local peacebuilding initiatives in Sri Lanka, each focused on the personal or community level, where many Tamil and Sinhalese people share bonds of friendship and family, as well as a common love for good tea, good food, and good drama. Amarathunga uses these case studies