Details of history

1995: Sri Lanka

Early in 1995 euphoria in Sri Lanka over President Chandrika Kumaratunga's election the previous fall created great hope for an end to the civil war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). A cease-fire from January 8 until April 19, while the government negotiated with the LTTE, brought record numbers of tourists to Sri Lanka and a brief spurt in the economy. The government economic embargo of the war-torn north was lifted to allow consumer goods into the Northern Province. However, negotiations failed to go beyond a discussion of procedural issues and focused on ways to relieve the hardship being experienced by Tamil civilians in the northern and eastern war zones. The LTTE claimed that the Sri Lankan government was not negotiating in good faith and had failed to present a devolution package to transfer power to regional governments as promised.

On April 19 the LTTE blew up two gunboats in Trincomalee Harbor, ending negotiations, and later shot down two military supply planes landing at the government airstrip at Palaly on the Jaffna Peninsula. Over 100 lives were lost in the attacks. The government responded with a campaign designed to weaken the guerrillas; the following months saw continued hostilities. Meanwhile, the government tried to persuade the LTTE to return to the negotiations, offering its long overdue devolution plan on August 4. The plan called for the creation of provincial governments with extensive powers. Although Sri Lanka would retain its unitary status, the plan was federal in nature. The LTTE rejected the plan, and the Sinhalese groups opposed to it began political agitation intended to prevent its adoption. With the plan's future in Parliament in question, the government delayed consideration of the legislation in September while it began preparations for a new major military offensive.

The government military offensive got under way on the Jaffna Peninsula on October 17. Government troops began a drive to take the city of Jaffna, the administrative center of the de facto government set up by the LTTE and the cultural and educational center of Sri Lankan Tamil culture. Government forces quickly captured much of the western portion of the Jaffna Peninsula but were slowed by LTTE booby traps and mines as they began to enter the city of Jaffna. The LTTE forced all civilians to withdraw from the city, creating between 400,000 and 500,000 refugees. On December 5 the Sri Lankan Army raised the nation's flag over the city center of Jaffna. The fall of Jaffna brought jubilation throughout the Sinhalese parts of the country and the mobilization of security forces to protect Tamils from the possibility of anti-Tamil riots.

As the year ended, it was uncertain whether the government's military gains had led the country any closer to peace. Whether the LTTE would return to negotiations or continue its guerrilla war from the jungles of Vavuniya to the south of the Jaffna Peninsula was unclear. Meanwhile, the government was forced to direct much of its budget toward the war effort and away from economic development.