Sri Lanka

D

6

Third UNP Government

The 1977 elections resulted in an overwhelming victory for the UNP, and the party’s leader, Junius Jayewardene, became prime minister. By this time Jayewardene had remade the UNP as a social-democratic party with a new emphasis on state intervention to improve the economy. The TULF campaigned on a new demand for an independent Tamil state. It became the largest opposition party in the legislature.

D6

a

Constitutional and Economic Changes

In October 1977 the new UNP government amended the constitution to introduce a new presidential system of government. A directly elected president became the country’s most powerful official, and Jayewardene assumed the new office in February 1978. A new constitution adopted in September incorporated the amendment. It also made both Sinhala and Tamil the national languages of Sri Lanka.

The UNP government moved quickly to stimulate the stagnating economy. Sri Lanka became one of the first developing countries to adopt a program of economic liberalization in order to establish a free-market economy, abolishing the model of a state-controlled economy. The sweeping structural reforms ended the state’s monopoly in trade, encouraged foreign investment, and initiated privatization of state enterprises. Helped by high prices for tea in the world market, Sri Lanka entered a period of rapid economic growth. The growth was, however, accompanied by increased income inequalities and inflation.

In the 1982 elections, Jayewardene won a second six-year term as president. The TULF abandoned its separatist policy after negotiations with the government. Many Sri Lankan Tamils continued to support the demand for an independent Tamil nation, however. The Tamil separatist movement included a number of guerrilla groups who used violent tactics to make their demands known. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) emerged as the main Tamil separatist group.

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D

7

Civil War

In an upsurge of ethnic violence in August 1983, Sinhalese mobs killed more than 300 Tamils and destroyed Tamil properties. More than 100,000 Tamils fled as refugees to the southern Indian state of Tamil Nādu. The LTTE launched a guerrilla war, violently attacking Sinhalese and Muslim civilians, as well as government security forces in northern and eastern Sri Lanka. Government forces responded with violent retribution.

The Indian government became involved in attempts to resolve the conflict. India’s predominantly Tamil southern states provided bases and supplies for the Sri Lankan Tamil guerrillas. By the terms of an agreement between the governments of India and Sri Lanka in July 1987, an Indian peacekeeping force replaced Sri Lankan troops in the Jaffna Peninsula. Other terms of the agreement included the eventual formation of a Tamil autonomous region in the Northern and Eastern provinces.

The JVP and SLFP vehemently opposed the agreement as an abandonment of Sri Lanka’s territorial integrity. Protesting against the deployment of foreign troops in Sri Lanka, the JVP launched a well-orchestrated guerrilla insurgency to destabilize the government. Despite massive disruption by the JVP, presidential elections were held in December 1988. Ranasinghe Premadasa of the UNP won the election by a narrow margin. The government subsequently crushed the JVP insurgency, capturing most of its leadership.

The Indian intervention failed to bring peace, and all Indian troops were withdrawn from Sri Lanka by April 1990. Several major battles were fought between the Sri Lankan army and the LTTE in 1991 and 1992. In May 1993 President Premadasa was assassinated during the annual May Day parade. The government alleged the assassin was a member of LTTE, but the LTTE denied the charge.

In November 1993 LTTE forces seized a government military base in Pooneryn, near Jaffna. Several days later government forces drove the rebel forces back and recovered the base. The fighting was some of the worst between the Sri Lankan government and Tamil guerrillas, with heavy casualties on both sides.

D

8

Fourth SLFP-Led Government

Following the assassination of President Premadasa, the incumbent prime minister, Dingiri Banda Wijetunga, took his place with the approval of Parliament. To fill the office of prime minister, Wijetunga appointed the minister for industrial development, Ranil Wickremesinghe of the UNP. Wijetunga then dissolved Parliament and called early legislative elections in August 1994, ahead of the presidential election scheduled for November, in an apparent bid to secure his nomination as the UNP’s presidential candidate. However, a new SLFP-dominated coalition, the People’s Alliance (PA), won a narrow victory in the legislative elections, ending 17 years of UNP dominance. Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, daughter of Solomon and Sirimavo Bandaranaike and leader of the PA, became prime minister. She immediately began unconditional peace talks with the LTTE.

Kumaratunga was selected by the PA to contest the presidential election in 1994. The candidate of the UNP, Gamani Dissanayake, was assassinated just prior to the election by a suspected LTTE suicide bomber. As a result, the government declared a state of emergency and suspended peace talks with the LTTE. Kumaratunga won the election with 62 percent of the vote, thereby securing the presidency for the PA. Kumaratunga appointed her mother as prime minister.

After taking office, Kumaratunga started peace talks with the LTTE. The negotiations soon crumbled, however, and the civil war escalated. By the end of 1995, government forces captured the city of Jaffna, which had been held by the LTTE since 1985. By mid-1996 the government secured control of the entire Jaffna Peninsula, but the LTTE maintained a strong presence there. The LTTE continued to launch guerrilla attacks on government forces in the north, while also conducting numerous suicide bombings in Colombo and other cities that resulted in many civilian casualties.

In October and November 1999, the LTTE inflicted a series of defeats on the Sri Lankan army and regained control over large areas of territory in the north that the army had previously secured. Days before the December 1999 presidential elections, which were being held almost a year ahead of schedule, Kumaratunga was injured in a suicide-bombing assassination attempt attributed to the LTTE. The elections proceeded, and Kumaratunga was reelected to a second six-year term with 51 percent of the vote. In the 2000 legislative elections, the PA won a slim majority in Parliament. Bandaranaike had resigned as prime minister prior to the elections. In her place, Kumaratunga appointed a close confidante, Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, and he retained the premiership after the elections. Meanwhile, fierce fighting continued between government forces and the LTTE guerrillas.

D

9

Fourth UNP Government

Faced with a possible no-confidence vote, Kumaratunga dissolved the legislature in October 2001 and called for new elections in December. The elections gave the UNP a majority of seats in the legislature. The leader of the UNP, Ranil Wickremesinghe, became prime minister a second time.

The UNF government proceeded cautiously in establishing a basis for peace talks with the LTTE. Both sides upheld a mutual cease-fire declared in February 2002. The government and the LTTE entered a new round of negotiations in September 2002, with the Norwegian government mediating. Both parties expressed desire for reconciliation and peace. The peace talks broke off in 2003, although the ceasefire remained in place.