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Sri Lankan Civil War

Sri Lankan Civil War
Sri Lanka is an island off the coast of India
Military Conflict
ConflictSri Lankan Civil War
DateJuly 23, 1983 � May 18, 2009
LocationSri Lanka
ResultSri Lankan government victory *Rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam organization is wiped out *Sri Lankan government reestablishes control over entire island *Tamil National Alliance drops the demand for a separate state
Territorial
changes
The LTTE had controlled most of the north of the country and half of the eastern coastline from 2002 to 2008. In 2009 all of the territory was recaptured by the government.
Sri Lanka
Indian Peace Keeping Force (1987 � 90)
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
Sri Lanka Junius Richard Jayawardene (1983 � 89)
India Rajiv Gandhi (1987 � 89)  
India V P Singh (1989 � 90)
Sri Lanka Ranasinghe Premadasa (1989 � 93) 
Sri Lanka Dingiri Banda Wijetunge (1993 � 94)
Sri Lanka Chandrika Kumaratunga (1994 � 2005)
Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa (2005 � 2009)
Velupillai Prabhakaran (1983 � 2009) 
Selvarasa Pathmanathan (2009) 
Sri Lanka Sri Lanka Armed Forces:
95,000 (2001)
118,000 (2002)
158,000 (2003)
151,000 (2004)
111,000 (2005)
150,900 (2006)
India Indian Peace Keeping Force:
100,000 (peak)
LTTE
(excluding Auxiliary forces):
6,000 (2001)
6,000 (2002)
7,000 (2003)
7,000 (2004)
11,000 (2005)
8,000 (2006)
7,000 (2007)
(including Auxiliary forces):
25,000 (2006)
30,000 (2008)
23,327+ killed
60,000+ wounded (Sri Lankan military and police)
1,200 killed
(Indian Peace-Keeping Force)
27,000+ LTTE's and other Tamil militants killed
11,644 Tigers captured
60,000 � 100,000 killed overall (estimate)

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The Sri Lankan Civil War was a conflict fought on the island of Sri Lanka. Beginning on July 23, 1983, there was an on-and-off insurgency against the government by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (the LTTE, also known as the Tamil Tigers and other few rebel groups), a separatist militant organization which fought to create an independent Tamil state named Tamil Eelam in the north and the east of the island. After a 26 year long military campaign, the Sri Lankan military defeated the Tamil Tigers in May 2009.

For over 25 years, this civil war caused significant hardships for the population, environment and the economy of the country, with an estimated 80,000 � 100,000 people killed during its course. The tactics employed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam resulted in their being branded as a terrorist organization in 32 countries, including the United States, India, Australia, Canada and the member nations of the European Union. The Sri Lankan government forces have also been accused of human rights abuses.

After two decades of fighting and four failed attempts at peace talks, including the unsuccessful deployment of the Indian Army, the Indian Peace Keeping Force from 1987 to 1990, a lasting negotiated settlement to the conflict appeared possible when a cease-fire was declared in December 2001, and a ceasefire agreement signed with international mediation in 2002. However, limited hostilities renewed in late 2005 and the conflict began to escalate until the government launched a number of major military offensives against the LTTE beginning in July 2006, driving the LTTE out of the entire Eastern province of the island. The LTTE then declared they would "resume their freedom struggle to achieve statehood".

In 2007, the government shifted its offensive to the north of the country, and formally announced its withdrawal from the ceasefire agreement on January 2, 2008, alleging that the LTTE violated the agreement over 10,000 times. Since then, aided by the destruction of a number of large arms smuggling vessels that belonged to the LTTE, and an international crackdown on the funding for the Tamil Tigers, the government took control of the entire area previously controlled by the Tamil Tigers, including their de-facto capital Kilinochchi, main military base Mullaitivu and the entire A9 highway, leading the LTTE to finally admit defeat on May 17, 2009. Following the end of the war, the Sri Lankan government has described Sri Lanka as the first country in the modern world to eradicate terrorism on its own soil. Following the LTTE's defeat, pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance dropped its demand for a separate state, in favour of a federal solution.


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