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.