Quick guide: Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is located about 31km (18.5 miles) off the southern coast of India. For much of the last 20 years it has suffered fighting between the armed forces of the predominantly Sinhalese government and Tamil Tiger rebels who want an independent homeland in the north and east.

Sri Lanka is a multi-ethnic country, with a population of 18m people. It is an ancient centre of Buddhism. It also has a significant number of Hindus, Christians and Muslims. There are also a number of smaller communities such as the Burghers and the Veddas.

The civil war has killed about 64,000 people, displaced one million and held back the island's growth and economic development.


The origins of the current violence go back to the island's independence from Britain in 1948.

Although the years immediately following the end of colonial rule were largely peaceful, from the outset there were tensions between the majority Sinhalese community - who are mostly Buddhist - and the Tamil community who are mostly either Hindu or Roman Catholic.

The communities speak different languages - Sinhala and Tamil - and both claim their ancestors were original settlers on the island.

While the island's population enjoys what is arguably the highest per capita standard of living in South Asia, in the years after independence the Tamil community complained of discrimination when it came to getting jobs in the civil service or winning places at universities.

The government argued it was redressing the imbalance from colonial times when Sinhalas accused the British of giving preferential treatment to Tamils.

The run-up to war

Resentment over perceived discrimination was cited by the Tamil Tiger leader, Prabhakaran, as the motivating factor behind his decision to form the Tamil New Tigers militia in 1972. In 1976, this body changed its name to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) more commonly known as the Tamil Tigers.

The cause of "Eelam" - a Tamil homeland in the north and east - has been invoked to justify countless suicide bombings by the Tigers on civilian and military targets.

One of the first such attacks was ordered by Prabhakaran in 1983, when the Tamil Tigers attacked an army patrol in the north of the country.

That in turn led to anti-Tamil riots in which an estimated 600 people were killed and thousands displaced.

Pattern emerges

From that moment onwards, it can be argued that the Sri Lankan conflict followed a pattern that in many ways is still repeated today.

Throughout the 1980s, 1990s and for parts of this decade, the country has witnessed a combination of Tamil Tiger suicide attacks on the one hand and repeated military skirmishes in the north and east on the other.
The violence over this time period has been interspersed by various international efforts to negotiate a peace settlement: technically the two sides are not at war despite the recent violence, as neither has formally withdrawn from a peace treaty signed in 2002.

Both the military and the Tamil Tigers have been frequently accused of gross violations of human rights by international rights groups.

Civilians have been routinely murdered and thousands made homeless by the years of war.

The fighting has been complicated by the existence of shadowy paramilitary groups. Also a group of rebels led by their eastern commander, Karuna, broke away from the Tamil Tigers in March, 2004.

The conflict has also had a disastrous impact on reconstruction efforts after the December 2004 Asian tsunami with the distribution of international aid hampered by the fighting.

Can either side secure a military triumph?

Neither seems to have the muscle to win outright military victory - although both have had their successes.

In recent months it can perhaps be argued that while the conflict is no less winnable for either side - it has become a great deal more bloody.
At least 2,000 people - troops, Tamil Tiger rebels and Tamil, Sinhalese and Muslim civilians - were killed in the first nine months of 2006, the government and truce monitors say.

Unless common ground can be found between the government's oft-stated position that it is only prepared to allow more autonomy for the north and east and the Tiger's desire for full-scale independence for these areas, a solution to this most intractable of disputes looks as far away as ever.