Sri Lanka: Background and U.S. Relations

Publication Date: January 2008

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: Government

Type:

Coverage: Sri Lanka

Abstract:

Sri Lanka is a constitutional democracy with relatively high educational and social standards. Under Sri Lanka's hybrid parliamentary model, an elected president appoints the cabinet in consultation with the prime minister. The country's political, social, and economic development has been seriously constrained by ethnic conflict between the majority Sinhalese and minority Tamil ethnic groups. Since 1983, a separatist war costing some 66,000 lives has been waged against government forces by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a rebel group that has been seeking to establish a separate state in the Tamil-dominated areas of the north and east.

A Norwegian-brokered peace process produced some notable successes, though it was suspended by the LTTE in the spring of 2003 due to differences over interim administration arrangements. In February 2002, a permanent ceasefire was reached and generally was until 2006 generally observed by both sides. In September 2002, the government in Colombo and the LTTE held their first peace talks in seven years, with the LTTE indicating that it was 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. However, LTTE leader Prabakaran has stated that there may be a return to fighting. At the end of October 2003, the LTTE submitted to the government a proposal for establishing an interim administration in the Northeast. The period from 2004 to early 2005 has witnessed increasing instability within the ranks of both the Sinhalese government and the LTTE which has led to increasing concern over the future of the peace process.

Political rivalry between the Sri Lankan Freedom Party (SLFP) and the United National Party (UNP) has hindered peace efforts. In late 2003 the SLFP president removed three cabinet ministers, suspended parliament, and deployed troops around the capital while the then UNP prime minister was in Washington seeking American support for the peace process. The crisis deepened when the president dismissed parliament and called for elections in April 2004. The United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA), a coalition of the SLFP and the hardline Marxist People's Liberation Front (JVP), won a slim majority of parliament and defeated the UNP to replace Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe with Mahinda Rajapakse. Rajapakse went on to win the presidency in a narrow November 2005 electoral victory.

Government troops continue to occupy large swaths of Tamil-speaking territory and there remain serious doubts about the willingness of the LTTE to renounce the use of force and disarm. Ethnic violence has spiked in 2006, raising fears that fullscale civil war may again be at hand. The United States designated the LTTE as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) in 1997 and demands that the Tigers lay down their arms and foreswear the use of force before that status can change. U.S. policy supports efforts to reform Sri Lanka's democratic political system in a way that provides for full political participation of all communities; it does not endorse the establishment of another independent state on the island. Since Sri Lankan independence in 1948, the United States has provided more than $1.7 billion in assistance funds, including some $13 million in FY2006. This report will be updated periodically.