Sri Lankan Civil War

SRI LANKAN CIVIL WAR
Index
 Introduction
 Civil war erupt
 India Intervene
 Second Eelam war
 Third Eelam war
 Long road to peace
 Bibliography
Introduction
In the late 20th century, the island nation of Sri Lanka tore itself
apart in a brutal civil war. At the most basic level, the conflict
arose from the ethnic tension between Sinhalese and Tamil
citizens. The Sri Lankan Civil war was fought in Sri Lanka
from 23 July 1983 to 20 May 2009 between Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam (LTTE, also known as the Tamil Tigers) and
Sinhalese dominated Sri Lankan Government.
Civil War Erupts
The British granted Ceylon independence in 1948. The Sinhalese
majority immediately began to pass laws that discriminated
against Tamils, particularly the Indian Tamils brought to the island
by the British. They made Sinhalese the official language, driving
Tamils out of the civil service. The Ceylon Citizenship Act of 1948
effectively barred Indian Tamils from holding citizenship, making
stateless people out of some 700,000.
Ethnic riots broke out in Colombo and other cities in 23 July 1983.
Tamil Tiger insurgents killed 13 army soldiers, prompting violent
reprisals against Tamil civilians by their Sinhalese neighbors across
the country. Between 2,500 and 3,000 Tamils likely died, and many
thousands more fled to Tamil-majority regions. The Tamil Tigers
declared the "First Eelam War" (1983-87) with the aim of creating a
separate Tamil state in northern Sri Lanka called Eelam.
India Intervenes
In 1987, India's Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, decided to

directly intervene in the Sri Lankan Civil War by sending
peacekeepers. The peacekeepers' mission was to disarm militants
on both sides, in preparation for peace talks.
The Tigers refused to disarm, sent female bombers and child
soldiers to attack the Indian troops. In May 1990, Sri Lankan
President Ranasinghe Premadasa forced India to recall its
peacekeepers,1200 Indian soldiers had died battling the
insurgents.
Second Eelam War
The Sri Lankan Civil War entered an even bloodier phase, when the
Second Eelam War start. . It began when the Tigers seized between 600
and 700 Sinhalese police officers in the Eastern Province on June 11, 1990.
The police laid down their weapons surrendered to the militants after the
Tigers promised no harm would come to them. However, the militants
killed the policemen.
After that the government cut off all shipments of medicine and food to
the Tamil stronghold on the Jaffna peninsula and initiated an intensive
aerial bombardment. The Tigers responded with massacres of hundreds of
Sinhalese and Muslim villagers. The government also massacred Sinhalese
school children in Sooriyakanda and buried the bodies in a mass grave.
In July 1991, 5,000 Tamil Tigers surrounded the government's army base
at Elephant Pass . Some 10,000 government troops raised the siege after
four weeks, but over 2,000 fighters on both sides had been killed, making
this the bloodiest battle in the entire civil war. Government troops could
not capture Jaffna itself despite repeated assaults in 1992-93
Third Eelam War
In January 1995 , the Tamil Tigers sign a peace agreement with the new
government of President Chandrika Kumaratunga. However, three months
later the Tigers planted explosives on two Sri Lankan naval gunboats,
destroying the ships . The government responded by declaring a "war for
peace”. By December 1995, the peninsula was under government control for
the first time since the war began. Some 350,000 Tamil refugees and the Tiger
guerrillas fled inland to the sparsely populated Vanni region of the Northern
Province.
The Tamil Tigers responded to the loss of Jaffna in July 1996 by launching
an eight-day assault on the town of Mullaitivu, which was protected by 1,400
government troops. 1,200 of the government soldiers were killed, the Tigers
lost 332 troops.
Tiger suicide bombers struck repeatedly in the late 1990s in Colombo and
other southern cities. They hit the Central Bank in Colombo, the Sri Lankan
World Trade Centre, and the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, a shrine
housing a relic of the Buddha himself.
continue……
Third Eelam War
In April 2000, the Tigers retook Elephant Pass but were unable to

recover the city of Jaffna. Norway try to negotiate a settlement, as
war-weary Sri Lankans of all ethnic groups looked for a way to
end the interminable conflict.
The Tamil Tigers declared a unilateral ceasefire in December
2000, leading to hope that the civil war was truly winding down .
However, in April 2001, the Tigers rescinded the ceasefire and
pushed north on the Jaffna Peninsula once more. A July 2001
Tiger suicide attack on the Bandaranaike International Airport
destroyed eight military jets and four airliners, sending Sri
Lanka's tourism industry into a tailspin.
Long Road To Peace
The September 11 attacks in the United States and the subsequent

War on Terror made it more difficult for the Tamil Tigers to get overseas
funding and support. The United States also began to offer direct aid to
the Sri Lankan government. Public weariness with the fighting led to
President Kumaratunga's party losing control of parliament and the
election of a new, pro-peace government.
Throughout 2002 and 2003, the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil
Tigers negotiated various ceasefires and signed a Memorandum of
Understanding, again mediated by the Norwegians. The two sides
compromised with a federal solution, rather than the Tamils' demand for a
two-state solution or the government's insistence on a unitary state. Air
and ground traffic resumed between Jaffna and the rest of Sri Lanka.
continue…….
Long Road To Peace
However, on October 31, 2003, the Tigers declared
themselves in full control of the north and east regions
of the country, prompting the government to declare a
state of emergency. Within just over a year, monitors
from Norway recorded 300 infractions of the ceasefire
by the army and 3,000 by the Tamil Tigers.
On August 12, 2005, the Tamil Tigers lost much of their
remaining cachet with the international community
when one of their snipers killed Sri Lankan Foreign
Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, a highly respected
ethnic Tamil who was critical of Tiger tactics.
continue…..
Long Road To Peace
Fighting erupted again, including the bombing of civilian targets such
as packed commuter trains and buses in Colombo. The government also
began assassinating pro-Tiger journalists and politicians. Massacres
against civilians on both sides left thousands dead over the next few years,
including 17 charity workers from France's . On September 4, 2006, the
army drove the Tamil Tigers from the key coastal city of Sampur. The
Tigers retaliated by bombing a naval convoy, killing more than 100 sailors
who were on shore leave. After October 2006 peace talks in Geneva,
Switzerland, did not produce results, the Sri Lankan government
launched a massive offensive in eastern and northern parts of the islands
to crush the Tamil Tigers once and for all. The 2007-2009 eastern and
northern offensives were extremely bloody, with tens of thousands of
civilians caught between the army and Tiger lines.
On May 16, 2009, the Sri Lankan government declared victory over
the Tamil Tigers. The conflict had finally ended after 26 years, hideous
atrocities on both sides, and some 100,000 deaths.
Bibliography
1)
https://www.thoughtco.com/the-sri-lankan-c
ivil-war-195086
.
2)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lankan_
Civil_War.
THANK YOU!!

Sri Lankan Civil War

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Sri Lankan Civil War

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Sri Lankan Civil War

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

SRI LANKAN CIVIL WAR

In 1987, India's Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, decided to

In April 2000, the Tigers retook Elephant Pass but were unable to

The September 11 attacks in the United States and the subsequent

You might also like