A LOOK AT THE PEACE NEGOTIATIONS

1985

July

First-ever peace talks between the Sri Lankan government, Tamil rebels and Tamil political parties are held in the Bhutanese capital of Thimpu.

The government delegation is led by H W Jayewardene, eminent lawyer and younger brother of Sri Lankan President Junius Jayewardene and includes all top lawyers – Mark Fernando (now a senior Supreme Court Judge), H L de Silva and S L Gunasekera (until recently the leader of a hardline Sinhala Buddhist political party).

The leaders of all Tamil militant groups are represented, including Velupillai Prabhakaran of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and Uma Mahewaran, Sri Sabaratnam and Douglas Devananda. Politicians from democratic Tamil political parties include A Amirthalingam and S Sivasithamparam.

The talks are also the first - and still remains – the most comprehensive meeting of a government team, militants and moderate Tamil politicians

The talks fail. Conflicts arise because the government team is made up of lawyers - not political thinkers – who are not prepared to budge from set positions, according to political analysts. The members of the government team consider that bowing to the demands of the Tamils is tantamount to consenting to Eelam – the name of the separate Tamil state.

The militant groups and Tamil parties come up with a formula urging the government to accept (1) Tamils as a nationality (2) the right to self-determination by the Tamil minority (3) the traditional homelands of the Tamils in the north and the east, and (4) that all Tamils (especially plantation Tamils of Indian origin, many of who are stateless) should be given citizenship.

Analysts say the LTTE and Tamil militant groups came to the conference under the pre-conceived notion that they could get Eelam.

1987

July

Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan President Junius Jayewardene launch discussions aimed at ending the fighting. A peace pact is signed in Colombo between the two leaders and the LTTE is asked – virtually ordered – to consent to the pact and lay down arms.

Velupillai Prabhakaran is flown to India from Sri Lanka’s northern jungles and kept locked in a hotel room at the Ashok Hotel in New Delhi. He is not supportive of the pact, but is forced to agree because of the involvement of the country’s “big brother and one time mentor” – India.

As riots break out in southern Sri Lanka -- sparked by leftwing rebels opposed to the pact -- Jayewardene invites Indian troops to implement the pact while Sri Lankan troops in the north and east are shifted to the south to battle the new threat.

The rebels start laying down their arms rather cautiously, but call off their commitment and go back into the jungles. This follows an incident where nine senior unarmed Tiger leaders are arrested at sea by the Sri Lankan Navy. Indian officials urge the government to detain them in northern Jaffna, but National Security Minister Lalith Athulathmudali, who like some other members of Jayewardene’s Cabinet is also opposed to the peace pact, insists that they be brought to Colombo.

The nine rebels commit suicide by swallowing cyanide pills while in custody, triggering clashes between Indian forces and the LTTE. The pact collapses.

1988

December

Ranasinghe Premadasa is elected president, replacing Jayewardene. He wants Indian troops to withdraw from Sri Lanka. Government officials hold secret talks in the northern jungles with the LTTE – and Premadasa secretly gives cash and weapons to the LTTE -- with one aim: getting rid of the Indians.

1990

February – Official peace talks between the government and the LTTE start at the Hilton hotel in Colombo.

The rebel delegation is led by Yogaratnam Yogi, head of the LTTE’s political wing, and includes Anton Balasingham (the Tiger’s chief negotiator in the 2002 talks) and his Australian-born wife, Adele. From Sri Lanka’s northern jungles, dressed in combat uniforms and carrying arms, the rebels are flown by government helicopter to Colombo for talks.

Peace talks fail over a number of issues, but mainly due to accusations that both sides are arming themselves while talking peace. LTTE resumes separatist war, ending 14 months of peace talks.

Some later say that the talks failed because Premadasa wanted Tiger support to throw the Indians out, while Prabhakaran thought by helping Premadasa get rid of Indian troops, he would be given control of the north and east.

1994

August

The People’s Alliance party led by Chandrika Kumaratunga wins parliamentary polls, ousting the United National Party which had been in power since 1977.

October

Peace talks get underway. The composition of the government team is weak. Led by Presidential Secretary Kusumsiri Balapatabendi, who is inexperienced in political negotiations, the team is made up of an architect, an accountant and a civil servant.

Analysts say that Kumaratunga, by virtue of winning a thumping majority at parliamentary and later in December presidential polls, sees an opportunity to gain control of the entire country, including the north and the east which come under the supremacy of the LTTE. Prabhakaran, in the meantime, views peace talks as a means of legitimising his control.

In other words, both leaders have different agendas that resulted in a fundamental clash of ideas.

The majority of the Tamil population, particularly women, see the new president as the new hope for peace, and there is much rejoicing in Jaffna over her win. Kumaratunga feels that by winning the hearts and minds of Tamil residents she can isolate the Tigers and take control.

But this effort fails -- and so do peace talks, after the supply of fuel and cement supplies to Tamil areas is blocked by the army. In April 1995, the Tigers launch an attack against the Sri Lankan navy, bringing to an end of six months of talks.

2002

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, whose United National Party won parliamentary polls in December 2001, responds positively to a unilateral ceasefire declared by the Tigers that month. In February, he formalises it by signing a memorandum of understanding on the truce with rebel leader Prabhakaran.

Meantime, food and essential goods flow into the northern and eastern provinces while major highways there – closed for years – are opened. This allows thousands of Sinhalese from the south to visit the north, many for the first time. People-to-people contact helps to promote peace in the country and to underscore the need for an end to the conflict.

World support for Sri Lanka’s peace process is overwhelming, and the United States and India pledge to help the war-torn country with aid and investment.

At this time, Prabhakaran declares that the Tigers are ready to reconsider armed struggle if given a solution that satisfies the Tamil community. He also welcomes talk of the creation of an interim administration in the war-torn north and the east for two to three years, a key part of the peace talks.

In August, just before the Sep. 16-18 talks start in Thailand, Wickremesinghe says the talks are likely to be a step-by-step process. LTTE chief negotiator Anton Balasingham says the rebels are ready to discuss all aspects of the conflict.

In August, just before the Sep. 16-18 talks start in Thailand, Wickremesinghe says the talks are likely to be a step-by-step process. LTTE chief negotiator Anton Balasingham says the rebels are ready to discuss all aspects of the conflict.

On Sep.16, the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE meet at the Sattahip naval base in Thailand for a new round of peace talks. There, LTTE chief negotiator Anton Balasingham declares that the Tigers are willing to scale down their demand for a separate state of Tamil Eelam and settle for a region with greater autonomy.

In late October to November, the second round of peace talks is held also in Thailand. This time, Balasingham announces that the LTTE is willing to become a political body and join the democratic political mainstream.

A third round of talks is held in Thailand, and a donors’ meeting is held in Norway in December.

2003
By February, Berlin becomes the venue for talks, and Tokyo in mid-March. By the sixth round of talks in Japan, both teams are seasoned in confronting politically sensitive issues, such as moving an army camp in Sri Lanka's north and reports of LTTE shipping arms to Sri Lanka. Also discussed are human rights problems, such as reports of the LTTE’s continued child conscription.

On Apr. 14, the U.S. government hosts a meeting of donor countries and organisations for reconstruction in Sri Lanka. Colombo is present but the Tamil Tigers are not invited, because they remain on Washington’s banned list of terrorist groups.

On Apr. 21, the Tigers tell Wickmeresinghe that it is suspending participation in the peace talks, due to their exclusion from the Washington meeting. The LTTE also announces it is not attending a donors’ meeting Japan is hosting in June.

KEY EVENTS IN THE CONFLICT

February 4, 1948 Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) gains independence as a dominion
within the British Commonwealth.

1956
Linguistic nationalism becomes a key issue during an election campaign, resulting in the start of ethnic and linguistic tensions in the country. The Tamil minority feels alienated as a result of Sinhala, the language of the majority community, being recognised as the language of the state.

1956
Sri Lanka witnesses its first ethnic clash since independence, when Tamil civilians are set upon by Sinhalese mobs.

1956 – 1969
There are two attempts to resolve the growing ethnic and linguistic
tensions between the majority Sinhalese community and the Tamil minority. But both these attempts in parliament are never carried out as intended.

1972
Sri Lanka declares itself a republic under a new constitution, which gives prominence to Sinhala and Buddhism, the language and the religion of the country's majority community. Tamil politicians express opposition, stating that this move alienates Tamils further.

Tamil Tiger leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran forms the Tamil New Tigers, which four years later becomes the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

1972-1975
There is a noticeable shift in Tamil politics in Sri Lanka's
north and east, the two provinces with a predominant Tamil-speaking population. From the largely moderate means of expressing opposition to the Sri Lankan state, the Tamil provinces, particularly the northern Jaffna province, witnesses the use of violence as a means of opposition.

1975
Alfred Duriappah, the mayor of Jaffna, is shot to death, triggering
shock waves throughout Sri Lanka. This assassination of a prominent Tamil politician is the first of its kind in the Tamil regions. Among the four youth involved in the murder is a still unknown Tamil youth named Vellupillai Prabhakaran.

1976
Prabhakaran formally creates the LTTE. The same year sees Tamil politicians, led by those in the north, formally call for the creation of a Tamil nation, named Tamil Eelam, in north-east Sri Lanka.

1978
A newly elected Sri Lankan government pushes through the country's second constitution, where Tamil is recognised as a national language.

1979
The government approves the Prevention of Terrorism Act, giving extensive powers to the country's security forces to quell the burgeoning conflict in the north.

1983
The country experiences two days of ethnic riots, the worst in its
history. Hundreds of Tamil civilians are killed and assaulted and their properties burned and looted. The anti-Tamil riots move the simmering ethnic conflict into a war between the government's security forces and Tamil militant groups, including the LTTE.

Parliament adopts laws banning Tamil parliamentarians’ call for separation.

1984
India begins arming and training guerrillas from the five major Tamil militant groups, but denies it is doing so. Prabhakaran moves to the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

1985
In May, Tamil rebels storm the north-central city of Anuradhapura, the ancient capital of the island and a holy Buddhist site, killing 146 Sinhalese civilians. It is one of the worst attacks on civilians.

1987
Car bomb in Colombo kills 113 people.

India and Sri Lanka sign a peace accord, resulting in Indian Peace
Keeping Forces (IPKF) being deployed in the north and the east. But it is short-lived, with the LTTE launching a war against the IPKF.

1990
The government asks the IPKF to leave Sri Lanka as a way of appeasing the LTTE as part of the peace talks between Colombo and the Tigers. The year ends with the ethnic war raging again, and the country's Muslim minority feels the brunt of it. Hundreds of Muslims are killed by the LTTE while praying in mosques. Thousands of Muslims in the north are driven out of their homes by the LTTE.

1991
At an election rally in South India, Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is blown up allegedly by a female LTTE suicide bomber.

1993
President Ranasinghe Premadasa is killed by an LTTE suicide bomber during a May Day march.

1994
A newly elected government headed by Chandrika Kumaratunge launches a new round of peace talks with the LTTE. It lasts until April 1995, when the Tigers launch an attack against the Sri Lankan navy.

1995
The battle between the Sri Lankan forces and the LTTE intensifies, including the army's assault on Jaffna, which results in Colombo gaining control of the Tiger's heartland in December, and the LTTE's attacks on a string of military camps. The death toll is in the thousands.

1998
In January, an LTTE suicide bombing devastates Sri Lanka’s holiest Buddhist shrine, the Temple of the Tooth in central Kandy, killing 13 people.

1999
Moderate Tamil MP Neelan Thiruchelvan, a world-renowned academic and key figure in government-sponsored peace efforts, is killed by a suspected LTTE suicide bomber.

In December, Kumaratunga loses an eye in an attack by a female rebel suicide bomber at an election rally in Colombo.

2000
In February, the Norwegian government offers to play the role of intermediary in putting a new peace package before Tamil Tiger rebels.

2001 In July, LTTE launches a devastating attack on the Bandaranaike International Airport as well the adjoining air force base, dealing a severe blow to the economy. The rebels blow up six of the 12 aircraft of the national carrier SriLankan Airlines and five other aircraft, including air force fighter jets. Twenty-one people are killed.

In December, Ranil Wickremesinghe becomes prime minister. Shortly after, the LTTE declares a ceasefire, stating it wants to pursue peace with the new government. Colombo responds likewise, setting the stage for a period without hostilities since 1983.

2002
In August, the Norwegian government announces that peace talks will be held in Thailand from Sep. 16-18.

Norway's peace envoy to Sri Lanka, Erik Solheim, says no one expects the conflict to be solved in weeks or months. There are differences between the two sides, but there is also ‘’determination’’ to seek a lasting political settlement, adds Norwegian deputy foreign minister Vidar Helgesen.

On Sep. 6, the Sri Lankan government lifts the ban on the LTTE.

In September 2002, the Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tigers hold the first round of talks, their fifth attempt at peace. This continues until the Tigers’ suspend the talks in April 2003.