Sri Lanka

In parliamentary elections in March 2004, the SLFP-led United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) won 105 of the 225 seats and named Mahinda Rajapakse the prime minister. Although it lacked an absolute majority, the alliance was expected to form a coalition government with a smaller party. The elections ended the rivalry that had existed when the UNP controlled the legislature and the UPFA controlled the presidency. Because Prime Minister Rajapakse was appointed by Kumaratunga as the leader of the alliance, Kumaratunga was expected to emerge as an even more powerful figure, controlling both the executive and legislative branches of government. However, new complications were created by the strong showing of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the political wing of the LTTE, which won 22 seats in Parliament.

Kumaratunga promised to seek new peace talks with the LTTE rebels. The TNA responded to her overture by saying peace talks should be resumed on the basis of the LTTE’s proposal for self-rule. The LTTE threatened to resume fighting if this proposal did not form the basis for talks. The TNA statement also demanded that the LTTE be recognized as the sole representative of the Tamil minority. In the past Kumaratunga had rejected both ideas. Meanwhile, the LTTE faced its own issues of internal dissent as it fought with a breakaway faction known as the Karuna Group.

On December 26, 2004, the world’s most powerful earthquake in 40 years struck deep under the Indian Ocean. The magnitude 9.0 earthquake was centered off the northwestern coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The earthquake triggered a tsunami (massive waves), which spread across the Indian Ocean and crashed into the coasts of 14 countries from Southeast Asia to the eastern coast of Africa. Killer waves hit the coast of Sri Lanka about two hours after the quake. Due to the absence of a tsunami early warning system in the Indian Ocean, coastal communities in the region were not forewarned of the impending disaster.

The tsunami was the deadliest in recorded history. The International Committee of the Red Cross reported a death toll of more than 250,000 people as a result of the tsunami and the earthquake. Indonesia, nearest the epicenter of the quake, suffered the largest loss of life. Sri Lanka was the second hardest-hit country, with more than 30,000 people reported dead or missing. High death tolls were also reported in Thailand and India. In addition, millions of survivors were left in desperate need of food, water, shelter, and medical care. International humanitarian organizations and governments responded to the widespread devastation with one of the largest relief efforts in modern history.

In the November 2005 presidential election Prime Minister Rajapakse of the SLFP narrowly won the presidency, defeating former prime minister Wickremesinghe of the UNP. Rajapakse campaigned on a platform of economic nationalization and said he would seek to renegotiate the peace agreement with the LTTE. He promised voters that he would not agree to one of the LTTE’s chief demands, which called for power-sharing in the government. Rajapakse’s campaign drew the support of the Marxist JVP and the nationalist National Heritage Party (JHU), both of which oppose negotiations with the LTTE. His narrow victory in the elections may have been made possible by an unofficial boycott of the election in Jaffna, the city with the greatest concentration of ethnic Tamils, where only 1.2 percent of 700,000 registered voters showed up at the polls.

In December, Rajapakse named his new cabinet, which excluded members of the JVP and JHU. Political observers said the move was intended to provoke early parliamentary elections in which Rajapakse hoped to increase the number of seats held by the SLFP and thereby reduce the need for an alliance with the JVP and JHU. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the LTTE reportedly told international truce monitors that the group was ready to resume peace talks with the new government.