Geography

An island in the Indian Ocean off the southeast tip of India, Sri Lanka is about
half the size of Alabama. Most of the land is flat and rolling; mountains in the
south-central region rise to over 8,000 ft (2,438 m).

Government
Republic.

History
Indo-Aryan emigration from India in the 5th century B.C. came to form the
largest ethnic group on Sri Lanka today, the Sinhalese. Tamils, the second-
largest ethnic group on the island, were originally from the Tamil region of
India and emigrated between the 3rd century B.C. and A.D. 1200. Until colonial
powers controlled Ceylon (the country's name until 1972), Sinhalese and Tamil
rulers fought for dominance over the island. The Tamils, primarily Hindus,
claimed the northern section of the island and the Sinhalese, who are
predominantly Buddhist, controlled the south. In 1505 the Portuguese took
possession of Ceylon until the Dutch India Company usurped control (1658–
1796). The British took over in 1796, and Ceylon became an English Crown
colony in 1802. The British developed coffee, tea, and rubber plantations. On
Feb. 4, 1948, after pressure from Ceylonese nationalist leaders (which briefly
unified the Tamil and Sinhalese), Ceylon became a self-governing dominion of
the Commonwealth of Nations.

S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike became prime minister in 1956 and championed

Sinhalese nationalism, making Sinhala the country's only official language and
including state support of Buddhism, further marginalizing the Tamil minority.
He was assassinated in 1959 by a Buddhist monk. His widow, Sirimavo
Bandaranaike, became the world's first female prime minister in 1960. The
name Ceylon was changed to Sri Lanka (“resplendent island”) on May 22,
1972.

The Tamil minority's mounting resentment toward the Sinhalese majority's

monopoly on political and economic power, exacerbated by cultural and
religious differences, erupted in bloody violence in 1983. Tamil rebel groups,
the strongest of which were the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or Tamil
Tigers, began a civil war to fight for separate nation.

President Ranasinghe Premadasa was assassinated at a May Day political

rally in 1993, when a Tamil rebel detonated explosives strapped to himself.
Tamil extremists have frequently resorted to terrorist attacks against civilians.
The next president, Chandrika Kumaratunga, vowed to restore peace to the
country. In Dec. 1999, she was herself wounded in a terrorist attack. By early
2000, 18 years of war had claimed the lives of more than 64,000, mostly
civilians.

After Dec. 2001 elections, Ranil Wickremesinghe, a longtime bitter rival of

President Kumaratunga, was sworn in as prime minister. Wickremesinghe's
victory precipitated a formal cease-fire with the Tamil rebels, signed in Feb.
2002. In September talks, the government lifted its ban on the group, and the
Tigers dropped their demand for an independent Tamil state. Another
significant breakthrough came in December when the Tigers and the
government struck a power-sharing deal that would give the rebels regional
autonomy. But negotiations in 2003 achieved little.

Intense political rivalry threatened the peace process. In Nov. 2003, President
Kumaratunga, convinced that Prime Minister Wickremesinghe was too soft in
his negotiations with the Tigers, wrested away some of his powers. In Feb.
2004, the president dissolved parliament and called for elections in the hope
of further eroding the power of the prime minister. The gamble paid off for
Kumaratunga—her United People's Freedom Alliance won April's
parliamentary elections, and Wickremesinghe was replaced by a new prime
minister, Mahinda Rajapakse, a high-ranking member of Kumaratunga's party.

On Dec. 26, 2004, a tremendously powerful tsunami ravaged 12 Asian

countries. About 38,000 people were reported killed in Sri Lanka. President
Kumaratunga and the Tamil Tigers reached a deal in June 2005 to share
about $4.5 billion in international aid to rebuild the country. But intensifying
violence in the eastern part of the country threatened the cease-fire and
jeopardized the aid package. In Aug. 2005, Foreign Minister Lakshman
Kadirgamar was assassinated and the government declared a state of
emergency.

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse won November's presidential elections,

taking 50% of the vote to former prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's 48%.
Rajapakse is expected to take a hard line with the Tamil Tigers. Rajapakse
appointed Ratnasiri Wickremanayaka as prime minister.

In 2006, repeated violations of the 2002 cease-fire on both sides turned into
outright war. Since April 2006, about 1,000 soldiers and civilians have been
killed, and 135,000, mostly Tamils, have been displaced. Efforts by Norway,
which brokered the 2002 cease-fire, to bring both sides to the negotiating table
were unsuccessful throughout the summer.

Fighting between the rebels and government troops continued into 2007. After
a weeks of deadly battles, the military took control of rebel-held regions of
eastern Sri Lanka in March, leaving tens of thousands more civilians
displaced. In April, the Tamil Tigers launched their first air raid, using small
airplanes to bomb an air force base near Colombo.