A Study on Recent Political Efforts to Solve the Ethnic Conflict of Sri Lanka

Abstract

The ethnic conflict has taken a special place among the challenges faced by Sri Lanka at present. Since independence, almost every government took various strategic steps to solve the ethnic conflict in this country. However none of these efforts were strong enough in solving the conflict. In this study special attention has been paid to political efforts, which were taken in recent times i.e. from 1983 to 1993, to solve the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. The base for this study is the transformation of the ethnic conflict into an internal war as a consequence of the internal incidents, which occurred in 1983. Also taken into consideration is the international community’s attention in this regard and the opportunities gained by India to act as a mediator in solving the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. Apart from these, factors such as an approach that is different from previous efforts in solving the ethnic conflict can be identified the change of political power of the country in 1994 has bee taken into consideration and special attention has been paid to the decade from 1983 to 1993. The aims of this study were to study the political efforts, which were taken from 1983 to 1993 to solve the ethic conflict and to examine the factors, which made those efforts unsuccessful. Also intended is to form a pre-assumption on the base on which a future solution should be built up. This study is primarily based on secondary sources. Attention was paid to various standpoints borne by various groups on the political efforts taken to solve the ethnic problem when analyzing the research question. There were various reasons behind the unsuccessful results of the political efforts taken from 1983 to 1993. A major reason for this was the shortcomings of India’s role as a mediator, in solving the ethnic conflict of Sri Lanka. Also responsible were the lack of commitment of the central government of Sri Lanka in solving this conflict and the fact that there was no stable and uniform idea regarding the solution within the government itself. Apart from these the lack of agreement among the Tamil groups regarding, which arose solutions and also the nonflexible manner of the Tamil groups, were also to had been blamed. Also responsible were the protests arisen from the Southern parts of the island regarding the solutions, the lack of awareness among the masses on the political solutions and the lack of transparency of the process of building up a solution. Not only these but also the fact that these solutions were not strong enough to solve the ethnic conflict and their various weaknesses were also responsible for the unsuccessful results of these political efforts.