134-650: Mahinda Rajapaksa ( Sinhala : මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ; Tamil : மஹிந்த ராஜபக்ஷ ; born Percy Mahendra Rajapaksa ; 18 November 1945) is a Sri Lankan politician. He served as the sixth President of Sri Lanka from 2005 to 2015; the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka from 2004 to 2005, 2018, and 2019 to 2022; the Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2004 and 2018 to 2019, and the Minister of Finance from 2005 to 2015 and 2019 to 2021. He has been
268-555: A backbencher in the governing party. Following changes to the admission process to the Sri Lanka Law College , which allowed young MPs to gain admission, he entered Sri Lanka Law College and studied law while serving as an MP. In July 1977, Rajapaksa lost his parliamentary seat in SLFP's landslide defeat in the 1977 general elections , to Dr Ranjit Atapattu who had gained 24,289 votes to Rajapaksa's 17,896. In November 1977, Rajapaksa
402-544: A land mine blast. Their deaths badly affected military morale. The LTTE also scored a major victory when one of its suicide bombers killed Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa in May 1993. In November 1993 the LTTE defeated the army in the Battle of Pooneryn . This attack left 532 Sri Lankan soldiers and 135 sailors either dead or missing in action . In the 1994 parliamentary elections
536-783: A supposed former abundance of lions on the island. According to the chronicle Mahāvaṃsa , written in Pali, Prince Vijaya of the Vanga Kingdom and his entourage merged in Sri Lanka with later settlers from the Pandya kingdom . In the following centuries, there was substantial immigration from Eastern India, including additional migration from the Vanga Kingdom (Bengal), as well as Kalinga and Magadha . This influx led to an admixture of features of Eastern Prakrits. The development of Sinhala
670-653: A Dravidian origin for this word. ), dola for pig in Vedda and offering in Sinhala. Other common words are rera for wild duck, and gala for stones (in toponyms used throughout the island, although others have also suggested a Dravidian origin). There are also high frequency words denoting body parts in Sinhala, such as olluva for head, kakula for leg, bella for neck and kalava for thighs, that are derived from pre-Sinhalese languages of Sri Lanka. The oldest Sinhala grammar, Sidatsan̆garavā , written in
804-541: A Member of Parliament (MP) for Kurunegala since 2015 . Rajapaksa is a lawyer by profession and was first elected to the Parliament of Sri Lanka in 1970. He served as the leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party from 2005 to 2015 . Rajapaksa was sworn in for his first six-year term as president on 19 November 2005. He was subsequently re-elected in 2010 for a second term. Rajapaksa was defeated in his bid for
938-626: A cabinet reshuffle, his portfolio was changed to Minister of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources. When the United National Party (UNP) defeated the People's Alliance in the 2001 elections, Rajapaksa lost his position in the government. He was however appointed as Leader of the Opposition in March 2002. After Sri Lanka's 2004 parliamentary elections, in which the United People's Freedom Alliance gained
1072-550: A common sight. Throughout the country, government death squads hunted down, kidnapped or killed Sinhalese or Tamil youth suspected of sympathizing with the JVP or the LTTE, respectively. In October 1990 the LTTE expelled all the Muslims residing in Northern province . A total of 72,000 Muslims were forced to leave their homes, taking nothing but the clothes on their backs. The largest battle of
1206-659: A court suspended Rajapaksa's powers as prime minister, ruling that his cabinet could not function until establishing its legitimacy. Rajapaksa resigned from the post of prime minister on 15 December 2018. Wickremesinghe was re-appointed as prime minister, and Rajapaksa was appointed Leader of the Opposition. Rajapaksa became the leader of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna in 2019, splitting the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. He became prime minister again on 21 November 2019 after being appointed by his brother, Gotabaya Rajapaksa , who had become president on 18 November after winning
1340-626: A long time, but the Federal Party (as well as its offshoot, the TULF), deeply conservative and dominated by Vellalar casteism, did not attempt to form a national alliance with the leftists in their fight for language rights. Following the sweeping electoral victory of the United National Party (UNP) in July 1977, the TULF became the leading opposition party, with around one-sixth of the total electoral vote winning on
1474-507: A marker he passed on 19 November. In the run-up to the election, several people had been suggested for nomination as the common opposition candidate: former President Chandrika Kumaratunga , UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe , UNP Leadership Council Chairman Karu Jayasuriya , former Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake , and leader of the National Movement for Social Justice Maduluwawe Sobitha Thero . However, on 21 November 2014, after
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#17328594372461608-403: A new constitution within one year of being elected, but not to abolish the executive presidency — it would be amended and the "weakness" in the parliamentary system eliminated. A naval force and a special security force would be set up, with the help of the army , to tackle drug trafficking and other organised crime . The manifesto also pledged to establish a transparent judicial inquiry into
1742-512: A number of concessions to Tamil demands, including devolution of power to the provinces , a merger – subject to later referendum – of the northern and eastern provinces into a single province , and official status for the Tamil language (this was enacted as the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka ). India agreed to establish order in the north and east through
1876-411: A party platform of secession from Sri Lanka. After the 1977 riots the J.R. Jayewardene government made one concession to the Tamil population; it lifted the policy of standardization for university admission that had driven many Tamil youths into militancy. The concession was regarded by the militants as too little too late, and violent attacks continued. By this time TULF started losing its grip over
2010-722: A period of prior bilingualism: "The earliest type of contact in Sri Lanka, not considering the aboriginal Vedda languages, was that which occurred between South Dravidian and Sinhala. It seems plausible to assume prolonged contact between these two populations as well as a high degree of bilingualism. This explains why Sinhala looks deeply South Dravidian for an Indo-Aryan language. There is corroboration in genetic findings." In addition to many Tamil loanwords , several phonetic and grammatical features also present in neighbouring Dravidian languages set modern spoken Sinhala apart from its Northern Indo-Aryan relatives. These features are evidence of close interactions with Dravidian speakers. Some of
2144-440: A publication in his newspaper involving First Lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa . Wickrematunge was detained briefly at Bandaranaike International Airport on 21 February 2006 as he arrived for a flight to Geneva . Airport officials had claimed that Wickrematunge required "special permission" to leave Sri Lanka . On 8 January 2009, Lasantha Wickrematunge was assassinated on the streets of Colombo . After Mahinda Rajapaksa's defeat at
2278-655: A report by an UN-appointed panel of experts, which concluded that as many as 40,000 people were killed in the final weeks of the war between the Tamil Tigers and the government forces. A number of foreign journalists and news teams, such as the UK's Channel Four News , have reported and filmed evidence of targeted shelling of civilians, executions, and atrocities. Dead female Tamil fighters appeared to have been raped or sexually assaulted, abused, and murdered. Rajapaksa and his government have denied all allegations of war crimes. Following
2412-449: A slim majority, Rajapaksa became the new prime minister. He was sworn in as Sri Lanka's 13th Prime Minister on 6 April 2004. While Rajapaksa was prime minister, he was also in charge of the Ministry of Highways, Ports & Shipping . Mahinda Rajapaksa was chosen by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party to run against Ranil Wickremesinghe , former prime minister and Opposition Leader . Wickremesinghe
2546-549: A speech at the ICES-Colombo, indicated that the appropriate investigations into massacres and disappearances of civilians including many children in the Sathurukondan , Eastern University , Mylanthanai and the mass murder and burial of school children at Sooriyakanda were hampered by the adoption of emergency regulations which contributed to a climate of impunity. Along roadsides in the north and east, burning bodies became
2680-521: A third term in the 2015 presidential election by Maithripala Sirisena , and he left office on 9 January 2015. Later that year, Rajapaksa unsuccessfully sought to become prime minister in the 2015 parliamentary election ; that year, the United People's Freedom Alliance was defeated but was elected as the Member of Parliament for the Kurunegala District. On 26 October 2018, Rajapaksa was appointed to
2814-548: A time when the Sri Lankan government stated it was close to defeating the LTTE, India dropped 25 tons of food and medicine by parachute into areas held by the LTTE in a direct move of support to the rebels. Negotiations were held, and the Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord was signed on 29 July 1987 by Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan President Jayewardene . Under this accord the Sri Lankan government made
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#17328594372462948-522: A victory address to the Parliament and declared that Sri Lanka was liberated from terrorism. On 11 January 2006, Lasantha Wickrematunge alleged he was threatened by President Mahinda Rajapaksa with whom he had a close personal friendship with for over 20 years. Wickrematunge was allegedly abused in foul language in a telephone call According to Wickrematunge the President had threatened to “destroy him” over
3082-473: Is a conspicuous example of the linguistic phenomenon known as diglossia . Sinhala ( Siṁhala ) is a Sanskrit term; the corresponding Middle Indo-Aryan ( Eḷu ) word is Sīhala . The name is a derivative of [[[:wikt:सिंह|siṁha]]] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) , the Sanskrit word for 'lion'. The name is sometimes glossed as 'abode of lions', and attributed to
3216-584: Is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken by the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka , who make up the largest ethnic group on the island, numbering about 16 million. Sinhala is also spoken as the first language by other ethnic groups in Sri Lanka, totalling about 2 million speakers as of 2001. It is written using the Sinhala script , which is a Brahmic script closely related to the Grantha script of South India. Sinhala
3350-479: Is divided into four epochs: The most important phonetic developments of Sinhala include: According to Wilhelm Geiger , an example of a possible Western feature in Sinhala is the retention of initial /v/ which developed into /b/ in the Eastern languages (e.g. Sanskrit viṁśati "twenty", Sinhala visi- , Hindi bīs ). This is disputed by Muhammad Shahidullah who says that Sinhala Prakrit branched off from
3484-511: Is neither treacherous nor unpatriotic to seek third-party intervention. He also demanded that the United Nations, alongside NGOs such as Amnesty International , be allowed to come to Sri Lanka and investigate. Rajapaksa requested that foreign nations put human-rights-related conditions on Sri Lanka when giving aid. On 25 October 1990, he said, "If the government is going to deny human rights, we should go not only to Geneva, but to any place in
3618-412: Is one of the official and national languages of Sri Lanka, alongside Tamil . Along with Pali , it played a major role in the development of Theravada Buddhist literature. Early forms of the Sinhala language are attested as early as the 3rd century BCE. The language of these inscriptions, still retaining long vowels and aspirated consonants, is a Prakrit similar to Magadhi , a regional associate of
3752-603: Is said that they would have favoured Wickremesinghe of the UNP party. Rajapaksa received 50.3% of the vote. After becoming President of Sri Lanka, Rajapaksa reshuffled the cabinet and took the portfolios of Defense and Finance in the new cabinet, which was sworn in on 23 November 2005. Immediately following his election in 2005, Rajapaksa extended the term of the Commander of the Sri Lanka Army , Sarath Fonseka , less than 30 days before he
3886-543: Is widely attributed to the initial backing it received from RAW. It is believed that by supporting different militant groups, the Indian government hoped to keep the Tamil independence movement divided and be able to exert overt control over it. India became more actively involved in the late 1980s, and on 5 June 1987 the Indian Air Force airdropped food parcels to Jaffna while it was under siege by Sri Lankan forces. At
4020-562: The 1956 anti-Tamil pogrom and the 1958 anti-Tamil pogrom , in which Sinhalese mobs attacked hundreds of Tamils in Sinhalese-majority areas. Sinhalese in Tamil-majority areas were also attacked by Tamil mobs. Dozens, if not hundreds, mostly Tamils, perished, while thousands of both groups fled to areas where they were in the majority. The civil war was a direct result of the escalation of the confrontational politics that followed. In
4154-523: The 2019 Sri Lankan presidential election . On 9 August 2020, Rajapaksa was sworn in as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka for the fourth time at a Buddhist temple on Colombo's outskirts. On 3 May 2022, a motion of no confidence aimed at Rajapaksa and his cabinet was declared by opposition leaders. He was targeted during the 2022 Sri Lankan protests over the corruption and mismanagement by the Rajapaksa family which led to an economic crisis that brought Sri Lanka to
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4288-735: The All Ceylon Muslim Congress and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress also withdrew from the UPFA government, on 22 and 28 December 2014 respectively, blaming the government's failure to protect Sri Lankan Muslims from Sinhalese Buddhist extremists . Rajapaksa released his manifesto, titled Mahinda's Vision — The World Winning Path , on 23 December 2014 at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall . The manifesto pledged to introduce
4422-669: The Colombo–Katunayake Expressway , and the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium . Sri Lanka also rose into the "high" category of the Human Development Index during this time. Development projects included highways, roads, a Colombo beautification project, and rural infrastructure development. However, the roadway projects reportedly had extremely high costs and were suspected of corruption, and large Chinese loans tripled
4556-563: The Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) and to cease assisting Tamil insurgents. Militant groups including the LTTE, although initially reluctant, agreed to surrender their arms to the IPKF, which initially oversaw a cease-fire and a modest disarmament of the militant groups. The Sri Lankan armed forces were confined to barracks in the north and east, and Sinhalese settlers were disarmed. In October 1987, 12 LTTE members who were prisoners of
4690-489: The Indian Tamil ethnic minority by making it virtually impossible for them to obtain citizenship in the country. Approximately 700,000 Indian Tamils were made stateless. Over the next three decades, more than 300,000 Indian Tamils were deported back to India. It wasn't until 2003 – 55 years after independence – that all Indian Tamils living in Sri Lanka were granted citizenship, but, by this time, they only made up 5% of
4824-497: The Kumarapuram massacre , Tampalakamam massacre , Puthukkudiyiruppu massacre , etc., all of them carried out by government forces. Government troops initially cut off the peninsula from the rest of the island, and then, after seven weeks of heavy fighting, succeeded in bringing Jaffna under government control for the first time in nearly a decade. In a high-profile ceremony, Sri Lankan Defense Minister Col. Anuruddha Ratwatte raised
4958-587: The Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) members N.M. Perera and Philip Gunawardena demanded the replacement of English as the official language by Sinhala and Tamil. In November 1936, a motion that "in the Municipal and Police Courts of the Island the proceedings should be in the vernacular " and that "entries in police stations should be recorded in the language in which they are originally stated" were passed by
5092-700: The Middle Indian Prakrits that had been used during the time of the Buddha . The most closely related languages are the Vedda language (an endangered, indigenous creole still spoken by a minority of Sri Lankans, mixing Sinhala with an isolate of unknown origin and from which Old Sinhala borrowed various aspects into its main Indo-Aryan substrate), and the Maldivian language . It has two main varieties, written and spoken, and
5226-621: The PLO , was that there should be only one. In November 1984, Sinhalese convicts were settled in the Kent and Dollar farms after the Tamil civilians living there were evicted by the Sri Lankan Army. The settlement of prisoners was used to further harass Tamils into leaving the area. The Sinhala settlers confirmed that young Tamil women were abducted, brought there and gang-raped, first by the forces, next by prison guards and finally by prisoners. Initially,
5360-592: The Report of the Secretary-General's Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka stated, "A number of credible sources have estimated that there could have been as many as 40,000 civilian deaths." The Sri Lankan government has repeatedly refused an independent, international investigation to ascertain the full impact of the war, with some reports claiming that government forces were raping and torturing Tamils involved in collating deaths and disappearances. Since
5494-557: The Sinhalese -dominated Sri Lanka government. Violent persecution erupted in the form of the 1956 , 1958 , 1977 , 1981 and 1983 anti-Tamil pogroms , as well as the 1981 burning of the Jaffna Public Library . These were carried out by the majority Sinhalese mobs often with state support, in the years following Sri Lanka's independence from the British Empire in 1948. Shortly after gaining independence, Sinhalese
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5628-600: The Sri Lankan Tamils from working in the Ceylon Civil Service and other public services . The Tamil -speaking minorities of Ceylon (Sri Lankan Tamils, Indian Tamils and Sri Lankan Moors ) viewed the Act as linguistic, cultural and economic discrimination against them. Many Tamil-speaking civil servants / public servants were forced to resign because they weren't fluent in Sinhala. Tension over this policy led to
5762-576: The UNESCO National Commission of Ceylon According to Wilhelm Geiger , Sinhala has features that set it apart from other Indo-Aryan languages. Some of the differences can be explained by the substrate influence of the parent stock of the Vedda language . Sinhala has many words that are only found in Sinhala, or shared between Sinhala and Vedda and not etymologically derivable from Middle or Old Indo-Aryan. Possible examples include kola for leaf in Sinhala and Vedda (although others suggest
5896-625: The Valvettithurai massacre . The Anuradhapura massacre sparked the Kumudini boat massacre in which over 23 Tamil civilians died. Over time the LTTE merged with or largely exterminated almost all the other militant Tamil groups. As a result, many Tamil splinter groups ended up working with the Sri Lankan government as paramilitaries or denounced violence and joined mainstream politics; some Tamil-oriented political parties remained, all opposed to LTTE's vision of an independent state. Peace talks between
6030-506: The Vanni region in the interior. Most of the refugees returned later the next year. The LTTE responded by launching Operation Unceasing Waves and decisively won the Battle of Mullaitivu on 18 July 1996, leaving 1,173 army troops dead which included 207 officers and men executed after surrendering to the LTTE. The government launched another offensive in August 1996. Another 200,000 civilians fled
6164-574: The alleged war crimes during the final stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War , but Rajapaksa had refused to co-operate with the UN investigation. In the presidential election of 8 January 2015, Rajapaksa was defeated by his ex-aide Maithripala Sirisena , winning only 47.6% of the vote. Many had accused Rajapaksa of authoritarianism , nepotism , poor governance, and corruption. In June 2018, The New York Times reported that President Rajapaksa, during
6298-648: The banning of the import of Tamil-language media and the preference given by the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka to Buddhism , the main religion followed by the Sinhalese. Prabhakaran formed the Tamil New Tigers (TNT) in 1972. The formation of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) with the Vaddukkodei (Vattukottai) resolution of 1976 led to a hardening of attitudes. The resolution called for
6432-557: The family home in Medamulana . At the age of six, he was sent to his father's school Richmond College in Galle . Initially, he and his elder brother were boarded with a family in Galle, later their mother rented a house in Galle called the 'Singapore House' and moved there to facilitate the education of the growing family. In the mid-fifties, the Rajapaksa family moved to Colombo and Mahinda Rajapaksa
6566-422: The presidential election in 2015 , the new government of President Maithripala Sirisena reopened the investigation over allegations that former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa ordered the assassination. In 2010, WikiLeaks made public classified US messages sent during 2009 and 2010, stating that American diplomats, including the US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Patricia A. Butenis , believed that Rajapaksa
6700-427: The 'traditional enemy of the Sinhalese'. At the time of independence in 1948, Tamils comprised around 30% of the higher ranks of civil service, while comprising around 20% of the island's population. In 1956 Prime Minister S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike passed the " Sinhala Only Act ", which replaced English with Sinhala as the only official language of the country. This was seen as a deliberate attempt to discourage
6834-464: The 13th century CE, recognised a category of words that exclusively belonged to early Sinhala. The grammar lists naram̆ba (to see) and koḷom̆ba (fort or harbour) as belonging to an indigenous source. Koḷom̆ba is the source of the name of the commercial capital Colombo . The consistent left branching syntax and the loss of aspirated stops in Sinhala is attributed to a probable South Dravidian substratum effect. This has been explained by
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#17328594372466968-450: The 2005 presidential election, opposition parties accused Rajapaksa of bribing the LTTE to dissuade people from voting in the northern and eastern provinces . Most voters in these areas were forcibly restrained from voting by the militant group and, according to observers, they would have favoured the opposition candidate Ranil Wickremesinghe . In the 2010 election, Rajapaksa was accused of manipulating election results using computers. In
7102-447: The 2015 election, according to the Presidential Commission of Inquiry investigating irregularities into SriLankan Airlines , it was revealed that security officers and vehicles of the national carrier had been used in the Rajapaksa's 2015 presidential campaign. At the time, Nishantha Wickramasinghe, a brother-in-law of Rajapaksa, was also Chairman of SriLankan Airlines until Rajapaksa lost the presidential election in 2015. Capitalizing on
7236-443: The 2015 presidential campaign and elections, received large payments from a Chinese port construction fund that flowed directly to campaign aides and activities. Rajapaksa had agreed to Chinese terms and was seen as an important ally in China's efforts to tilt influence away from India in South Asia. The payments were confirmed by documents and checks detailed in a government investigation report obtained by The New York Times . During
7370-491: The British to employ Tamils from India to work on tea plantations, furthering fears of racial decline among the Sinhalese. English language schools were also established in Jaffna by the American Ceylon Mission , which provided English-language skills for the Tamil population in Jaffna. The British favored English speakers, so Tamils outcompeted their Sinhalese counterparts in the civil service sector. In 1919, major Sinhalese and Tamil political organizations united to form
7504-412: The Ceylon National Congress, under the leadership of Ponnambalam Arunachalam , to press the colonial government for more constitutional reforms. British colonial administrator William Manning actively encouraged the concept of "communal representation" and created the Colombo town seat in 1920, which alternated between the Tamils and the Sinhalese. After their election to the State Council in 1936,
7638-427: The Colombo Tamil leadership, and in the end rejected and annihilated them. The most prominent of these groups was the TNT, which changed its name to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or the LTTE , in 1976. The LTTE initially carried out a campaign of violence against the state, particularly targeting policemen and also moderate Tamil politicians who attempted a dialogue with the government. Their first major operation
7772-404: The Constitution. This amendment allowed Rajapaksa to run for a third term and cement his grip on power. The move came just a day after the Supreme Court ruled that a referendum was not required to make the change. The amendment had consequences beyond just term limits, including provisions that increased the president's power to act without oversight, removing an independent advisory council that
7906-581: The Eastern Prakrits prior to this change. He cites the edicts of Ashoka , no copy of which shows this sound change. An example of an Eastern feature is the ending -e for masculine nominative singular (instead of Western -o ) in Sinhalese Prakrit. There are several cases of vocabulary doublets , one example being the words mæssā ("fly") and mækkā ("flea"), which both correspond to Sanskrit makṣikā but stem from two regionally different Prakrit words macchiā (Western Prakrits) and makkhikā (as in Eastern Prakrits like Pali ). In 1815,
8040-449: The IPKF in Sri Lanka resulted in the deaths of 1200 Indian soldiers and over 5000 Sri Lankans. The cost for the Indian government was estimated at over ₹10.3 billion. Support for the LTTE in India dropped considerably in 1991, after the assassination of ex-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by a female suicide bomber, Thenmozhi Rajaratnam . The Indian press subsequently reported that Prabhakaran decided to eliminate Gandhi, as he considered
8174-455: The IPKF to take control of most areas in the north of the country enabled the Sri Lanka government to shift its forces to the south to quell the protests. This led to an uprising by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna in the south, which was put down bloodily over the next two years. While most Tamil militant groups laid down their weapons and agreed to seek a peaceful solution to the conflict, the LTTE refused to disarm its fighters. Keen to ensure
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#17328594372468308-533: The Jaffna peninsula and the air force relentlessly bombed the north. In the second half of 1990, 4500 Tamils were killed or disappeared by security forces in Batticaloa and Amparai District alone. The LTTE responded by attacking Sinhalese and Muslim villages and massacring civilians. One of the largest civilian massacres of the war occurred when the LTTE massacred 166 Muslim civilians at Palliyagodella . The government trained and armed Home Guard Muslim units. Notable international jurist Neelan Thiruchelvam , in
8442-534: The LTTE and the government began in Thimphu in 1985, but they soon failed and the war continued. In 1986 many civilians were massacred as part of this conflict. In 1987 government troops pushed LTTE fighters to the northern city of Jaffna . In April 1987 the conflict exploded with ferocity, as both government forces and LTTE fighters engaged in a series of bloody operations. The Sri Lankan military launched an offensive, called "Operation Liberation" or Vadamarachchi Operation , during May–June 1987 to regain control of
8576-441: The LTTE carried out their first suicide attack. Captain Miller of the Black Tigers drove a small truck carrying explosives through the wall of a fortified Sri Lankan army camp, reportedly killing 40 soldiers. The LTTE carried out over 378 suicide attacks , one of the largest suicide campaigns in the world, and the suicide attack became a trademark of the LTTE and a characteristic of the civil war. [REDACTED] Involvement
8710-403: The LTTE gained prominence due to devastating attacks such as the Kent and Dollar Farm massacres of 1984, where 62 men, women and children were attacked during the night as they slept and were hacked to death with fatal blows to the head from axes. Attacks were often carried out in revenge for attacks committed by the Sri Lankan Army , such as the Anuradhapura massacre which immediately followed
8844-481: The LTTE to fight the IPKF and its proxy Tamil National Army (TNA). Although casualties among the IPKF mounted, and calls for the withdrawal of the IPKF from both sides of the Sri Lankan conflict grew, Gandhi refused to remove the IPKF from Sri Lanka. However, following his defeat in Indian parliamentary elections in December 1989, new Prime Minister V.P. Singh ordered the withdrawal of the IPKF, and their last ship left Sri Lanka on 24 March 1990. The 32-month presence of
8978-759: The Prime Minister, a person "who, in the President's opinion, is most likely to command the confidence of Parliament"; this is usually the leader of the party in power. Although Rajapaksa was elected as a Member of Parliament for Kurunegala with 423,529 preferential votes, his party was defeated in the election by Ranil Wickremesinghe 's United National Party ; Wickremesinghe was appointed as prime minister. Sinhala language Sinhala ( / ˈ s ɪ n h ə l ə , ˈ s ɪ ŋ ə l ə / SIN -hə-lə, SING -ə-lə ; Sinhala: සිංහල , siṁhala , [ˈsiŋɦələ] ), sometimes called Sinhalese ( / ˌ s ɪ n ( h ) ə ˈ l iː z , ˌ s ɪ ŋ ( ɡ ) ə ˈ l iː z / SIN -(h)ə- LEEZ , SING -(g)ə- LEEZ ),
9112-405: The Provincial Council would go ahead with a unilateral declaration of independence of the northern and eastern provinces, as in the case of Rhodesia . President Premadasa moved to quickly dissolve the Council (March 1990). At the same time LTTE used terror tactics to scare Sinhalese and Muslim farmers away from the north and east of the island, and swiftly took control of a significant portion of
9246-409: The Rajapaksa had moved about 2,000 troops into Colombo from the Northern Province three days before the election results were announced. The general claimed that the troops were ready take action on a coup. However, the cabinet spokesperson of the new government stated, during a press conference held on 24 March 2015, that there was no evidence to prove that such a coup was attempted on the night of
9380-399: The State Council and referred to the Legal Secretary. However, in 1944, J.R. Jayawardena moved in the State Council that Sinhala should replace English as the official language. Ethnic tensions were exacerbated immediately after independence in 1948, when a controversial law was passed by the Ceylon Parliament called the Ceylon Citizenship Act , which deliberately discriminated against
9514-464: The Supreme Court dismissed legal objections regarding President Rajapaksa's eligibility to seek a third term. Two years ahead of schedule, in November 2014, Rajapaksa signed an official proclamation confirming that he would seek re-election for a third term, after being unanimously endorsed by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party . Though his second term officially was to end in November 2016, he could legally seek re-election after completing four years in office,
9648-451: The Tamil people. Furthermore, the cessation of aid to the tsunami-damaged LTTE-occupied areas, and the sidelining of the Norwegian facilitators due to their alleged bias were included. Immediately following his election victory, a series of mine blasts blamed on the LTTE claimed the lives of many off-duty servicemen and civilians, pushing the country back to the brink of civil war. Following
9782-518: The UNP was defeated and the People's Alliance , headed by Chandrika Kumaratunga , came to power on a peace platform. During the Presidential election campaign an LTTE bomb attack was carried out during a rally held at Thotalanga, Grandpass , eliminating the entire leadership of UNP, including its presidential candidate, Gamini Dissanayake . Kumaratunga became the president with a 62% majority. A cease-fire
9916-499: The assassination, although he stopped short of outright acceptance of responsibility. In a 2011 interview, Kumaran Pathmanathan , who was the Treasurer of LTTE and its chief arms procurer, apologized to India for Velupillai Prabhakaran's "mistake" of killing former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. He further said Rajiv's assassination was "well planned and done actually with Prabhakaran and (LTTE intelligence chief Pottu Amman). Everyone knows
10050-406: The base year, was reduced to 3.4 and 4.5 percent, respectively. A forensic audit was launched, with International Monetary Fund help, on various projects initiated by Rajapaksa. The audit confirmed that Sri Lanka had additional liabilities of 1.3 trillion rupees (8.9 billion US dollars). Rajapaksa was accused of election fraud in relation to both of his previous presidential election runs. During
10184-415: The capital, and elsewhere (see Black July ). According to Tamil Center for Human Rights 5,638 Tamils were massacred and 250,000 Tamils fled were displaced internally during Black July ; majority of them fled Sinhala-majority areas. This is considered the beginning of the civil war. Apart from the LTTE, there initially was a plethora of militant groups (see list ). The LTTE's position, adopted from that of
10318-462: The cease-fire broke down. The government then launched an offensive and tried to retake Jaffna but failed. This phase of the war soon acquired the name Eelam War II , and featured unprecedented brutality. On 11 June 1990 the LTTE massacred 600 policemen in the Eastern Province after they had surrendered on promises of safe-conduct. The government placed an embargo on food and medicine entering
10452-579: The closure by the LTTE of the Mavil Aru reservoir supplying water to 15,000 people in government-controlled areas on 21 July 2006, the Sri Lankan military launched an offensive against the LTTE, bringing the entire reservoir under government control. Further military engagements led to the LTTE being driven out of the entire Eastern Province of Sri Lanka and loss of 95% of the territory they had controlled. The Sri Lankan government declared total victory on 18 May 2009. On 19 May 2009, President Rajapaksa delivered
10586-527: The continued Indian presence in Sri Lanka. These led to the Sri Lankan government's call for India to quit the island, and the government allegedly entered into a secret deal with the LTTE that culminated in a cease-fire. However, the LTTE and IPKF continued to have frequent clashes. In April 1989 the Ranasinghe Premadasa government ordered the Sri Lanka army to clandestinely hand over arms consignments to
10720-494: The country's foreign debt and created an economic crisis. Rajapaksa claimed that under his tenure, Sri Lanka started to experience rapid economic growth and that the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate reached over 7%. However, these claims have been disputed, and after his terms in office ended, the successor government revealed that GDP growth was inflated by using the year 2002 as the base year. GDP growth for 2013 and 2014, which had been calculated at 7.2% and 7.4% using 2002 as
10854-420: The creation of a secular, socialist state of Tamil Eelam, based on the right of self-determination . The TULF clandestinely supported the armed actions of the young militants who were dubbed "our boys" . TULF leader Appapillai Amirthalingam even provided letters of reference to the LTTE and to other Tamil insurgent groups to raise funds. Amirthalingam introduced Prabhakaran to N.S. Krishnan, who later became
10988-526: The election had been called, Maithripala Sirisena was announced as the common opposition candidate by the UNP. Sirisena had been Minister of Health in Rajapaksa's government and general secretary of the SLFP before defecting to the opposition coalition. Sirisena immediately received the support of former President Chandrika Kumaratunga and several UPFA MPs that had defected alongside him ( Duminda Dissanayake , M. K. D. S. Gunawardena , Wasantha Senanayake , Rajitha Senaratne , and Rajiva Wijesinha ). Sirisena and
11122-433: The election. A spokesman for Rajapaksa has denied the allegations as baseless. The army and police also denied the allegations. Rajapaksa unsuccessfully sought to become prime minister again, after losing his third-term presidential bid, in the 2015 parliamentary elections . The position of Prime Minister is largely that of a senior member of the cabinet who acts as a deputy to the President. The President directly appoints
11256-531: The end of the Sri Lankan Civil War in May 2009, coming off an election win in January 2010, and with the near-collapse of the opposition United National Party , President Rajapaksa rallied more than the two-thirds majority in Parliament necessary to pass an amendment to the constitution removing presidential term limits. On 9 September 2010, Parliament passed the amendment to remove presidential term limits from
11390-535: The end of the civil war, the Sri Lankan state has been subject to much global criticism for violating human rights as a result of committing war crimes through bombing civilian targets, usage of heavy weaponry, the abduction and massacres of Sri Lankan Tamils and sexual violence . The LTTE gained notoriety for carrying out numerous attacks against civilians of all ethnicities, particularly those of Sinhalese and Sri Lankan Muslim ethnicity, using child soldiers , assassinations of politicians and dissenters, and
11524-456: The end of the conflict, a rift emerged between Rajapaksa and Fonseka over reasons which are still disputed. On 15 November 2009, Rajapaksa ordered Fonseka to leave his post as Chief of the Defence Staff with immediate effect through a letter from his secretary. Fonseka then joined the opposition as the candidate against Rajapaksa in the 2010 Presidential election , which Rajapaksa won. Fonseka
11658-487: The ex-Prime Minister to be against the Tamil liberation struggle and feared that he might re-induct the IPKF, which Prabhakaran termed the "satanic force", if he won the 1991 Indian general election . In 1998 a court in India presided over by Special Judge V. Navaneetham found the LTTE and its leader Velupillai Prabhakaran responsible for the assassination. In a 2006 interview, LTTE ideologue Anton Balasingham expressed regret over
11792-469: The examination in their language. Officially the policy was designed to increase the representation of students from rural areas. In practice the policy reduced the numbers of Sri Lankan Tamil students who had previously, based on their examination scores alone, gained admission in a higher proportion than their participation in the examination. They were now required to gain higher marks than Sinhalese students to gain admission to universities. For instance,
11926-1210: The features that may be traced to Dravidian influence are: ඒක ēka it අලුත් aḷut new කියලා kiyalā having-said මම mama I දන්නවා dannavā know ඒක අලුත් කියලා මම දන්නවා ēka aḷut kiyalā mama dannavā it new having-said I know "I know that it is new." ඒක ēka it අලුත් aḷut new ද da Q කියලා kiyalā having-said මම mama I දන්නේ Sri Lankan civil war Sri Lankan government victory [REDACTED] Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam [REDACTED] PLOTE (1983–1989) [REDACTED] Sri Lanka Armed Forces [REDACTED] Indian Armed Forces ( 1987–1990 ) [REDACTED] Pakistan Armed Forces ( 2006-2009 ) [REDACTED] Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam [REDACTED] Sri Lanka Armed Forces : 95,000 (2001) 118,000 (2002) 158,000 (2003) 151,000 (2004) 111,000 (2005) 150,900 (2006) 210,000 (2008) Estimates of death toll: The Sri Lankan civil war ( Tamil : இலங்கை உள்நாட்டுப் போர் , romanized: Ilaṅkai uḷnāṭṭup pōr ; Sinhala : ශ්රී ලංකාවේ සිවිල් යුද්ධය , romanized: śrī laṁkāvē sivil yuddhaya )
12060-483: The final months of the election, the ambassador of China to Sri Lanka had lobbied voters, "even caddies at Colombo's premier golf course", to support Rajapaksa over the opposition, which was threatening to tear up economic agreements with the Chinese government. With the election coming around, large payments started to flow toward the president's circle. Affiliates of Rajapaksa's campaign received at least $ 7.6 million that
12194-408: The first international representative of LTTE. It was Krishnan who introduced Prabhakaran to Anton Balasingham, who later became the chief political strategist and chief negotiator of LTTE. The "boys" were the product of the post-war population explosion. Many partially educated, unemployed Tamil youth fell for revolutionary solutions to their problems. The leftist parties had remained "non-communal" for
12328-590: The government committed suicide , leading to an anti-Sinhalese pogrom committed by Tamil militants, especially the LTTE, throughout the Eastern Province in which 150 Sinhalese were killed and tens of thousands were made refugees. The signing of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord, so soon after J.R. Jayawardene's declaration that he would fight the Indians to the last bullet, led to unrest in the south. The arrival of
12462-461: The government could not protect them or their cultural heritage and persuaded many of them to back a separate state. In July 1983 the LTTE launched a deadly ambush on Sri Lanka army patrol Four Four Bravo outside the town of Thirunelveli , killing an officer and 12 soldiers. Using nationalistic sentiments to their advantage, members of the ruling UNP organized massacres and pogroms in Colombo ,
12596-672: The government peacefully transferring to Maithripala Sirisena. The Sirisena government launched a probe into the alleged coup by Rajapaksa. The government argued that Rajapaksa attempted to seize the poll-counting centres when he realised that he was losing the election. One of the witnesses, the Attorney General, described to the Criminal Investigation Department the coup attempt made by Rajapaksa. The Attorney General said that he had refused to act on behalf of Rajapaksa. Former army chief General Sarath Fonseka claimed that
12730-559: The government to support Rajapaksa. Attanayake was later appointed Minister of Health, the post previously held by Sirisena. Rajapaksa also received support from the Buddhist extremist group Bodu Bala Sena . However, the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) party withdrew from the UPFA government on 18 November 2014, citing Rajapaksa's refusal to reform the executive presidency and enact reforms to promote accountability. After much hesitation,
12864-538: The island of Ceylon came under British rule . During the career of Christopher Reynolds as a Sinhalese lecturer at the School of African and Oriental Studies, University of London , he extensively researched the Sinhalese language and its pre-1815 literature. The Sri Lankan government awarded him the Sri Lanka Ranjana medal for his work. He wrote the 377-page An anthology of Sinhalese literature up to 1815 , selected by
12998-500: The island's population. Prior to 1950, various minority groups, excluding the Sri Lankan Tamils , had been attacked by Sinhalese Buddhists, these included Christians, Muslims and Malayalis . The Sri Lankan Tamils however had remained largely untouched. Early Sinhala Buddhist propaganda was directed mainly against foreign and religious ethnic minorities. This changed in the 1950s as the Sri Lankan Tamils were rediscovered to be
13132-478: The late 1960s several Tamil youth, among them Velupillai Prabhakaran , also became involved in these activities. They carried out several hit-and-run operations against pro-government Tamil politicians, Sri Lanka police and the civil administration. During the 1970s the Policy of standardization was initiated. Under the policy, students were admitted to university in proportion to the number of applicants who sat for
13266-462: The leader of the LTTE. In May 1981 the burning of the Jaffna library , in the presence of two Sinhalese cabinet members, by what witnesses described as uniformed police and Sinhalese mobs, resulted in the destruction of more than 90,000 books, including palm leaf scrolls of immense historical value. This violent example of ethnic biblioclasm was a major turning point in convincing the Tamil people that
13400-439: The militant groups. LTTE ordered civilians to boycott the local government elections of 1983 in which even TULF contested. Voter turnout was as low as 10%. Thereafter, Tamil political parties were unable to represent the interests of the Tamil community. Supported by the ongoing politics of conflict in Sri Lanka, politicised Tamil youth in the north and east started to form militant groups . These groups developed independently of
13534-485: The mothers of those who had "disappeared" during the 1987–1989 JVP insurrection ; the insurrection was instigated by a rebel group that called themselves Deshapremi Jathika Vyaparaya , or "Patriotic National Movement". During the insurrection, Rajapaksa frequently tried to encourage third-party intervention. He frequently complained about Sri Lanka's situation while in Geneva; he claimed that to restore democratic ideals, it
13668-532: The national flag inside the Jaffna Fort on 5 December 1995. The government estimated that approximately 2500 soldiers and rebels were killed in the offensive, and an estimated 7,000 wounded. Many civilians were killed in this conflict, such as the Navaly church bombing in which over 125 civilians died. The LTTE and more than 350,000 civilians, compelled by SL military operations and LTTE pressure to leave Jaffna, fled to
13802-570: The office of prime minister by President Maithripala Sirisena after the United People's Freedom Alliance withdrew from the unity government. The incumbent, Ranil Wickremesinghe , refused to accept his dismissal, stating that it was unconstitutional. This disagreement resulted in a constitutional crisis . The Sri Lankan Parliament passed two no-confidence motions brought against Rajapaksa on 14 and 16 November 2018. Failing to follow proper procedures, President Sirisena rejected both. On 3 December 2018,
13936-514: The orders. According to MPs Rajitha Senaratne and Mangala Samaraweera , before going to the Army Chief, Rajapaksa had earlier instructed the Attorney General to prepare the necessary documentation for the issuance of a State of Emergency , but the Attorney General had refused. Rajapaksa subsequently accepted defeat and left the Temple Trees , the official residence of president, with the control of
14070-723: The other UPFA MPs were stripped of their ministerial positions and expelled from the SLFP. Rajapaksa received the backing of a number of small constituent parties of the UPFA, including the Ceylon Workers' Congress , Communist Party , the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP), the National Freedom Front , the National Union of Workers, and the Up-Country People's Front . On nomination day, 8 December 2014, two opposition MPs, Tissa Attanayake and Jayantha Ketagoda , defected to
14204-425: The peace process once in power by allying with the Sinhalese nationalist parties, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and Jathika Hela Urumaya . The JVP had opposed the original 2002 peace process as treasonous. The agreement made with Rajapaksa included provisions that called for a revision of the ceasefire agreement to give the military broader powers against the LTTE, as well as ruling out any devolution of power to
14338-659: The point of bankruptcy as it defaulted on its loans for the first time in its history since independence. Protesters called him " Myna " and demanded his resignation which he resisted. On 9 May 2022, Mahinda Rajapaksa organised his supporters at his official residence who were brought by buses and led by SLPP MPs. The loyalists then attacked protestors at Temple Trees before assaulting protestors at Galle Face as attacks were carried out simultaneously against protests in other areas; however this intensified protests and retaliatory violence against Rajapaksa loyalists erupted islandwide and Mahinda Rajapaksa submitted his letter of resignation
14472-418: The poor. Pushpa Rajapaksa is Mahinda Rajapaksa's sister-in-law, wife of his brother, Basil Rajapaksa , who was also his economic development minister. CICT did not say how the money was used. According to Sri Lankan MP Athuraliye Rathana Thero , Rajapaksa attempted a coup d'état hours after the announcement of the election results, in order to remain in power, but the Army Chief, Jagath Jayasuriya , disobeyed
14606-666: The president was previously required to consult before appointing people to important non-partisan posts, such as Supreme Court judges and members of the human rights and electoral commissions. A Parliamentary Council without veto power and with only two opposition members was created in its place. In a move that was widely seen as solidifying his control over the Supreme Court, Rajapaksa removed chief justice Shirani Bandaranayake from office in January 2013, allowing Rajapaksa to appoint an ally and legal adviser, former Attorney General Mohan Peiris , as Chief Justice. In November 2014,
14740-409: The qualifying mark for admission to the medical faculties was 250 out of 400 for Tamil students, but only 229 for Sinhalese. The number of Sri Lankan Tamil students entering universities fell dramatically. The policy was abandoned in 1977. Other forms of official discrimination against the Sri Lankan Tamils included the state-sponsored colonization of traditional Tamil areas by Sinhalese peasants ,
14874-510: The same day. During Rajapaksa's political career, he has been accused of multiple crimes including war crimes during the last years of the Sri Lankan civil war as well as other criminal accusations including human rights violations during his presidency, corruption and for instigating violence on anti-government protestors on 9 May 2022. As of 2023 he has been sanctioned by Canada for human rights violations. Rajapaksa spent his formative years at
15008-469: The success of the accord, the IPKF then tried to demobilize the LTTE by force and ended up in full-scale conflict with them. The three-year-long conflict was also marked by the IPKF being accused of committing various abuses by many human rights groups as well as some within the Indian media. The IPKF also soon met stiff opposition from the Tamils. Simultaneously, nationalist sentiment led many Sinhalese to oppose
15142-521: The territory in the Jaffna peninsula from the LTTE. This marked the Sri Lankan military's first conventional warfare on Sri Lankan soil since independence. The offensive was successful, and LTTE leader Prabhakaran and Sea Tiger leader Thillaiyampalam Sivanesan alias Soosai narrowly escaped from advancing troops at Valvettithurai. Key military personnel involved in the operation were Lt Col. Vipul Boteju, Lt. Col. Sarath Jayawardane, Col. Vijaya Wimalaratne and Brig. Gen. Denzil Kobbekaduwa . In July 1987
15276-559: The territory. When the Indian Peace-Keeping Force withdrew in 1989–90, the LTTE established many government-like functions in the areas under its control. A tentative cease-fire held in 1990 as the LTTE occupied itself with destroying rival Tamil groups while the government cracked down on the JVP uprising with the Operation Combine . When both major combatants had established their power bases, they turned on each other and
15410-550: The truth". India remained an outside observer of the conflict after the assassination. The violence continued unabated despite the steps taken to appease Tamil sentiments, such as the 13th Amendment (enacted in November 1987). Meanwhile, the Chief Minister of the then North and East Provincial Council , Vartharaja Perumal , put forward a 19-point demand to resolve the ethnic crisis. He threatened if these demands were not met that
15544-564: The use of suicide bombings against military, political and civilian targets. The origins of the Sri Lankan civil war lie in the continuous political rancor between the majority Sinhalese and the minority Tamils . The roots of the modern conflict extend back to the colonial era , when the country was known as Ceylon. The British colonial period lasted from 1815 to 1948, during which the British sought monetary gain from Sri Lanka's supply of tea, coffee, coconuts, and rubber. A labour shortage led
15678-586: The war took place in July 1991, when 5,000 LTTE fighters surrounded the army's Elephant Pass base, which controlled access to the Jaffna Peninsula . More than 2,000 died on both sides in the month-long siege, before 10,000 government troops arrived to relieve the base. In February 1992 another series of government offensives failed to capture Jaffna. Lt. Gen. Denzil Kobbekaduwa together with Maj. Gen. Vijaya Wimalaratne and Rear Adm. Mohan Jayamaha , died on 8 August 1992 at Araly (Aeraella) point Jaffna due to
15812-454: The world, or hell if necessary, and act against the government. The lamentation of this country's innocents should be raised anywhere." In 1994, Rajapaksa appeared in the Sinhalese film Nomiyena Minisun . In 1994, following the election victory of the People's Alliance , a political front led by Sri Lanka Freedom Party and headed by Chandrika Kumaratunga , Rajapaksa was appointed Minister of Labor. He held this post until 1997 when, following
15946-608: Was called to the bar as an attorney at law . He thereafter started his legal practice in criminal law in the Unofficial Bar in Tangalle , which he did until 1994. He continued to engage in politics and was re-elected to parliament in 1989, representing Hambantota District under proportional representation. He came to prominence as a leader, together with Dr Manorani Saravanamuttu of the Mothers' Front. Saravanamuttu's organization united
16080-581: Was a civil war fought in Sri Lanka from 1983 to 2009. Beginning on 23 July 1983, it was an intermittent insurgency against the government by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE, also known as the Tamil Tigers) led by Velupillai Prabhakaran . The LTTE fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eelam in the north-east of the island, due to the continuous discrimination and violent persecution against Sri Lankan Tamils by
16214-554: Was admitted to Nalanda College, Colombo . Later in 1957, he transferred to Thurstan College , where he took part in sports such as cricket , rugby and athletics, taking part in the 400m relay team and becoming the shot put champion. In the mid-sixties, he started work as a library assistant at the Vidyodaya Pirivena and soon became active in leftwing politics. He became a member of the Ceylon Mercantile Union and
16348-459: Was agreed to in January 1995, but the ensuing negotiations proved fruitless. The LTTE broke the cease-fire and blew up two gunboats, SLNS Sooraya and SLNS Ranasuru of the Sri Lanka Navy on 19 April, thereby beginning the next phase of the war, dubbed Eelam War III . The new government then pursued a policy of "war for peace". Determined to retake the key rebel stronghold of Jaffna, which
16482-534: Was appointed as SLFP organiser for Beliatta in 1968. Rajapaksa contested the 1970 general elections as the SLFP candidate for the Beliatta constituency and was elected to the House of Representatives having gained 23,103 votes against his rival Dr Ranjit Atapattu from the United National Party (UNP) who gained 16,477. At the time he was the youngest member of parliament (MP) at the age of twenty-four years and served as
16616-597: Was dispensed from China Harbor's account at Standard Chartered Bank. A sum of around $ 3.7 million was distributed in checks with ten days to go before polls opened, including $ 678,000 to print campaign t-shirts and other promotional material, and $ 297,000 to buy supporters' gifts, including women's saris. $ 38,000 was paid to a popular Buddhist monk who was supporting the Rajapaksa campaign, while two checks totalling $ 1.7 million were delivered by volunteers to Temple Trees . A subaccount controlled by China Harbor, called "HPDP Phase 2", shorthand for Hambantota Port Development Project,
16750-597: Was elected its branch secretary in 1967. His father who had lost his parliamentary seat in the 1965 general elections , died in November 1967. The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) party leader Sirimavo Bandaranaike offered his father's post of SLFP party organiser for the Beliatta electorate to his older brother Chamal. Chamal who had joined the Ceylon Police Force as a Sub-inspector , turndown Mrs Bandaranaike's offer in favour of his younger brother and Mahinda Rajapaksa
16884-472: Was occupied by 2,000 rebels, it poured troops into the peninsula in the successful Operation Riviresa . In one particular incident in August 1995, Air Force jets bombed St. Peter's church at Navali (Naavaella), killing at least 65 refugees and wounding 150 others. In another instance in the same year, over 40 people were massacred in Nagerkovil and more civilian massacres followed in subsequent years, such as
17018-745: Was particularly strong in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu , where ethnic kinship led to strong support for the independence of Sri Lankan Tamils. Throughout the conflict the Indian central and state governments supported both sides in different ways. From August 1983 until May 1987 the Indian government, through its intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), provided arms, training and monetary support to six Sri Lankan Tamil militant groups including LTTE, Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO), People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students (EROS) Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) and Tamil Eelam Liberation Army (TELA). LTTE's rise
17152-413: Was recognized as the sole official language of the nation. After a 26-year military campaign, the Sri Lankan military defeated the Tamil Tigers in May 2009 , bringing the civil war to an end. Up to 70,000 had been killed by 2007. Immediately following the end of war, on 20 May 2009, the UN estimated a total of 80,000–100,000 deaths. However, in 2011, referring to the final phase of the war in 2009,
17286-480: Was responsible for massacres of Tamil civilians and captured LTTE fighters at the end of the war against the LTTE. The cables also stated that the responsibility for many of the alleged crimes rested with the country's senior civilian and military leadership, including President Rajapaksa, his brothers, and General Fonseka. In April 2011, the Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon published
17420-500: Was scheduled to retire. Over the next three and a half years, Fonseka and Rajapaksa's brother, Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa , led the country's armed forces in their battle against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE, or Tamil Tigers), ultimately defeating the Tigers and killing their leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran . Although styling himself as a man of peace and a willing negotiator, Rajapaksa signalled his intention to end
17554-669: Was subsequently sentenced to two years in jail for various offences by a court martial . President Rajapaksa signed documents for the release of Fonseka in May 2012. His presidency after ending the civil war in 2009 is known for initiating large-scale infrastructure projects such as the Colombo Lotus Tower , Magampura Mahinda Rajapaksa Port , the Colombo Harbour South Container Terminal , the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport ,
17688-415: Was the assassination of the mayor of Jaffna, Alfred Duraiappah , in 1975 by Prabhakaran. The LTTE's modus operandi of the early war was based on assassinations, whereas the mode of operation of the then government was through setting up a series of checkpoints around the city. The attempted assassination in 1978 of a Tamil Member of Parliament, M. Canagaratnam , was carried out personally by Prabhakaran,
17822-454: Was the leader of the United National Party in the presidential election held on 17 November 2005. Despite the huge election campaign led by the UNP, Mahinda Rajapaksa was able to gain a narrow victory, by 190,000 votes. Rajapaksa's opponents claimed that he won only because the LTTE called for Tamil voters to boycott the polls. Most voters in these areas were forcibly restrained from voting, and it
17956-539: Was the source of most of the payments. Rajapaksa responded in the Colombo Telegraph by calling the article "part of a political mudslinging campaign". In July 2018, a joint Chinese-Sri Lankan company, Colombo International Container Terminals Limited (CICT), confirmed paying nearly 20 million Sri Lankan rupees as a donation to the Pushpa Rajapaksa Foundation, a private fund meant to build houses for
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