Sri Lanka: Background and U.S. Relations
Abstract
Sri Lanka is a constitutional democracy with relatively high educational and social standards. Political, social, and economic development has, however, been seriously constrained by ethnic conflict between the majority Sinhalese and minority Tamil ethnic groups. Since 1983, a separatist war costing at least 70,000 lives has been waged against government forces by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a rebel group that seeks to establish a separate state or internal self-rule in the Tamil-dominated areas of the North and East. The United States designated the LTTE as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 1997 and demands the Tigers lay down their arms and foreswear the use of force before that status can change. A Norwegian-brokered peace process begun in the late 1990s produced a February 2002 "permanent" ceasefire agreement. The Colombo government and the LTTE held their first peace talks in seven years in 2002, with the rebels indicating they were willing to accept autonomy rather than independence for Tamil-majority regions. The two sides agreed in principle to seek a solution through a federal structure. Yet the period 2004-2005 witnessed increasing instability within the ranks of both the Colombo government and the LTTE. This was exacerbated by wrangling over administration of foreign aid in response to a massive December 2004 tidal wave that killed up to 35,000 citizens in Sri Lanka's worst-ever natural disaster.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 22, 2008
- Accession Number
- ADA486249
Entities
People
- K. A. Kronstadt
Organizations
- Library of Congress