The Northern Conflict
The ethnic conflict which President Jayewardene had to face in 1977 was an anticlimax to the overwhelming victory he achieved at the polls. An insignificant clash in Jaffna between a group of policemen and some civilians grew out of proportion with the Tamil minority spread over various parts of the country coming under attack.
The history of the circumstances which propelled the dissatisfaction of the Tamil population into an ethnic crisis goes back to the1970/1977 era, enhancing the feelings of discontent they had ever since 1956 about their status as members of a Nation. The emergence of the Republican Constitution in 1972 established the Sinhala language as the official language and giving prominence to Buddhism as the foremost religion. This was sufficient cause for the main Tamil political parties to instill in the minds of the Tamil people that they has been reduced in status to second class citizenship. This sentiment added to the anguish created by the United Front Government in 1970 to restrict university admissions. The grievances were sufficient to bring together the two main political parties the Federal Party and the Ceylon Workers Congress to form the Tamil United Front.
On 24th May 1972 the Federal Party brought forth its six-point plan which spelt out parity status, citizenship to stateless Indian Tamils, a secular state with equality of religions, guarantee of unqualified fundamental rights to all persons, abolition of the untouchable caste and a decentralized structure of government.
By mid May 1976 the Vaddukodai resolution of the Tamil United Front brought about the demand for a separate Tamil state - Eelam. The separatist sentiment had naturally given birth to radical groups as far back as 1970 and by August 1977 the conflict had attracted South Indian attention in that demonstrations were held in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry in sympathy with the Tamils.
President Jayewardene in spite of an overwhelming victory at the 1977 polls, assured of the goodwill of the Tamils, yet found himself quite unwillingly drawn into a local conflict which had by then attracted international attention. Tamil lobbying in most continental countries and some states in Australia and the United States reflected different attitudes towards the problem.
By the end of 1986 the TULF had exiled itself and radical groups represented the Tamil population. After the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Conference, the Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was personally involved in bringing about some proposals to act as a basis of a framework to bring about an acceptable state of peace in Sri Lanka. Most radical groups agreed except the LTTE led by V. Prabhakaran who claimed to be the sole representative of the Tamil population of Sri Lanka. However, after much negotiation and deliberation with the Indian government, President Jayewardene, amidst much criticism from within his own Cabinet and Parliament caused an accord to be drafted and signed by Rajiv Gandhi in Colombo on 29th July 1987. The Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord as it was called, stipulated among other things:
The emergency will be lifted in the Eastern and Northern provinces by 15.08.1987. A cessation of hostilities will come into effect within 48 hours with militant groups surrendering all arms held by them. Consequent to the surrender of arms the Armed Forces will withdraw to barracks.
The Accord brought about a massive protest from the public and violence broke out in the country. An enraged sailor assaulted Rajiv Gandhi who narrowly escaped injury. The JVP which was the most aggressive and violent of the critics was literally out for President Jayewardene's blood. They nearly succeeded in killing him when they caused two grenades to be lobbed into the committee room where President Jayewardene was presiding over a group meeting to discuss the Accord. Several Ministers were injured but President Jayewardene escaped unhurt except for the hearing of one of his ears being impaired in the explosion.
One of the main reasons for objecting to the Accord was its provision for military intervention by India. Although it was worded in the form of an invitation by the President of Sri Lanka to 'guarantee and enforce the cessation of hostilities', the general presumption was that India was forcing itself into an internal problem of Sri Lanka. Whatever the objections were the Indians came in the guise of an Indian Peace Keeping Force to facilitate surrender of arms by separatist groups. Whilst most terrorist groups surrendered arms, the LTTE after a stubborn refusal handed over only a small fraction of the weapons they possessed. Several incidents which followed including the LTTE attacks on Sinhalese settlements and mass killings, and the failure of the IPKF to prevent such incidents attracted the displeasure of other governments world-wide and eventually the IPKF which was originally meant to safeguard the LTTE from the Sri Lankan armed forces reversed its role and started to destroy gradually the LTTE as a political force. Sporadic clashes between the IPKF and the LTTE cadres finally took the shape of open war fare with alarming losses suffered by the IPKF
Most people including the Prime Minister and a few Cabinet Ministers, criticized President Jayewardene for the Indian intervention on the grounds that it usurped the integrity of Sri Lanka. Only a few saw through the strategy adopted by the master tactician President Jayewardene by pitting the Indians against the LTTE terrorists leaving India to bear the loss in lives and expenses whilst the Sri Lankan forces were safe in their barracks. The sad anticlimax was that Rajiv Gandhi, in spite of his noble intervention, had to ultimately pay with his life four years later.
