The two major contemporary political parties to advocate for Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism are The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna ( JVP ) and the Jathika Hela Urumaya ( JHU ) or " National Heritage Party " , the latter of which is composed solely of Buddhist monks . According to A. R. M. Imtiyaz , these groups share common goals : " to uphold Buddhism and establish a link between the state and religion , and to advocate a violent solution to the Tamil question and oppose all form of devolution to the minorities , particularly the Tamils " . The JHU , in shunning non-violent solutions to the ethnic conflict , urged young Sinhalese Buddhists to sign up for the army , with as many as 30,000 Sinhalese young men doing just that . One JHU leader even declared that NGOs and certain government servants were traitors and they should be set on fire and burnt due to their opposition to a military solution to the civil war . The international community encouraged a federal structure for Sri Lanka as a peaceful solution to the civil war but any form of Tamil self-determination , even the more limited measure of autonomy , was strongly opposed by hard-line Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist groups such as the JVP and JHU , who pushed for the military solution . These groups in their hard-line support for a military solution to the conflict , without any regard for the plight of innocent Tamil civilians , have opposed negotiated settlement , ceasefire agreement , demanded that the Norwegians be removed as peace facilitators , demanded the war to be prosecuted more forcefully and exerted influence in the Rajapaksa government ( which they helped to elect ) , resulting in the brutal military defeat of the LTTE with heavy civilian casualties . The nationalist monks ' support of the government 's military offense against the LTTE gave " religious legitimacy to the state 's claim of protecting the island for the Sinhalese Buddhist majority . " President Rajapaksa , in his war against the LTTE , has been compared to the Buddhist king Dutthagamani by the Sinhalese Buddhist nationalists
heavy civilian casualties
Alleged war crimes during the final stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War
Buddhism and violence