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...h America (Canada, particularly). Also, over 7000,000 Tamil-speaking Sri Lankans are now living abroad and also fund the tigers. . The Sri Lankan ethnic strife began because the majority Sinhalese felt that their interests were being sacrificed in an independent country by not adopting "Sinhala only" as an official national language in place of English. Though the national (Sinhala) leadership was aware of the impending inherent dangers in adopting Sinhala only as an official language, yet they gave into the demand of the majority because it was considered a political exigency in the face of the language movement with religious overtones. The immediate reaction of the main minority--Tamil--was non-violent. Maybe they felt helplessness in the existing democratic polity. As the situation got worse, the frustrated youth came to believe that they could not achieve any tangible solution to the problem without adopting violent means to achieve their cherished goal of independence. Presently the conflict is not only of language but also religio-ethno-nationalism. There are so many divided religions and ethnicities on one small island that many are constantly in disagreement with one another over the rights of land, certain privileges, etc . The Tamil speaking people feel that they have a right to their traditional homelands which consist of the Northern Province, and the Eastern Province. The Sinhalese of course disagree with this saying that they have rights to some of those lands as well. So, no only is there governmental conflict, but territorial conflict as well. ...