• * Sri Lanka - Serendipity under Siege
  Patricia Hyndman, Secretary, Law Asia Human Rights Committee, Associate Professor of Law, University of New South Wales
  
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From the Frontpiece:

What is the root of the communal violence in Sri Lanka?

The country is riven by ethnic conflict between the majority Sinhalese, who are mainly Buddhist, and the minority Tamils, who are mainly Hindu. Since 1983 the situation has deteriorated alarmingly.

This important book, based on reports prepared for LawAsia � the Association of Lawyers for Asia and the Pacific � examines the violence which increasingly affects unarmed citizens. It also considers the serious erosions of democracy and the rule of law in a country where both were formerly prized. In an epilogue, the significance of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord, signed in response to the surge of violence in 1987, is considered.

Serendip is a former name for Sri Lanka. From it comes serendipity, the faculty of making happy chance finds.