Kumaratunga Era

In 1994 Chandrika Kumaratunga was elected president of Sri Lanka. Her Sri Lanka Freedom Party replaced the United National Party, which had ruled Sri Lanka since 1977. The latter had been in power when the war escalated, and many people believed that a new leader from a different party would be able to end the war. Kumaratunga was the daughter of Sirimavo Ban-daranaike, creator of the Sinhala Only policy and the first woman ever elected head of a modern nation. Bandaranaike served as prime minister in Chandrika Kumaratunga's administration until two months before Bandaranaike's death in October, 2000.

Kumaratunga created a coalition of leftist parties under the label of the People's Alliance and was elected to office by promising to negotiate with the LTTE to end the war. She acknowledged that the government of Sri Lanka had been unfair to the Tamils and offered to change the government in order to create peace. From January until April, 1995, her government negotiated with the LTTE until the LTTE broke off negotiations and resumed the war.

Feeling betrayed by the LTTE, Kumaratunga unleashed a massive military offensive that recaptured most of the Jaffna Peninsula in December, 1995. The Jaffna Peninsula was populated almost exclusively by Tamils and had been largely ruled by the LTTE since 1984. The city of Jaffna had become the capital of the

Area held by the LTTE. The government's capture of Jaffna was a symbolic victory that humiliated the LTTE.

Two months later the LTTE set off the bomb at the Central Bank building in Colombo. After consolidating its victory, the government began a campaign to capture the Vavuniya jungles south of the Jaffna Peninsula. The area is a largely uninhabited jungle in which the LTTE can easily hide. Although the government recaptured all the major towns of the region, they failed to weaken the guerrillas or to defeat them militarily. The LTTE still controlled the jungles of the Vanni and the inland jungles of the east coast.

Once the LTTE was confined to the jungles of the Vanni and the east, the government sought to open up the roads to the Jaffna Peninsula. In May, 1997, they began "Operation Jayasikurui," or Final Victory. It sought to capture the main north-south road through the Vanni. About forty miles of the road was controlled by the guerrillas. The government operation ran into very stiff resistance from the guerrillas, and by its first anniversary in May, 1998, it had become the bloodiest battle of the war. Over four thousand fighters were believed to have been killed during the first year of the operation.

While the Kumaratunga government carried out its military offensive against the LTTE, its diplomats carried out a diplomatic offensive against the LTTE. The LTTE had developed intricate networks of supporters throughout the world, who raised funds for the war, bought munitions, and carried out business operations. The government sought to make the operations more difficult. It was believed that if they could stop the flow of funds to the LTTE, the LTTE would be unable to carry out its military operations.

Under the guidance of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirga-mar, a Sri Lanka Tamil, the government succeeded in isolating the LTTE. Supporters and fund-raisers in Canada and Australia were restricted in their activities or deported, while in the United States the LTTE was declared a terrorist organization and barred from raising funds in the United States.

The Kumaratunga government went from being the strongest hope for peace in the eleven-year-old war to a government committed to a military solution. While the war continued, both

Ancient statue of the Buddha in Poionnaruwa, Sri Lanka.

(PhotoDisc)

Tamil and Sinhalese society began to feel the negative consequences of the war. The once proud Tamil culture of the Jaffna Peninsula was all but destroyed, as the wealthier and better educated Tamils fled the country.

The war destroyed not only the younger generation but also many of the historic and inspirational sites of Tamil culture. For example, the Jaffna public library, which held thousands of important historical documents about Tamil culture, was burned by government soldiers in 1982. In the Sinhalese south society was undergoing a drastic change as well. The once peaceful society now experienced high levels of violent crime, as many of the

100,000 deserters from the military turned to lives of crime.

Crime gangs emerged in the Colombo area, allying themselves

With powerful politicians and carrying out a wide range of illegal activities. These changes were intensified by the high death toll from the war. Sinhalese soldiers were dying at the highest rate ever, while LTTE fighters were dying at an even greater rate. In between the two fighting forces were thousands of civilians who were also dying each year. Tamils living in the war zone and Sinhalese and Muslims in the border areas were targeted by both sides.

The original complaints of the Tamils against the government changed over the years as the war progressed. By the late 1990's the issues had become a debate over how much autonomy the Tamil-populated areas of the country should have. In 1997 the Kumaratunga government offered to transfer power from the central government to the Northern and Eastern Province. However, its offers fell short of the Tamil demand for a federal system not unlike that of the United States or Canada. The LTTE had indicated that it would consider a federal offer from the government, although the LTTE itself refused to offer a federal plan for the country.

In addition, the issue of the Eastern Province became important. The Eastern Province (Batticaloa, Ampara, and Trincomalee districts) were overwhelmingly Tamil in the early twentieth century. However, government settlement programs had changed the composition of the population in the region so that by the mid-1990's it was believed that the region had a Sinhalese majority. Since no census of Sri Lanka had been conducted since 1981 because of the war, no one was sure how large the population was.

Government officials who estimated population statistics were forbidden to discuss them. However, the LTTE, responding to the growing Sinhalese population in the region and the massive influx of Sinhalese since the start of the civil war, has insisted that the Northern and Eastern Provinces be combined into one province with a Tamil majority. Sinhalese nationalists have responded by claiming that establishing a Tamil homeland in the north and east would lead to the eventual breakup of the nation.

Despite the death and destruction and the undermining of the culture, Sri Lanka held onto its democratic institutions and political processes, at least in the Sinhalese areas of the country. National elections were held in 1994 in which the opposition party was able to defeat the governing party.

In 1998, local government elections were held in the "liberated" areas of the Jaffna Peninsula. Although the elections were held while the area was under military rule and the results were largely a farce, the government's efforts to hold the election reflected the strong commitment that Sri Lankan leaders have to democratic rule.

Despite the bombings and the attempted assassination of President Kumaratunga herself in December, 1999, the Sri Lankan government tried to win Tamil support when it attempted to pass a constitutional reform bill in 2000. This bill would have put substantial power in the hands of regional councils, making it possible for the Tamils and the minority Muslim community to control their own local affairs. When the reform bill failed in parliament, in part because of opposition from Buddhist monks and Sinhalese activists, Kumaratunga's People's Alliance coalition called a new election, in October, 2000. Kumaratunga and her allies hoped that in this election, the People's Alliance would win the two-thirds majority needed to amend the constitution. However, the violence-filled election left the president in an even weaker position.

The failure of the government's "Final Victory" campaign at the end of the twentieth century reflected the inability of the government to win a military victory over the LTTE. The persistence of the government in resisting the secessionist efforts of the LTTE also reflected the inability of the LTTE ever to win a military victory over the government. The two sides had reached a stalemate in which neither side could achieve its goals. Although in 2000 the Norwegian government began trying to help the two sides work out preconditions for talks, there was still little effective communication between the LTTE and the government. However, the tradition of democracy continued to survive, as did the hope that the reasonable and rational nature of the Sri Lankan people, which had led to that democratic tradition, would one day lead to a resolution of the conflict.

Robert C. Oberst Updated by the Editors