The State of Conflict and Violence in Asia 2021

Sri Lanka

Timeline

February 1948 Sri Lanka gains independence from the United Kingdom.

1956 Sinhala Only Act makes Sinhalese the official language.

May 1958 Tensions spark the first anti-Tamil pogrom, resulting in up to 1,500 deaths and further mistrust and polarization between ethnic groups.

November 1958 Citizenship Act denies citizenship and voting rights to Indian-born Tamils.

May 1965 The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) political party is formed. Over the next five years it recruits a large militant force.

April 1971 First JVP insurrection begins. Ten to twenty thousand die in the ensuing government crackdown.

1972 A new constitution establishes national religious and language preferences that significantly disadvantage Tamil citizens.

May 1976 The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is founded by Velupillai Prabhakaran. It seeks to establish an independent state in northeastern Sri Lanka.

July 1983 Deadly ambush by the LTTE on Sri Lankan military ignites anti-Tamil violence known as Black July, and war begins. The civil war lasts until 2009.

April 1987 Second JVP insurrection begins, lasting three years and killing 30,000–60,000.

July 1987 Sri Lanka and India sign a peace accord to resolve the conflict with the LTTE. The LTTE rejects the proposal and declares war on the Indian peacekeepers.

May 1993 The LTTE assassinates President Ranasinghe Premadasa.

2002 Sri Lankan government and the LTTE sign a ceasefire which is later broken.

2009 Sri Lankan army defeats LTTE and ends the civil war in a bloody denouement.

June 2014 Anti-Muslim violence in the southwest kills four and displaces 10,000.

January 2015 Mahinda Rajapaksa loses presidential elections to coalition led by Maithripala Sirisena.

2017 Demonstrations over Hambantota Port development, a large infrastructure project with Chinese finance.

February 2018 Anti-Muslim riots and violence in central Sri Lanka led by Buddhist nationalist groups.

October 2018 President Sirisena suspends parliament and replaces Prime Minister Wickramasinghe with former president Rajapaksa, creating political crisis.

December 2018 Suspension of parliament ruled unconstitutional and Prime Minister Wickramasinghe retakes office.

April 2019 Easter Bombings by Islamist extremist group National Towheed Jamaat kill more than 300 people.

November 2019 Sri Gotabaya Rajapaksa, brother to former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, wins presidential elections.

January 2020 First reported case of Covid-19 pandemic identified in Sri Lanka. By the end of the year, the country will report over 43,000 cases and 204 deaths.

February 2020 Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa announces withdrawal of support for UN Human Rights Council resolution proposing investigation into war crimes from the Sri Lankan Civil War.

Overview

Since the end of the civil war between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009, Sri Lanka has been comparatively peaceful. Yet the legacy of 25 years of bloody conflict and the limited progress made in addressing deep-seated political and social problems continue to generate ongoing tensions and bouts of violence. On Easter morning, 2019, the country was rocked by a series of six coordinated and deadly terrorist attacks by Islamic extremists on Catholic churches and luxury hotels. The attacks followed years of increasingly virulent rhetoric and violent attacks against the country’s minority Muslim population and a long legacy of anti-Muslim chauvinism.

The attacks also occurred against the backdrop of a government in a state of disarray and an erosion of democratic institutions. Political drift and discord eventually led to an attempt by the president to replace the prime minister, which was soon overturned by the Constitutional Court. Elsewhere, land disputes and local resource conflicts persist, especially in rural areas where local political and business interests are closely aligned. Various minority groups feel threatened by belligerent displays of exclusionary nationalism, and many Tamils in the North and East still maintain an uneasy relationship with state authorities.