Sri Lankan ethnic Tamils carry placards and national flag during a demonstration by the Western Province Tamil Civil Society Federation near the United Nations office in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in March 2014. Media reports state that the protest was against a proposed international probe into alleged war crimes committed during final phase of the war against Tamil rebels nearly five years prior.
Sri Lanka has a long history of violence towards its Tamil and Muslim populations. Following the independence in 1948, a foundational Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism took shape and continues to permeate through society in the economic, social, and political threads of daily life.