I have written about wars and the refugees they create in a number of books, but I hadn’t written about Sri Lanka until the opportunity came to tell the fictional story of Malini. I wanted to show, in the character of Malini, that courage is not something we either have or don’t have, but something that may come to life in our hearts just when the need is greatest.
Timeline
1815 Ceylon becomes a British Crown colony. Tamil plantation workers arrive from India.
1948 British Ceylon gains independent Dominion status. D.S. Senanayake becomes first prime minister.
1956 Prime Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike elected on wave of Sinhalese political nationalism. Sinhala Only Act denies official recognition of the Tamil language and increases tension between majority, Buddhist Sinhalese and minority, Muslim Tamils. More than 100 Tamils killed in violent protests.
1958 Anti-Tamil riots leave estimated 200 people dead and thousands of Tamils displaced.
1960–1965 Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the world’s first female prime minister, governs Ceylon.
1970 Sirimavo Bandaranaike returns to power and extends nationalisation program. Ethnic riots continue as official discrimination against Tamils escalates.
1972 Ceylon becomes Republic of Sri Lanka with Buddhism as the official religion, further antagonising Tamil minority.
1976 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), also known as Tamil Tigers, forms with Velupillai Prabhakaran as military commander. LTTE demands a separate state in Tamil-dominated areas of the north and east.
1981 Sinhalese policemen accused of burning Jaffna library containing over 97 000 books and manuscripts – a major turning point in ethnic riots. Tamils demand government protection for cultural heritage.
1983 First Eelam War. Civil War erupts when LTTE ambush Sri Lankan Army (SLA) checkpoint on Jaffna Peninsula killing 13 government soldiers and sparking ‘Black July’ anti-Tamil riots in Colombo and elsewhere. Estimated 3000 people dead. Many thousands of Tamils flee abroad.
1985 LTTE control Jaffna and most of Jaffna Peninsula.
1987 SLA launches ‘Operation Liberation’ to secure Jaffna Peninsula. Indo–Sri Lanka Peace Accord grants concessions to Tamils. Tamil becomes an official language. Indian troops begin ‘peacekeeping’ operations in north-eastern Sri Lanka but are quickly enmeshed in three-year war with LTTE.
1989 Ranasinghe Premadasa assumes presidency and requests Indian troops leave.
1990 Second Eelam War. Indian troops withdraw. Violence between SLA and LTTE escalates in Eastern Province. SLA attempts to retake Jaffna. LTTE controls large areas of northern Sri Lanka and expels thousands of Muslims from Jaffna.
1991 Estimated 5000 LTTE cadres surround SLA’s Elephant Pass military base. More than 2000 killed. Government forces fail to retake Jaffna. Suspected LTTE suicide bomber assassinates Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
1992 LTTE destroys Palliyathidal village. An estimated 240 people killed in one of the worst massacres of the civil war.
1993 President Ranasinghe Premadasa killed in LTTE bomb attack.
1995 Third Eelam War. LTTE sinks naval craft. Jaffna falls to government forces. LTTE sets up new ‘capital’ in Kilinochchi and compels more than 350 000 civilians to flee to Vanni region.
1996–1999 Civil war rages across north and east of Sri Lanka: 200 000 civilians flee violence. LTTE launches ‘Operation Unceasing Waves’ and wins the Battle of Mullaitivu. LTTE bombings increase with loss of many civilian lives, including bombing of Sri Lanka’s holiest Buddhist site, the Temple of Tooth.
1999–2001 LTTE presses towards Jaffna, cuts all SLA supply lines and captures Elephant Pass military base. Human rights groups estimate more than one million internally displaced persons.
2002 Sri Lankan government and LTTE sign Norwegian-mediated ceasefire. Decommissioning of weapons begins. Jaffna Peninsula road reopens. Government lifts economic embargoes on LTTE who drop demand for separate state.
2003 LTTE pulls out of peace talks, but ceasefire holds.
2004 Tsunami devastates Sri Lankan coastal communities. More than 30 000 people killed, 2.5 million left homeless. Mahinda Rajapaksa elected president. State of emergency declared after suspected LTTE assassin kills foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar.
2006–7 LTTE and government forces resume fighting in north-east in worst clashes since 2002 ceasefire. Government steadily drives LTTE out of eastern strongholds. Peace talks fail in Geneva.
2008 President Rajapaksa pulls out of ceasefire agreement and launches massive offensive against LTTE, progressively retaking critical LTTE strongholds in Vanni heartland.
2009 January–April SLA captures Kilinochchi and most of Jaffna Peninsula. LTTE’s new base at Mullaitivu also falls. Increasing brutality from both sides results in mounting civilian casualties. Sri Lankan military sets up ‘no-fire zones’ for civilians in Mullaitivu district. An estimated 350 000 civilians end up trapped in ever-shrinking 14-square-kilometre zone. Sri Lankan government rejects United Nations (UN) call for ceasefire and accuses LTTE of using civilians as human shields. UN estimates 6500 civilians killed and 14 000 wounded. More than 100 000 internally displaced persons in camps in Vavuniya, Jaffna, Mannar and Trincomalee. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights accuses both sides of war crimes.
May Estimated 15 000–20 000 dead in final four months of civil war. UN describes fighting as a ‘bloodbath’ for civilians. SLA captures last LTTE-held section of coastline, retakes Kilinochchi and declares victory. Velupillai Prabhakaran killed in final battle. Estimated 70 000 civil-war related deaths and hundreds of thousands more displaced by conflict.
2010 Sri Lanka holds first presidential elections in twenty years amid international allegations of war crimes. President Mahinda Rajapaksa re-elected.
2012 Estimated 370 000 internally displaced persons in Sri Lanka.
2013 United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) passes resolution urging Sri Lanka to conduct independent investigation into alleged war crimes.
2014 UNHRC votes to open international investigation into possible war crimes by both Sri Lankan government and LTTE in final stages of civil war.
Glossary
Sinhala
aetta-da? is it true?
boru-da? is it false?
dhura far away
naeh no
namgi sister
oba dhanagana lakema sathutak pleased to meet you
oba kohendha? where are you from?
sadarayen piligannawa you are welcome
sohoyura brother
Tamil
amma mother
appa father
appappa grandfather
ayya used to address elder men
ennai thodaathe! don’t touch me!
eppadi irukkinka? how are you?
Kadavui God save us
kalai vanakkam good morning
kalaiyil in the morning
kanavar husband
mannikkanum sorry
manniththu vidunggal excuse me
meen fish
nee ennai yemathikitu! you’re cheating me!
ora nimidam! one moment!
pachadi savoury Tamil dish of grated vegetable, tamarind, shallots, ginger and mustard seeds
pattu vetty traditional Tamil costume for men; long silk cloth worn like a sarong and tied at the waist
pottu a dot worn on the forehead and commonly known as a bindi in North India
sadhu holy man
thagavaseithu please
vadai savoury fritter with a crunchy shell, made from rice flour, lentils and chilies
Find out more about …
Sri Lanka
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/561906/Sri-Lanka
http://www.globaleducation.edu.au/2384.html
http://www.infolanka.com/photo/
Hoffmann, Sara E. Sri Lanka in Pictures, Twenty-First Century Books, Minneapolis, 2006
Conflict in Sri Lanka
http://www.insightonconflict.org/confl
icts/sri-lanka/conflict-profile/#52
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/may/18/sri-lanka-conflict
Children and Sri Lankan conflict
http://www.irinnews.org/report/82991/sri-lanka-children-suffering-the-most-in-conflict-unicef
http://www.irinnews.org/report/82529/sri-lanka-unicef-urges-tigers-to-ensure-freemovement-out-of-conflict-areas
http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/sri_lanka_41670.html
Walters, Eric & Adrian Bradbury, When Elephants Fight: The Lives of Children in Conflict in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Uganda, Orca Book Publishers, Victoria, 2008
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/05/18/sri.lanka.conflict.explainer/index.html?iref=24hours
Child soldiers in Sri Lanka
http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/sri_lanka_48286.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOA0IjVL_NU
Acknowledgements
My thanks to Varuni Kanagasundaram for her assistance with the translation of various terms employed in the text.
I also want to thank Lyn White for her great vision in fashioning the series of books of which Malini is a part, and Sophie Splatt for her extraordinary commitment as editor.
Publisher’s note
The publisher would like to thank Nadesan Sundaresan for his assistance with Tamil terms used in the book.
The publisher would also like to note that the towns of Ankapur, Satham and Ulla Alakana are fictional.
Malini Page 14
