As diaries on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict rage back and forth I've yet to see one dealing with what is one of the SE Asia region's oldest and most deadly conflicts - one which has given us the suicide bomber and has devastated one of the most beautiful places in the world. I'm talking about the civil war in Sri Lanka.
The Sri Lankan civil war has its roots, as most civil wars do, in an ethnic minority's perceptive of bias in the way government is arranged, the handing out of government jobs and the preferential treatment the larger, more dominant group receives at the expense of the minority.
Sri Lanka is composed of various groups, the largest and most dominant of which are Sinhalese Buddhists at 73.8% of the total population. Next are the Tamil Hindus who because of conflict in areas in which they predominate haven't officially participated in a government census for decades and are estimated at 15-20% of the population. A mixture of Muslims and others make up the remaining 8% of the population.
The Official Language Act (Sinhala Only)
The roots of the conflict between the Sinhala and the Tamils stretch back years but can be traced to a general feeling of grievance which the Tamils feel towards Sinhala dominance of government and industry. This feeling was exacerbated by the passage of the Official Language Act (Sinhala Only Act) in 1956 which mandated Sinhala, the language spoken by the island's majority Sinhalese population, as the offical language of Sri Lanka. The government's reason for passing the law was to correct supposed British (the former colonizer of Sri Lanka) preference for the Tamil minority. While the Tamil political parties and the Sinhalese left opposed the Official Language Act the major Sinhalese parties supported it, ensuring its passage.
After the passage of the Official Language Act
Before the passage of the Official Language Act the Sri Lankan civil service was overwhelmingly Tamil. By 1970 the situation was reversed - the civil service was almost overwhelmingly Sinhala and many Tamils, unable to read and speak Sinhala, felt estranged from their government which set the stage for what was to follow.
I want to caution that, as with most issues involving territory and blood, there are going to be those who disagree with what I've written here but I am trying to be as neutral as possible in presenting facts about the situation. I will say very clearly that if anything I am opposed to the terrorist tactics of the LTTE, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (sometimes referred to as the Tamil Tigers) and find the co- opting of the legitimate grievances of the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka by a terrorist group which has built a cult of personality around its leader to be one of the saddest parts of the conflict. The Tamils are without a doubt an oppressed people who have been terribly ill-served by those who claim to speak in their name and who take literally the old maxim that "Power comes from the barrel of a gun."
The Rise of Armed Nationalism and Conflict in Sri Lanka
While the LTTE argues that the roots of armed Tamil conflict go back hundreds of years to the early colonizers of Sri Lanka and India the more accepted view is that religious conflict became exacerbated after the independence of both states. Religious conflict in India resulted in a horrific civil war which led to the creation of Pakistan and massive population flows and exchanges which still today reverberate across the subcontinent. The situation, while less violent in the immediate aftermath of the independence of Sri Lanka, was no different. Add to this the ethnic ties between the Tamils of Sri Lanka and the Tamils of southern India combined with a rise in Sinhala ethnic nationalism and Buddhist nationalism and you create a something akin to a ticking time bomb sitting in the broiling sun of the tropics, loaded and waiting for one spark to set it off.
The Spark
The early 70's saw the rise of sub-state violence on the part of many ethnic groups around the world which saw themselves as "oppressed" including the Basques (ETA), the Catholics of the North of Ireland (IRA), the Palestinians (PLO) & the Moluccans. The confluence of militarism and leftist politics led to a rise in a number of homegrown groups with ideas based around Marxist theory - like the Baader-Meinhof gang, the Japanese Red Army and The Weather Underground. In essence a "perfect storm" was created whereby ethnic or political groups with a grievance could avail themselves of support from each other and sponsor states like the Soviet Union, East Germany or Libya.
In the early 1970's Tamil youth in Sri Lanka began forming small groups with a militant nature. These groups developed outside of the main Tamil opposition parties HQ'd in Colombo - the capital of Sri Lanka. An effective split had occurred which divided the Tamil political representatives from those who viewed themselves as the true protectors of the Tamil people by their advocacy of violence to halt and turn back Sinhala dominance in Sri Lanka. Assassinations began in the early 1970s and increased in tempo through the rest of the decade.
From the LTTE website:
The emergence of the Tamil Tiger guerrilla movement, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) marked a new historical epoch in the nature and structure of the Tamil national struggle extending the dimension of the agitation to popular armed resistance. The LTTE under the leadership of its leader Mr Veluppillai Prabaharan soon developed a political and military structure that provided organisational expressions to the aspirations of the rebellious Tamil militant who had become disenchanted with non-violent political agitation and resolved to fight back the repressive state through armed struggle. Demonstrating extra ordinary talent in planning military strategy and tactics and executing them to the amazement of the enemy, Prabaharan soon became a symbol of Tamil resistance and the LTTE he founded evolved into a revolutionary movement to spearhead the Tamil national liberation struggle.
The emergence of the LTTE led to the suppression of all other forms of Tamil political activity in favor of the actions of the LTTE. The LTTE either co-opted or exterminated all other Tamil rebel groups and those which escaped either left politics or joined the Sri Lankan army. Few Tamil political parties remain today and those that do are under constant fear of assassination by the LTTE.
Consequently the center parties of the Sinhala majority also collapsed. As LTTE violence picked up pace and the Sri Lankan army was forced back from traditionally Tamil areas in the North and East of the country a strong spirit of Sinhala Buddhist nationalism came to the fore in Sri Lanka which rejected any compromise with the Tamil minority, which had come to be viewed by many Sinhala Sri Lankans as terrorists. This led to a vicious cycle where Sinhalese politicians were afraid to address Tamil grievances less they be called terrorists and assassinated by other, more militant Sinhala. The same could be said of the Tamil community which was now under the iron-fisted control of Prabaharan, who had turned the LTTE into a cult of personality built around him, his supposed god-like powers and the joys of suicide bombings - which the LTTE invented and perfected.
The 1980s
During the 80's the conflict picked up pace. The LTTE, supported by a large Tamil exile population in the United Kingdom and Canada as well as the Tamils of southern India, established a de-facto state in the northern and eastern areas of Sri Lanka. The LTTE was also helped by RAW (the Research and Analysis Wing) which is India's external intelligence agency. The reasons why India initially supported the LTTE are unknown but it is thought India thought it could exert greater control over the Tamil independence movement in both its southern state of Tamil Nadu as well as Sri Lanka by co-opting the movement.
After the Sri Lankan Army came close to capturing Jaffna, the HQ and capital of the Tamil "Independent" state of Tamil Eelam, the Indian army interfered in the conflict by openly providing the LTTE with supplies and arms. The Sri Lankans, perhaps aware that they couldn't fight the LTTE and India at the same time, agreed to accept an Indian plan to end the fighting by amending the Sri Lankan constitution to make Sinhala and Tamil both recognized official languages of Sri Lanka, merge the northern and southern provinces of Sri Lanka into one and accept an Indian role in the conflict by allowing an Indian peacekeeping force to be deployed in Sri Lanka.
After the Indian army was deployed in Sri Lanka episodes of conflict between it and the LTTE grew. The LTTE refused to accept the disarmament portions of the accords it had signed with the Sri Lankan government. Subsequently the Sinhala were enraged at the presence of Indian forces in Sri Lanka, which has always feared dominance by its huge northern neighbor. This Sinhala anger even led to a member of a Sri Lankan army review guard stepping out of line and attempting to kill Rajiv Ghandi, then Indian PM, by beating him with a rifle during Ghandi's visit to Sri Lanka in 1987.
The end of the Indian presence and the assassination of Rajiv Ghandi by the LTTE
The Indians quickly realized they had bitten off far more than they could chew in Sri Lanka. They were caught between a hostile Sinhala population on one side and an angry and uncooperative Tamil population on the other. In addition their involvement in Sri Lanka was expensive and unpopular at home. Following Rajiv Ghandi's defeat in the Indian election in 1989 the Indian army was ordered withdrawn from Sri Lanka. It had lost 100 men and spent over $500,000,000 in Sri Lanka. And India's losses were to be brought home, soon, in a much harsher way than many Indian expected.
But as always in the tangled politics of the region that wasn't the end for India. The end came in 1991 when Ghandi was assassinated by a female suicide bomber from the LTTE named Thenmozhi Rajaratnam whose remains I've pictured below.
The 1990s.
The assassination of Rajiv Ghandi had perhaps one positive side effect. It pretty much ended all Indian support for the LTTE, both officially and non-officially and resulted in India adopting a hostile attitude to the LTTE and demanding that LTTE leader Prabaharan face justice for the assassination of Ghandi. The LTTE has never accepted responsibility for the assassination but has expressed regret for it.
The 1990s were a grim period for the conflict with the Sri Lankan government alternatively offering carrots and sticks to the LTTE in an attempt to end the war. These included the offer of a semi-federal status to the Tamil minority while at the same time the Sri Lankan army carried out brutal military campaigns which heavily effected Tamil civilians in the north and east of Sri Lanka as well as expelling the entire Muslim population from Colombo. The LTTE, in turn, was accused of massacring Sinhala civilians, using children as soldiers and suicide bombers, assassinating and torturing moderate Tamils and numerous assassinations of Sri Lankan leaders including the Sri Lankan president, who it killed in 1993.
Unceasing Waves
The election of Chandrika Kumaratunga on a peace platform (after the LTTE had assasinated the opposition leader) in 1994 was initially a sign of great hope for all Sri Lankans. Unfortunately that hope didn't bear out. The LTTE broke a painstakingly-negotiated ceasefire with the Sri Lankan government in April and 1995 which led to renewed conflict. The LTTE stepped up its campaign of targeted civilians and Sinhala religious sites, attacking the Central Bank in Colombo in January 1996 and bombing the Temple of the Tooth, an important Buddhist and Sinhala national symbol in 1998. Following that the LTTE attempted and nearly succeeded in assassinating President Kumaratunga in 1999 - an act which led to her losing her right eye.
While not busy assassinating it opponents the LTTE carried out a successful campaign to regain land in northern and eastern Sri Lanka called "Unceasing Waves." The LTTE succeeded in capturing numerous towns and forts from the Sri Lankan army and thus, as the new millennium drew near, was in a better position to dictate terms in a ceasefire.
The Dawn of a New Millennium
The beginning of 2000 saw the Sri Lankan army and government in a deep funk. The LTTE had nearly succeeded in assassinating the Sri Lankan president, had overrun government positions in the north and east and was taking in enormous amounts of monies from exiled Tamil communities around the world, particularly in the UK, Canada and the United States.
Following the attacks in the US on September 11th the LTTE expressed its willingness to seek a peaceful solution to the conflict. A Norwegian-monitored truce was agreed-upon in 2002. Peace talks subsequently took place which led to the LTTE ending its insistence upon a separate state for Tamils in Sri Lanka and both sides agreeing to exchange prisoners. At the same time during the ceasefire the LTTE was continuing to rearm and establish bases around the areas of the north and east of Sri Lanka.
Following the LTTE's moves the first major split in the LTTE occured when a rival group based in the east split from the LTTE over claims the LTTE and Prabakaran were giving preference to Tamils from the north. This split was undoubtedly helped along by the Sri Lankan government which was delighted to see what was formerly a united front splintering. This group later became the TamilEela Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) and today has been cooperating with the Sri Lankan army and government against the LTTE.
Following the Tsunami in 2004 the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government argued over who would control redevelopment funds. In April of 2005 an LTTE sniper assassinated Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, who was a Tamil but one who was not a fan of the LTTE. This incident led to the LTTE's estrangement from the international community. A vital source of its funds from the Tamil exile community which had already slowed after 9/11 was now almost completely curtailed.
The Final Offensive?
In January of 2008 the Sri Lankan government, claiming repeated violations by the LTTE including rearming and blockade running, withdrew from the ceasefire agreement negotiated 6 years earlier. There appears to have been a change in Sri Lankan military and political thinking that the ceasefire had done nothing but allowed the LTTE to rearm while continuing to support terrorism in Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan government, aided by an able new defense minister and vast purchases of new arms the Sri Lankan army has steadily rolled back the LTTE from its previous gains in the north and east. Six days ago the Sri Lankan army captured Kilinochchi, which was the LTTE's administrative capital. The LTTE has now retreated to Mullaitivu, which is their last major base and where they are pledging to make a "final stand" against the government.
The End Friend?
Is this the end for the LTTE and the end of conflict in Sri Lanka? I'd give a qualified "yes" to the former and a "no" to the latter. The LTTE has been grievously damaged by its inability to raise funds abroad because of the strict currency controls imposed after 9/11 - this has crippled its ability to buy arms and buy-off enemies. Its previous bases of support in India are now closed to it because of its own actions. Ruthless human rights violations and dictatorial rule by the LTTE have led to splits within the movement, cleverly exploited by the Sri Lankan government.
On the other hand the problems in Sri Lanka will never go away until a just and lasting peace accounting for the legitimate demands of the Tamil people and other minorities is met. Military victory is easy to achieve - lasting change and peace much more difficult. Let's all hope the end is near for Sri Lanka's long agony.