Overview
The Sri Lankan Civil War has been raging on-and-off since July 1983. The conflict exists predominantly between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), an armed separatist organization fighting for the creation of an independent state in the North and East of the island, to be named Tamil Eelam.
India has had a number of changing stances towards the conflict, with vigorous support of the independence movement coming from the country's South Eastern State of Tamil Nadu, which has a Tamil majority population.
India's funding of the Tamil liberation movement - 1980s
India became involved in the Civil War during the early 1980s when the Indian government supplied arms and funding to both the LTTE and its rival terrorist organisation, the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation, or TELO. It is thought that through arming both independence parties the Rajiv Ghandi's government sought to follow a 'divide and rule' strategy. Exerting control over the independence movement stood to gain India influence in Sri Lanka while quelling the calls of Tamils in India for a similar independent state.
Direct involvement - June, 1987
On June 5th 1987 India stepped into a more active role. Jaffna, the capital of the Tamil-majority North province, was under siege by the Sri Lankan forces. There were claims that the government were on the verge of defeating the LTTE. In a direct move to help the rebels, the Indian Air Force dropped aid parcels into Jaffna weighing 25 tons in total.
Peace Agreement - July, 1987
Negotiations were soon held between Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan President Junius Richard Jayewardene, which lead to the signing of the Indo-Sri Lankan Peace Accord on July 29, 1987. The Sri Lankan government made a number of concessions to Tamil demands, including a devolution of power to the provinces, a merger of the North and East into one state, (invalidated in 2006) and the institution of Tamil as a national language. India, in return, was to cease aiding Tamil militants, and establish a peacekeeping force in the Tamil-majority area of Sri Lanka.
War with Tamil Tigers - late 80s to early 90s
The newly created Indian Peace Keeping Force demanded that the Tamil insurgent groups agreed to lay down their arms. The LTTE, who had grown in power initially through Indian funding, now refused to disarm for its forces, drawing India into a three-year full-scale conflict. During the conflict India was accused of human rights abuses on various accounts, both from Western and Indian media sources. The Peacekeeping Force were asked to leave by the Sri Lankan government, and after opposition from Gandhi, his successor V.P.Singh ended the conflict, with the last IPK ship leaving Sri Lanka on the 24th March 1990. Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated subsequently by an LTTE woman suicide bomber, losing the movement significant support from inside India.
Situation Today
India remains an outside observer of the ongoing Civil War, with frequent calls from parliament members of the Tamil Nadu state for renewed Indian involvement, and especially for the extradition of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.
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