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Sri Lanka Major Incidents of the Insurgency
After the assassination of Jaffna's mayor in 1975, the
militant groups accelerated their campaign of violence and
destabilization. Their early targets included policemen,
soldiers, and a number of Tamil politicians who were seen as
collaborators with the Sinhalese-dominated government. The
attacks were sporadic, relying largely on hit-and-run tactics.
In July 1983, the LTTE ambushed a military convoy in Northern
Province, killing thirteen soldiers. The attack sparked off a
conflagration of communal violence in which approximately 350
Tamils were killed and as many as 100,000 were forced to flee
their homes. Indiscriminate violence by Sinhalese mobs and
members of the security forces led to insecurity and alienation
among the Tamil population, and support for the insurgency grew
dramatically. The year 1984 was marked by a substantial increase
in terrorist attacks, and the militants turned increasingly
against civilian targets. Major incidents included an armed
attack against civilians in the ancient Sinhalese city of
Anuradhapura (May 1985--146 dead); the detonation of a bomb
aboard an Air Lanka jet at the Bandaranaike International Airport
(May 1986--20 dead); and a massive explosion at the Pettah bus
station in Colombo during rush hour (April 1987--110 dead).
As the Tamil movement grew and obtained more weapons, it
changed tactics. A full-fledged insurgency that could confront
the armed forces replaced the isolated terrorist incidents that
had characterized the early period. By early 1986, the LTTE had
won virtual control of the Jaffna Peninsula, confining the army
to military bases and taking over the day-to-day administration
of the city of Jaffna. In January 1987, the Tigers attempted to
formalize their authority over the peninsula by establishing an
"Eelam Secretariat." LTTE leaders claimed that this was intended
simply to consolidate functions that the insurgents were already
performing, i.e., collecting taxes and operating basic public
services. Nonetheless, the government interpreted this move as a
unilateral declaration of independence and thus a challenge to
governmental authority.
In response, the government launched a major offensive
against Jaffna in May and June 1987. The security forces
succeeded in destroying major insurgent bases and regaining
control of most of the peninsula, but at the cost of growing
political pressure from India. Reports of army brutality and high
civilian casualties among the Tamil population made the offensive
increasingly unacceptable to the Indian government, which had its
own substantial Tamil minority to worry about. In early June,
Indian Air Force planes invaded Sri Lankan airspace to drop
relief supplies into embattled Tamil areas, sending a message to
the Sri Lankan government that the offensive would not be allowed
to continue. Within a week, the Sri Lankan government announced
the successful completion of its campaign.
On July 29, 1987, President Jayewardene signed an accord with
India designed to bring an end to the more than ten years of
violence between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil
minority. The accord provided for the disarming of militant
groups under the supervision of the Indian Peacekeeping Force and
the granting of limited autonomy to the primarily Tamil regions
in Northern and Eastern provinces. The terms of the accord
provoked immediate criticism from a number of directions. For
Sinhalese nationalists, including several high-level officials in
Jayewardene's government, the agreement was a threat to the
unitary nature of Sri Lanka, virtually sanctioning a separate
Tamil nation within the island. Tamil militants questioned the
basic validity of the accord; although prime participants in the
conflict, they had not been included in the negotiations leading
to the accord, and their later accession had been secured under
extreme pressure from the Indian government. For the wider
community of Tamils and Sinhalese, the presence of Indian troops,
even in a peacekeeping role, represented an unacceptable
compromise of sovereignty.
These criticisms became increasingly acute when, in October
1987, the Tamil militants and the Indian-Sri Lankan forces
accused each other of violating the accord, and the fighting
resumed. Indian forces were expanded from an initial 3,000 troops
to more than 70,000, and the Indian Peacekeeping Force launched a
major assault that succeeded in taking Jaffna in late October
(see Sri Lanka - Foreign Military Presence
, this ch.). Most of the insurgents
managed to escape and, according to press reports, regrouped in
Mannar in Northern Province and in Batticaloa and other areas of
Eastern Province. Weakened and cut off from their original bases
and sources of supply, the Tigers were no longer able to conduct
positional warfare against the security forces, but they claimed
that they would continue their struggle through terrorist
attacks.
The intervention of Indian forces in the north allowed the
Sri Lankan Army to concentrate on another crisis that was
developing in the south; Sinhalese nationalist opposition to the
Indo-Sri Lankan Accord had turned violent, breaking out in
strikes and street demonstrations. In the midst of this disorder,
an old Sinhalese extremist organization was gaining in support
and threatened to launch its second bid for power.
Data as of October 1988
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