A history of ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka

Political background

Sri Lanka, a small island off the south-eastern coast of India, is perhaps best known as an exporter of tea, or as an international holiday destination. Unfortunately, it is also host to a brutal conflict between the majority Sinhala and minority Tamil populations. Although complex in nature, the conflict can be said in simple terms to arise largely from contested access to services, land, and control of political and administrative power. These tensions have a long history, dating back to the period of British colonial rule, continuing through the period of independence, and finding expression in a violent civil conflict that has persisted for more than twenty years.

Most historians agree that the seeds of the conflict were planted in the early 1900s, when colonial rule did little to promote a sense of national identification among the three main ethnic groups on the island: Sinhala (mostly Buddhist, constituting 74 per cent of the present population), Tamils (mostly Hindus, 19 per cent of the national population), and Muslims (7 per cent). Instead, ethnic and especially regional identification was seen as the primary means of self-identification. This did not necessarily mean that these ethnic groups saw themselves as homogeneous. Indeed, both Tamil and Sinhala groups have always exhibited strong regional affiliations. The 'Sri Lanka Tamils' (Jaffna Tamils, Colombo Tamils, and Eastern Tamils, originating 2000 years ago from South India, and together constituting 12 per cent of the total population today) and 'Plantation Tamils' (descendants of Tamils taken from India by the British to work on tea plantations in the nineteenth century, and now forming 7 per cent of the current population) have developed separate regional identities, with sub-groupings within each group according to caste, education, and socioeconomic standing. Lowland and highland (Kandyan) differentiation demarcated two important Sinhalese groups, which could be further divided into separate sub-groups. These sub-groupings and the regionalised nature of ethnic groups did little during colonial times or early independent rule to forge a sense of national coherence.

Early disagreements between Sinhala and Tamil groups centred on political representation, the colonisation of traditionally Tamil areas by Sinhala groups (pre- and post-independence), language, and access to employment opportunities and education. In the immediate post-independence period, the new government withdrew citizenship rights for Plantation (Indian) Tamils living in the Central Highlands. A year later, Indian Tamils' voting rights, which they had enjoyed for 20 years, were withdrawn. This set the tone for the post-independence government's interactions with the Tamil population. The early 1970s was an especially difficult time: Sinhala was named as the official language of the administration and the courts, thereby disadvantaging the Tamil population, who held a large proportion of public administration positions; 'standardisation', otherwise known as the university quota system, which reduced the number of Tamils gaining university admission, was brought into effect; in 1972 Ceylon was renamed Sri Lanka, and Buddhism was given special protection under the constitution as the primary religion in Sri Lanka. During this time, the combined effect of these proclamations and laws, and the increasing oppression of the Tamils led to the formation of the first militant groups; one of these was the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

In 1983 there were island-wide anti-Tamil riots after 13 Sri Lankan Army (SLA) soldiers were ambushed and murdered by a Tamil militant group in Palaly on the Jaffna Peninsula. Thousands of Tamils were killed by Sinhala mobs in the capital Colombo and elsewhere on the island, and hundreds of thousands were displaced. Initially, the authorities did little to stop the mob violence. Since then, the Tamils' militant position has solidified and there has been ongoing active conflict.

The government of India entered the conflict in the late 1980s after the first peace negotiations between the Sinhalese and the Tamils broke down. At the request of the Sri Lankan government, the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) occupied the northern part of the country in an attempt to 'hold the peace' between the Sinhala and Tamil groups and enforce the Indo-Sri Lanka accord. Within a short time, however, the Tamils and Sinhalese were actually working together covertly to expel the Indians from Sri Lanka. The Tamil groups (especially the LTTE) inflicted heavy losses on the IPKF, which began to withdraw two years later. During this same period, 1988-89, poor, disenfranchised Sinhala youth began a short-lived insurrection in the south of the island. As a result, the entire island was embroiled in violent conflict.

Violence continued between Tamil groups and the SLA throughout the early 1990s. In the north and east, there were retaliation killings of military personnel and civilians, consolidation of LTTE-held territory — including the expulsion of all Muslims from LTTE-controlled areas in the north - and little political will to bring about change. In 1994, Chandrika Kumaratunge was elected President on a peace platform, and for the first time in years serious peace negotiations were held between the LTTE and the government, but these quickly broke down. The resumption of hostilities has marked a period of massive displacement of the Tamil population and increased militarisation.

The numbers of internally displaced people in Sri Lanka have fluctuated but have been as high as one million: 5 per cent of the population. There are currently an estimated 500,000 internally displaced people, predominantly in the north and east of the island. There are a further 66,000 refugees living in camps in Tamil Nadu, India, and an estimated 35,000–40,000 Sri Lankan Tamils living outside the camps in India. These numbers do not include the people who have sought asylum in and migrated to other countries (see Fuglerud 1999). Nor do they include large numbers of migrant workers now in the Middle East who left the country to find work and who send remittances to their families in Sri Lanka.

What is most disheartening about the current situation is the weak public demand for peace. Pro-peace groups and groups of mothers of soldiers missing in action get little or no press coverage. In 1998, a major military battle for Kilinochchi town resulted in the deaths of more than 1,500 soldiers in a two-day period, but it was barely mentioned in the international media and was censored from the Sri Lankan...