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Backgrounder: The Sri Lankan Conflict

Council on Foreign Relations

Author: Carin Zissis, Staff Writer
September 11, 2006

Introduction

The fragile 2002 cease-fire between the Sri Lankan government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has been repeatedly violated by both sides. Prospects for peace look grim; a recent surge in violence threatens to kill the agreement and rekindle the long civil war. India, the island’s neighbor to the north, hesitates to get involved and repeat the embarrassment of its 1980s role in the conflict. The European Union and Canada have joined the United States, India, and Australia in listing the Tigers as a terror group, creating obstacles to their support abroad. But the rebels, while pursuing their goal of an autonomous Tamil region, have managed to present repeated challenges to the government.

What is the history of the conflict in Sri Lanka?

Ethnic conflict has marked Sri Lanka’s history since the country, formerly known as Ceylon, gained independence in 1948. Its main ethnic populations are the Buddhist Sinhalese majority (74 percent), Hindu Tamils of both indigenous and Indian descent (8 percent), and Muslims (7 percent). In the years following independence, the Sinhalese, who resented British favoritism toward Tamils during the colonial period, disenfranchised Tamil migrant plantation workers from India and made Sinhala the sole official language. In 1972, the Sinhalese changed the country’s name from Ceylon and made Buddhism the nation’s primary religion. With tensions rising, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam began their separatist campaign for the predominantly Tamil north and east of the country. In 1983, thirteen soldiers were killed in an LTTE ambush of an army convoy, setting off riots in which 2,500 Tamils died, as well as sparking a civil war that has claimed nearly 65,000 lives and led to the displacement of more than 200,000 people.

Read the rest of this article on the cfr.org website.

Copyright 2006 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.