J. R. Jayewardene: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 19:48, 11 April 2007

Revision as of 19:51, 11 April 2007

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| id=ISBN 0-906334-03-9 }}</ref> This was one of the factors that triggered the [[Sri Lankan civil war|civil war]] that still rages between [[Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam|Tamil Tiger]] militants and the government. It is not known whether Jayewardene had known of the plans beforehand, but once the riots started he refused to take any action to halt them, blaming the violence on Tamil Tiger militants and their civilian Tamil supporters in Colombo. The riots had started after a group of Tamil militants had ambushed, killed and horribly mutiliated 13 soldiers on a routine patrol.

At first, the war went badly for the government, and the LTTE ended up in possession of [[Jaffna]] and most of the northern province. The Sri Lakan army after resizing from 10,000 to 36,000 and after getting revamped by the Israeli Defence Forces, counterattacked with an effective offensive that threatened to retake the city and win the war against Tamil militants, at the cost of tens of thousands of LTTE and civilian casualties. Jayewardene had to halt the offensive after pressure from [[India]], which had trained and equipped the LTTE for purposes of destabilizing Sri Lanka, pushed for a negotiated solution to the conflict. Jayewardene and Indian Prime Minister [[Rajiv Gandhi]] finally concluded the [[Indo-Sri Lanka Accord]], which provided for [[devolution]] of powers to Tamil domiated regions, an [[IPKF|Indian peacekeeping force]] in the north, and the demobilization of the LTTE.

The LTTE rejected the accord, as it fell short of a separate state. Sinhala nationalists were outraged by both the devolution and the presence of foreign troops on Sri Lankan soil. Young, deprived Sinhalese soon rose in [[Insurrection 1987-89|revolt]], organized by the [[Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna]] (JVP) In order to suppress the JVP, Jayewardene's government formed secret paramilitary units{{Fact|date=February 2007}} and unleashed a wave of killings against supposed JVP supporters. Thousands{{Fact|date=February 2007}} of youths were killed.