History

The Sinhalese first came to Sri Lanka, probably from north India, in about 500 BC. They were closely followed by the Tamils, who historians believe started arriving on the island from southern India as traders in about 300 BC. At around this time, Buddhism was introduced to Sri Lanka from the Indian subcontinent. The faith was embraced by the Sinhalese, while most Tamils remained loyal to Hinduism.

Portugal was the first colonial power on the island, arriving in 1505 and staying for 150 years, until it was expelled by the Dutch in 1658. The Dutch, in turn, were pushed out in 1796 by the British, who in 1815 became the first colonial power to unite the entire island - then known as Ceylon.

Ceylon gained full independence in 1948. Over the next decade the socialist government adopted a number of policies that favoured the Sinhalese. In 1956 the government made Sinhala the island's only official language, sparking protests in 1956 by the Tamil community, which began to press for greater autonomy in the Tamil-majority north and east.
The prime minister, Solomon Bandaranaike, was assassinated in 1959 trying to reconcile the two communities, and in 1960 his widow, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, became the world's first female prime minister.

Tamil grievances were further exacerbated in 1972 - the year in which the island became a republic and was renamed Sri Lanka. The new constitution made Buddhism the primary religion, and there was a reduction in university places for Tamils, sparking civil unrest that resulted in the declaration of a state of emergency in Tamil areas.

The conflict escalated into a full scale civil war in 1983, which has dominated Sri Lankan politics for three decades. The war erupted after the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) killed a Sri Lankan police detatchment in Jaffna, sparking a two-day rampage by Sinhalese mobs, in which several thousand Tamils were killed and Tamil homes and shops, particularly in Colombo, were looted and burnt.

The LTTE, led by Velupillai Prabhakaran, became the largest and most powerful Tamil group, embarking on a major military campaign against Sri Lankan troops with the aim of establishing a separate Tamil state in the north-east.

The government attempted to resolve the insurgency in 1987 by signing a peace accord involving India. Indian troops were deployed, but the LTTE fought them strongly and in 1988 violent opposition to the accord emerged in the south, led by the Sinhalese Maoist People's Liberation Front (JVP).

After suffering significant casualties, the Indian troops withdrew in March 1990.

Despite a ceasefire, violence by the LTTE escalated again in the early 1990s. Casualties of bomb attacks during this time included the deputy defence minister, Ranjan Wijeratne, in March 1991; India's former prime minister, Rajiv Ghandi, in May 1991; and Sri Lanka's president, Ramasinghe Premasada, in May 1993.

It is estimated that more than 65,000 people have been killed in the conflict, and hundreds of thousands of others have been displaced.

Hopes were raised in February 2002 when the government and the LTTE signed an agreement for an indefinite ceasefire. Supervised by Norwegian peace monitors, the ceasefire has resulted in the easing of security restrictions in government-controlled areas and greater freedom of movement for people and goods around the country.

The LTTE suspended peace talks in March 2003, but a fragile ceasefire continued to hold.

Communities along Sri Lanka's east and south coasts were devastated on December 26, 2004, when an earthquake off the coast of Indonesia sparked tsunamis across the Indian Ocean. Tens of thousands of people were killed in Sri Lanka and more than one million were made homeless.

In 2006, there was an upsurge in violence between government troops and LTTE rebels, which began over a key irrigation canal on the country's east coast. Thousands were killed and many thousands were forced to flee their homes. The violence led to truce monitors declaring that the 2002 ceasefire existed only on paper. Talks were held in Geneva in October, 2006, in a bid to secure more face-to-face negotiations between the two sides, but they were unsuccessful.