Country Information

An island nation in the Indian Ocean off the southern tip of India, Sri Lanka has a population of approximately 19.9 million. Sri Lanka's largest ethnic group is the Sinhalese at 74% of the population. The largest minority group is the Tamil, at around 18%. Smaller minority groups include the Moor (7%), Burgher, Malay, and Vedda (1%). Sri Lanka is predominantly Buddhist (70%) with Hindu (15%), Christian (8%), and Muslim (7%) minorities.

Political and Economic Environment

Historically, the predominantly Buddhist Sinhalese and Hindu Tamil populations have struggled for control of Sri Lanka. Achieving self-governance in 1948 from colonial England, a brief unification of the ethnic groups quickly ended. Purposefully marginalizing the Tamil minority, Prime Minister Bandaranaike led the Sinhalese nationalist movement, elevating Buddhism within the state and establishing Sinhala as the only official language. Growing resentment between the ethnic groups over economic, cultural, political and religious issues erupted in violence in 1983 when 300 Tamils were killed by Sinhalese mobs and an estimated 100,000 Tamil refugees fled to southern India. Tamils responded with a wave of guerilla attacks against government security forces in the North and East. Retributive strikes against Tamil communities by the Sri Lankan military followed, plunging the country into a 20-year civil war. Of several anti-government guerrilla factions to form, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) became the predominant Tamil separatist group within Sri Lanka.

India intervened in the conflict in 1987, providing a peacekeeping force to uphold an agreement providing partial autonomy to the Tamil minority. As the agreement failed and conflict continued unabated, the peacekeeping force withdrew by 1989. Terrorist attacks against civilians and government officials escalated to the 1993 assassination of President Ranasinghe Premadasa by a Tamil suicide bomber at a political rally. Despite calls for peace, the successive President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, was herself subsequently wounded in an attack in 1999.  

In February of 2002, Norway successfully brokered a formal ceasefire between the government and LTTE, ending active hostilities. Subsequent negotiations resulted in the government ending its ban on the LTTE, an end to the LTTE campaign for an independent Tamil state, and a power-sharing agreement that provides the Tamil rebels with regional autonomy. While negotiations officially stalled in April 2004, when the rebels withdrew from talks, and a comprehensive peace agreement remains elusive, the ceasefire has held and relative peace between the LTTE and government persists.  Unfortunately, fighting and insecurity remains as internecine clashes between the LTTE and a rival faction, which split from the main Tiger leadership in March 2004, struggle for control of eastern Sri Lanka.

In May of 2004, the government and LTTE publicly agreed to restart negotiations and began discussions with Norway as facilitator.

Humanitarian Situation

The situation for Sri Lanka’s internally displaced has improved in recent years as an estimated 379,000 have been able to return to their homes. Easing the financial burden of returnees, the government has provided some financial assistance to families and the formerly displaced. UNHCR and other international organizations have similarly provided assistance to support these return efforts. Nonetheless, an estimated 78,300 displaced people still live in government-run welfare centers, unable to return home due to property theft in their absence, the threat of mines on formerly-owned land, and lack of confidence in the security of returning home.

Many Sri Lankans and foreign observers view the 2002 ceasefire as a positive step. The relative paucity of violence has saved thousands of lives and allowed reconstruction, primarily in the battleground of the East and North, to progress. Absent a comprehensive peace agreement, however, security and future stability within Sri Lanka will remain tenuous. Landlessness, insecurity, dispossession of property and the general absence of local support and basic services will continue to undermine progress unless action is taken. For the country to access much of the aid committed by international agencies to improve conditions for the internally displaced within Sri Lanka, and create adequate conditions for the return of the thousands of refugees living abroad, the stalled peace process must move forward.

Over the course of the protracted civil war, both the government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE have committed grave human rights violations. Illegal abductions, harassment, extortion, torture, and murder, as well as forced evictions and conscription have occurred with impunity. Retributive attacks and bombings by both government forces and Tamil rebels have indiscriminately targeted villages and civilian populations. Furthermore, medicine, food and humanitarian aid to displaced populations have been deliberately blocked for extended periods of time.  The result is an environment of perpetual insecurity for Sinhalese and Tamil communities alike, and a persistent threat to the increasingly vulnerable displaced populations.         

In recent months, international organizations and human rights groups have become increasingly concerned over reported war crimes violations by LTTE rebels. Reporting 40 verified cases of child recruits in the month following the December 26th tsunami, UNICEF and others have highlighted the forcible recruitment of three young girls from relief camps. While the LTTE has long been known for illegally recruiting children into combat, the recruitment and abduction of displaced victims of the tsunami is a particularly dangerous threat. Since the 2002 ceasefire took effect, human rights monitors estimate that from 1,400 to 3,500 children have been abducted or illegally recruited into combat by the Tamil rebels. This blatant disregard for international human rights remains a considerable obstacle to progress and peace in Sri Lanka.

The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami further exacerbated the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka.  On December 26, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake off western Indonesia produced a devastating tsunami that struck 14 of Sri Lanka’s 25 districts, killing an estimated 31,000. The tsunami destroyed over 80,000 households and temporarily displaced nearly 1,000,000. Today, an estimated 553,000 remain displaced as a result of the natural disaster. While the international community’s strong response surpassed expectations and historical precedence, tension between the government and Tamil leadership has, at times, compromised the massive relief and reconstruction effort.  The controversial agreement between the Sri Lankan government and LTTE to a “joint mechanism” for post-tsunami relief, however, is a sign of progress, providing administrative control of international aid and development funding for the vast rebel-controlled areas of the North and East to the LTTE. While cooperation in the wake of the disastrous tsunami could strengthen a new round of negotiations and lead to a comprehensive peace agreement, at this time most remain apprehensive.

Updated April 2005