Ending the Sri Lankan Civil War

Ending the Sri Lankan Civil War Sumit Ganguly Abstract: The Sri Lankan Civil War erupted in 1983 and dragged on until 2009. The origins of the conflict can be traced to Sri Lanka’s colonial era and subsequent postcolonial policies that had significantly constrained the social and economic rights of the minority Tamil population. Convinced that political av- enues for redressing extant grievances were unlikely to yield any meaningful results, a segment of the Tamil community turned to violence precipitating the civil war. A number of domestic, regional, and international efforts to bring about a peaceful solution to the conflict all proved to be futile. A military strategy, which involved extraordinary brutality on the part of the Sri Lankan armed forces, brought it to a close. However, few policy initiatives have been undertaken in its wake to address the underlying grievances of the Tamil citizenry that had contributed to the outbreak of the civil war in the first place. The Sri Lankan Civil War vividly demonstrates the potential brutality and tenuousness of efforts to end civil wars.1 In this case, war termination was the result of an outright military victory. But the conditions that made it possible to end the Sri Lankan Civil War may have been unique: a particular constellation of factors, at systemic, regional, and national levels, proved con- ducive for the pursuit of an unbridled military cam- paign that ended the war. At a systemic level, the major powers, including the United States and key Euro- pean nations, had tired of the conflict. The two major regional powers, the People’s Republic of China (prc) SUMIT GANGULY, a Fellow of the American Academy since 2017, is and India, for differing reasons, chose to either sup- Professor of Political Science and port the Sri Lankan regime as it embarked on a mas- holds the Tagore Chair in Indian sive military onslaught against the rebels or to remain Cultures and Civilizations at Indi- aloof from the conflict. Domestically, the regime that ana University, Bloomington. He had recently assumed power concluded that it had is the author of The Oxford Short found an opportune moment to unleash the full might Introduction to Indian Foreign Policy of its military against the insurgents. Consequently, (2015), Deadly Impasse: Indo-Paki- stani Relations at the Dawn of a New it is unlikely that similar conditions will be present Century (2016), and Ascending India in other contexts. and Its State Capacity (with William In May 2009, after two and a half decades of spo- Thompson, 2017). radic violent conflict, the Sri Lankan Civil War, which © 2018 by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences doi:10.1162/DAED_a_00475 78 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DAED_a_00475 by guest on 28 September 2021 arose from the animosity between the ma- when independence came to Sri Lanka in Sumit jority Sinhalese and the minority Tam- 1948 (largely as a consequence of British co- Ganguly il populations, finally drew to a close. The lonial withdrawal from India in 1947), Tam- end of this war was especially bloody, with ils were disproportionately represented in charges of rampant human rights violations public services, higher education, journal- on the part of the two principal parties, the ism, and the legal profession.5 Sri Lankan armed forces and the Liberation The Sinhala elite, who had worked with Tigers of Tamil Eelam (ltte). In the final the British from the early 1930s to bring military assault that lasted from January to about an eventual transfer of power, had early May 2009, some seven thousand eth- paid little heed to the inherently ethnical- nic Tamils were killed.2 But the total num- ly plural features of the country. When uni- ber killed in the civil war is a vigorously con- versal adult franchise was extended to all Sri tested subject. The United Nations puts the Lankans in 1931 under the Donoughmore death toll between eighty thousand and one Constitution, no provisions were includ- hundred thousand. The Sri Lankan govern- ed to guarantee minority rights. Not sur- ment, however, challenges those figures.3 prisingly, key members of both the Tam- Apart from the death toll, following the ter- il and Muslim communities had protest- mination of hostilities, as many as three ed the absence of clear-cut provisions for hundred thousand Tamils who had fled the protection of minority rights. Tamils, the war zone were interned in overcrowded unhappy with the constitutional dispen- camps.4 sation, boycotted the elections held un- This essay will discuss the origins of the der the aegis of this constitution. Even the Sri Lankan Civil War, briefly examine its subsequent Soulbury Constitution of 1947, international dimensions (including an which paved the way to independence, did abortive Indian effort to terminate the not include a bill of rights. It did, however, war between 1987 and 1989), discuss the include a clause that prohibited discrimi- third-party negotiations to conclude the nation against any citizen on the basis of conflict, and focus on the politico-military ethnicity or religion, but this constitution- strategy that led to its end. Finally, it will al provision proved to be rather tenuous. argue that the mode in which the war end- In fact, it laid the foundation for what was ed may have damaged the prospects of a soon to emerge as a unitary and majoritar- lasting peace. ian state.6 Worse still, in the aftermath of inde- The origins of the Tamil-Sinhala conflict pendence, Sri Lanka’s first prime minis- can be traced back to Sri Lanka’s colonial ter, Don Stephen Senanayake, passed leg- history. During the period of British colo- islation that effectively disenfranchised a nial rule, which extended from 1815 to 1948, significant segment of the Tamil commu- the minority Tamil community seized var- nity, including the descendants of Tamils ious opportunities for economic advance- who had been brought to Sri Lanka in the ment. To that end, significant numbers of nineteenth century as tea and coffee plan- the community had availed themselves of a tation laborers. The passage of this legis- colonial education, primarily because they lation gave the Sinhalese an effective two- had limited economic opportunities in the thirds majority in Parliament, thereby en- regions in which they were located. The suring their dominance.7 dominant Sinhala community, with marked Senanayake’s successor, Solomon West exceptions, however, had distanced them- Ridgeway Bandaranaike, also exploited, un- selves from the British. Not surprisingly, til his death in 1952, the overrepresentation 147 (1) Winter 2018 79 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DAED_a_00475 by guest on 28 September 2021 Ending the of Tamils in both the governmental bureau- goal became moot. The ltte, however, re- Sri Lankan cracies and the private sector to stoke re- mained unalterably committed to the cre- Civil War sentment among the majority communi- ation of a separate Tamil state.11 ty. Among other matters, they argued that Prabhakaran had apparently conclud- since Tamils were disproportionately rep- ed that, after the “standardization” legis- resented in the field of higher education, lation of 1971 and the republican constitu- they were prone to favor fellow Tamils. Ul- tion of 1972, the rights of Tamils in the coun- timately, they passed the Sinhala Only Act try were now under serious assault. He was of 1956, which effectively marginalized the hardly alone in embracing this view of mi- Tamil community in every possible sphere, nority rights. These sentiments were wide- from employment to higher education. ly shared among Tamil youth, who Prabha- Matters worsened over the next two de- karan steadily recruited to the cause of a vi- cades for the Tamil population of the coun- olent revolt against the country’s political try. One important turning point came in order.12 1971 when the regime of Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike introduced a sys- The Civil War is frequently divided into tem of standardization in university ad- four distinct phases, starting in 1983 with missions. This procedure stipulated that the anti-Tamil pogrom in the capital city Sinhala students with lower scores could of Colombo. This first phase culminated be granted university admissions.8 Not with the Indian intervention in the con- surprisingly, this policy further alienated flict in 1987. The second phase started in Tamil youth and contributed to their radi- 1990 and ended in 1995 with the collapse of calization. Subsequently, in 1972, the coun- the direct talks between the ltte and the try adopted a new constitution. Under government of President Chandrika Ku- the terms of this constitution, Buddhism maratunga. The third phase, in turn, be- was given the foremost status, denigrat- gan in 1995 and ended with the final col- ing other faiths. This decision contribut- lapse of the cease-fire agreement in 2006. ed to a milieu of growing majoritarian sen- The fourth and final phase began shortly timent and created permissive conditions thereafter and lasted until 2009, when the for the growth of anti-Tamil commentary ltte was finally defeated. in public discourse.9 Even though the origins of the Civil War It was against this political backdrop are widely attributed to the anti-Tamil po- that, in 1976, a young Tamil, Velupillai grom that had swept through the capi- Prabhakaran, who had witnessed the anti- tal city of Colombo in July 1983, the cat- Tamil riots of 1958, created the Libera- alyst for the conflict had been set in mo- tion Tigers of Tamil Eelam as an alterna- tion somewhat earlier by the killing of four tive to the moderate and agitational poli- policemen, in 1979, allegedly by the ltte.

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