BACKDROP
Sri Lanka is a tiny emerald speck in the Indian Ocean, torn asunder by bitter and bloody Ethnic Conflict that ravaged the island nation for nearly three decades, which would leave, by some estimates, over 2 lakh dead and countless others missing, gruesomely maimed or disabled; in its aftermath. It is a story engulfed in perceptible misery and melancholia, yet it is a story that deserves to be told.
The Sinhalese make up nearly 75% of Sri Lanka's population, with the Tamils forming the largest and most dominant minority in Sri Lanka. This disparity would provide the catalysis for a war of unprecedented proportions, making it one of the most devastating conflicts that the world has seen. As soon as Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) gained Independence from the British in 1948, the ethnic relation insidiously worsened, and with the passage of the Ceylon Citizenship Act and the Sinhala Only Act which were excessively discriminatory against the Tamils, the relation between the Sinhalese and Tamils became strained. Thus began a demand for Self- Determination and the need for a separate homeland for the Tamils in Sri Lanka called the Tamil Eelam. This secessionist movement quickly transmogrified into a full-blowninsurgency in the North and East of the Island, home to almost 70% of Sri Lankan Tamils.
GENESIS In the late 1970s, Militancy was initially fragmented and in complete disarray, until Velupillai Prabhakaran quickly rose to become the spearhead of this secessionist movement. He became the supremo of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which would become notorious for pioneering suicide bombing and expertise in unconventional guerrilla warfare, sought to carve out a Tamil Homeland in Sri Lanka. He went about dismantling other Tamil Secessionist Outfits by eliminating them and also plotted assassinations of Tamil politicians, to establish himself as the sole representative of the Tamils.
On the 23rd of July 1983, the LTTE carried out its first Military Ambush in Jaffna, which would leave 13 Soldiers of the Sri Lankan Army dead. This act of brazenness enraged the Government of Sri Lanka. The Government actively orchestrated the Anti-Tamil Riots in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. The rioting continued unabated for a week, with the Government doing an awful little to contain this simmering pogrom. These riots left behind 400-3000 Tamils reportedly dead, several more raped and burnt alive by a frenzied Sinhala mob. In what would be well-documented instances, police and the army stood as mere spectators as rioters went about massacring Tamils with abject impunity. Several Tamil families in the heartland fled to the North and East of Sri Lanka, and this actively promoted Tamil youth to pick up arms against the State. This week of rioting became infamously known as the Black July Riots and is believed to be the tipping point of the Sri Lankan Civil War, a despicable phenomenon that would last for 30 long years.
MILITANCY & TERROR
The LTTE established itself as the sole Liberation Movement by targeting and annihilating other secessionist Tamil Groups, including PLOTE, EPRLF, and TELO, firmly taking control of the insurgency. Initially, in what was to be dubbed as Eelam War I, the LTTE was effectively cornered in Jaffna, the northernmost tip of the Island, and a definitive Sri Lankan victory loomed on the horizon. However, Rajiv Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, afraid of the insurgency spilling over to Tamil Nadu, ordered the launch of Operation Poomalai, which saw the Indian Air Force air-dropping supplies to the besieged city of Jaffna, denting hopes of a Sri Lankan victory.
India intervened in the Ethnic Conflict by signing the Indo-Lanka Accord on 29th July 1987, ratified by Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan President JR Jayawardene, which required the Tamil Insurgents to hand over their armaments. India deployed Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Sri Lanka to overlook a peaceful compromise between the LTTE and the Government of Sri Lanka. The LTTE thoroughly opposed the provisions of this accord and continued with its demand for an independent Tamil Eelam. Thus, the IPKF came into confrontation with the LTTE. Faced with unfamiliar terrains and inexperience to counter LTTE's superior guerrilla warfare, the IPKF suffered humiliating debacles and lost over 1200 soldiers. In 1990, the beleaguered IPKF withdrew from Sri Lanka, leaving behind a jubilant LTTE.
The LTTE Supremo Prabhakaran, in turn, began to plot the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. On the night of May 21st, 1991, Dhanu, a female suicide bomber of the LTTE detonated a suicide bomb concealed in her vest, killing Rajiv Gandhi [1]. India quickly outlawed the LTTE and proscribed it as a Terror Outfit, and effectively ended India's participation in the Ethnic Conflict. However, the LTTE became notorious for routinely using suicide bombers to assassinate political and military targets, including Heads of State. Several of the LTTE's terror attacks have inspired Islamist terror outfits to carry out similar suicide attacks, often with devastating effects.
Confronted with a lack of manpower, the LTTE set up a dedicated Suicide Bombing Unit called the Black Tigers, who would detonate themselves, causing devastating impact and killing scores of innocent civilians. By the LTTE’s admission, more than 322 Black Tigers, including 90 women, had perished in action. The LTTE had audaciously established a rudimentary Air Force, becoming the only Insurgency Group to possess Aircraft. By early the 2000s, the LTTE had become a formidable force, capable of terrorizing an entire nation, forcing the Government of Sri Lanka to sign a Ceasefire Agreement.
DEFEAT The cease-fire brokered between the Government and the LTTE had become increasingly fragile after it failed to provide any political solution to the ethnic conflict. In 2006, when the LTTE shut down the Sluice Gates at Mavil Aru, in eastern Sri Lanka, more than 15,000 civilians were deprived of water, resulting in a major humanitarian crisis. This prompted the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) to begin an operation to liberate the besieged Sluice Gates. Quickly, the Government gained an upper hand and started to gain footholds in the Rebel-held East. After a year of intense fighting, the GoSL gained control of Eastern Sri Lanka, liberating Thoppigala, the final LTTE bastion in the east in 2007.
On 16th January 2008, the GoSL formally pulled out of the Cease-fire Agreement, which would eventually pave the way for a decisive and clinical Military Victory over the LTTE, pushed deep into the Jungles of Northern Sri Lanka. Unlike his predecessors, President Mahinda Rajapaksa was firmly committed to exterminating the menace of terrorism in the north and allocated nearly 4% of the GDP to Defense, straining the economy. Sri Lanka sought a loan of some $1 Billion from China to ease the burden. Cornered and faced with an imminent defeat, the LTTE began to cower behind Tamil Civilians, using them as a Human Shield and causing palpable concerns across the world. It became an impediment to a certain victory and the Army began to carefully rescue the civilians from the clutches of the Terrorists. On 18th May 2009, LTTE Supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran was killed in the Lagoons of Nandikadal, abruptly ending a bitter war that had embittered and scarred Sri Lanka for three decades. The surrendered LTTE cadres were successfully rehabilitated and reintegrated into society, enabling normalcy to return to Sri Lanka. ACCUSATION OF WAR CRIMES The LTTE had been fodder for cheap political point-scoring, and with its rout in 2009, politicians resorted to making baseless allegations of genocide against the Sri Lankan Army. This was actively amplified by an LTTE-sympathetic diaspora abroad, who organized massive rallies in a pitiful attempt to isolate Sri Lanka diplomatically. Several dubious clips showing purported executions by the Army and alleged witness testimonials have strengthened their case against Sri Lanka. Yet, the LTTE itself was known to have a well-oiled propaganda machine to disseminate falsehood to conceal their atrocities, from conscripting child soldiers as young as 12 to forcefully expelling Muslims. The rump that remains of the LTTE abroad, has continued making such frivolous allegations and accusations to undermine Sri Lanka's national security and sovereignty.
ACCOUNTABILITY : DETERRING RECONCILIATION The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has doggedly pursued Sri Lanka in attempts to prosecute it for war crimes. In 2021, it signified the eighth resolution against Sri Lanka at the Human Rights Council since the end of the war in2009.[2] In 2021, UNHRC allocated nearly $2.8 Million to preserve evidence of war crimes committed by the LTTE and the Government of Sri Lanka. The Government of Sri Lanka has called it politically motivated and categorically rejected claims for International Investigations, and rightly so. It severely is violative of Sri Lanka's sovereignty and unfairly targeted towards Sri Lanka, ignoring human rights excesses committed elsewhere by warring countries such as the USA. It was rather disappointing to see India abstaining from voting on the resolution due to internal political compulsions [3]. Instead of being appreciated for defeating terrorism, Sri Lanka has been consistently bullied. This over-reach of the UNHRC, if not rectified, will have alarming consequences. Sri Lanka is a beacon for the rest of the world, yet its military victory has been consistently downplayed and overlooked. This doesn't augur well for a world that seeks to eradicate terrorism and further deteriorates the reconciliation between the war-weary Tamils and Sinhalese who seek to forge a new history.
Article by:
-Dhruva G
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