I think Western governments had no interest in this war.

The root causes of the current religious and ethnic conflict emerged during the British rule, which lasted from 1796 to 1948 (until 1802, the island was part of British India, and after that was a separate British colony of Ceylon). It was under the British island has become one of the world's major suppliers of tea, in addition, there were established large plantations of coffee and rubber. The cultivation of these plants - a process rather laborious: the reluctance of local Sinhalese population to work on the plantations led the British to resort to massive importation of labor - the Tamils ​​from the southern Indian states. As a result, existed on the island of radical Tamil diaspora was artificially increased by several times. This Tamils ​​in the Sinhala Buddhist Unlike the island's population on the whole practiced Hinduism.

Most experts are inclined to believe that the basic income (up to $ 1 million per month) are formed from two sources: voluntary-compulsory contributions of the Tamil diaspora in India and in the West (the largest of them joined the World Association of Tamils, the World Movement of Tamils ​​and the Federation of Associations of Canadian Tamils )

The election in 1956 of the left - the opposition Freedom Party of Sri Lanka - SLFP (Sri Lanka Freedom Party - SLFP) led to reforms in the country, disturbing the delicate balance. Sinhala language was replaced by English as the only official language, limiting job opportunities for the Tamils ​​in public office. Although formally Buddhism was declared the state religion, his priority was certain: the government actively supports only the Sinhala Buddhist and cultural events (even the Constitution, which established freedom of religion, Buddhism gives preference as a religion, which occupies the "dominant position"). A significant part of the Tamil workers brought from India by the British labor contracts, generally deprived of the right to a nationality and to be repatriated to their homeland. The answer to this was the creation of the Tamil minority movements Tamil United Liberation Front - Ofoten (Tamil United Liberation Front - TULF) - a purely political organization, whose leaders were in favor of creating a single non-violent Tamil state, which they would like to include traditionally Tamil northern and eastern provinces of Sri Lanka and of southern India - Tamil Nadu (Tamil Nadu). In contrast Ofoten Sinhala radicals have also begun to unite and formed the National Liberation Front (FLN). Paradoxically, Sinhalese Tamils ​​perceived not as a national minority, but quite the contrary! After all, there are the Tamils ​​in the world, about 75 million people (India, Sri Lanka, Singapore and other countries) and the Sinhala - only about 14 million, and the outside of their home island lives less than 100 000. Outside observers do not take into account the existence of this kind national "complex", although it is extremely important to understand the logic of the conflict.