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2 Background and origins 3 India's Vietnam 4 The 1990s 5 Tentative peace 6 See also 7 External links 8 Additional references |
Since independence (from the British Empire in 1948), struggles between majority Sinhala-speaking Buddhists and minority Tamilss (mostly Hindu) have been a regular feature of Sri Lanka's political life. Since 1983 there has been on-and-off civil war, mostly between the government and the LTTE -- the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Tens of thousands have died in the war, which has included terrorist tactics by the LTTE, village-scale slaughters on both sides, government disappearances, etc. Hundreds of thousands of refugees are displaced internally or have fled to Tamil Nadu and around the world. The largest concentration of Lankan Tamils outside the country is in Toronto.
Concerns about minority representation were expressed and given some attention during the independence struggle, but nothing was incorporated into the new governmental structure. Official and unofficial governmental preference for Sinhalese became a sore spot with Tamils as they lost employment and educational opportunities.
Sinhalese argue that Tamils received preferential treatment under British rule. By the time of independence, there were more British built schools in Tamil dominated Jaffna than in the rest of the island. There also was a disproportionate number of Tamils in the civil service, medicine and law. Tamils claim that measures taken by the Sinhalese-majority governments discriminated against them.
In the decades after independence, Tamils supported a more federal system through the Federal Party. The concept of a separate nation, Tamil Eelam, was proposed by the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) in 1976. TULF was a coalition of Tamil parties who went on to campaign in the 1977 elections for an independent state for Tamils in Sri Lanka. They won and went to Parliament to represent the northern and eastern provinces. The government of Sri Lanka banned the TULF from parliament for advocating an independent state for Tamils. Talk and nonviolent actions continued, but youth started to form militant groups, some funded by bank robberies, and military presence in the north also grew.
A deadly attack on police in the north sparked riots in Colombo and elsewhere in 1983. Thousands of Tamils died in the violence, and many more fled Sinhalese-majority areas. This is usually taken as the beginning of the ethnic conflict. Attacks and counterattacks became common, and support on both sides for violence grew.
Initially there was a plethora of different resistance groups. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's position, attempting to learn from Palestine, was that there should be only one. Over time the LTTE, often bloodily, merged with or eliminated almost all the other groups.
India's involvement has been motivated by a mix of issues -- its leaders' desire to project India as the regional power in the area, worries about India's own Tamils seeking independence, and a genuine concern for the Sri Lankan Tamils' plight. Uncoordinated in the 1980s, the central and state governments (and even different agencies within them!) supported both sides in different ways.
In the late 1980s the Indian government negotiated an agreement with the government of Sri Lanka on the Tamils' behalf (without consulting the armed resistance). India promised military support if needed, and Sri Lanka agreed to concessions, including Constitutional changes to grant more local power (13th Amendment). India got agreement from all of the Tamil resistance groups including, grudgingly, the all-important LTTE.
The Sri Lankan government was facing a mostly unrelated uprising by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna in the south and called in the Indian military immediately after the agreement was signed. The Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) was formed, and initially oversaw a cease fire and modest disarmament of the militant groups. The Sri Lankan government pulled its troops south and put down the JVP rebellion, but dragged its feet on reforms. The LTTE's trust in both governments dissolved and the IPKF ended up fighting the LTTE. Nationalist sentiment among the Sinhalese led to the government's call for India to quit the island, and eventually even supply the LTTE!
Rajiv Gandhi, India's Prime Minister during their involvement, was assassinated on May 21, 1991, most presume by an LTTE operative. Indian support for the LTTE dropped to near zero, and even in Tamil Nadu (home to 60 million Tamils) feelings are still mixed. India has been firmly against the LTTE ever since, although they do speak up for Tamils' rights.
In the 1980s and 1990s, successive governments officially revoked some of its discriminatory policies, recognizing Tamil as an official language and introducing a district based quota system for university admissions with Tamil majority districts having the lowest cut-off points. Sinhalese and Muslims today claim they are reverse discriminated. Most Tamils have seen this as too little too late.
The LTTE took significant parts of the north as the IPKF withdrew, and established many government-like functions in the areas under its control. After failed peace talks with a new government in 1994, the government pursued a "war for peace" line, and retook Jaffna (the largest city in the north). All attempts by the government to take control of the land route from the south to Jaffna failing, as have LTTE attempts to re-take Jaffna.
The Sri Lankan government, with some success, pressed other governments around the world to outlaw the LTTE, interfering with their fund-rasinig activities.
A significant peace movement also developed in the 1990s, with peace camps, conferences and meditations, and many kinds of training, research, and outreach to bridge the two sides at all levels.
The LTTE became willing to explore measures that would safeguard Tamils' rights and autonomy as part of Sri Lanka, announcing a unilateral ceasefire just before Christmas 2000. In 2001 an LTTE assault destroying half of the air force's planes dampened the economy, and government hopes for a military solution. In elections a new government came to power, and reciprocated another unilateral LTTE ceasefire offer. The two sides formalized it in a Memorandum of Understanding signed in February 2002. Norway is mediating, and many other countries are offering substantial financial support if peace is achieved.
Some Sinhalese and Muslims refuse any concessions unless the LTTE disarms and becomes a democratic political entity.
History of Sri Lanka
Overview
Background and origins
India's Vietnam
The 1990s
Tentative peace
See also
External links
Additional references