LTTE announces unilateral ceasefire during SAARC summit

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 July 2008, 18:30 GMT]

The Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) on Tuesday announced that the movement would observe unilateral ceasefire during the period of SAARC conference from 26th July to 04 August, giving cooperation for the success of the conference. Conveying goodwill and trust of the Tamil people, the LTTE Political Wing, in a press statement issued from Vanni said it wished for the success of the SAARC conference, extending the movement's support to the "countries of our region, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives."

Full text of the announcement by the LTTE follows:

LTTE Political Wing
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
Tamil Eelam
22 July 2008


Ceasefire announcement

On behalf of the people of Tamil Eelam, we extend our sincere good wishes to the fifteenth conference of SAARC that aims, to improve the economic development of the vast South Asian region and to create a new world order based on justice, equality and peace.

For sixty years, the Sinhala leadership is continuing to refuse to put forward a just solution to the national question of the Tamil people. The Sinhala nation is not prepared to deal justice to the Tamils. The politics of the Sinhala nation has today taken the form of a monstrous war. Because the chauvinistic Sinhala regime is putting its trust in a military solution, the war is spreading and is turning more and more intense. Sinhala nation is intent on occupying and enslaving the Tamil homeland. Our military is only involved in a war of self defence against this war of the Sinhala nation.

Behind the smokescreen of war, the Sinhala regime is heaping misery on the Tamil people and is killing them in large numbers. The brutal truth of the gradual destruction and oppression of the Tamil people is being blacked out. The just struggle of the Tamil people is being hidden behind an iron curtain in the name of news censorship. A false propaganda is being spread to tarnish, the freedom movement of the Tamil people and the path it was adopted for its self. This has resulted in misleading views and incorrect opinions about our freedom struggle. We are deeply saddened by this.

We are always keen to develop friendship with the countries of the world and our neighbouring countries in our region. We are sincere in our efforts to create the external conditions in order to build these friendships. We wish to express the good will and trust of the Tamil people. As a sign of this goodwill, our movement is glad to inform that it will observe a unilateral ceasefire that is devoid of military actions during the period of the SAARC conference from 26th July to 4th August and give our cooperation for the success of the conference. At the same time if the occupying Sinhala forces, disrespecting our goodwill gesture of our people and our nation, carry out any offensives, our movement will be forced to take defensive actions.

We wish for the success of the SAARC conference and we also extend our goodwill and support to the countries of our region, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives.

Making SAARC meaningful

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 July 2008, 11:42 GMT]
The South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation, which incorporates India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and now Afghanistan, is a logical process, not just because of geographical contiguity, shared cultures, legacies of British imperialism, elite use of English language etc., but because of the region’s common aspirations and problems, first of all in ensuring secure and quality life, and then seeking the rightful place for one fifth of humanity in the contemporary world. What went wrong with the noble concept of SAARC, while similar regional formations such as the EU and ASEAN are successful elsewhere, discusses Opinion Columnist Chivanadi.

Opinion Columnist Chivanadi

Sri Lanka is tensed before the fifteenth SAARC summit scheduled to take place by the end of this month.

Sri Lanka Army denies permission to the people of Jaffna, who live in an open prison, to travel outside, alleging security threat to the summit. There are unconfirmed reports of expected arrival of Indian troops to Colombo to provide security. Earlier, news reports speculated, linking the visit the Indian National Security Advisor and two Secretaries of the Defense and External Affairs, with security issues of the summit.

The reports, whether true or camouflage, at least make it obvious that there is something wrong with the whole exercise of SAARC.

The South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation, which incorporates India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and now Afghanistan, is a logical process, not just because of geographical contiguity, shared cultures, legacies of British imperialism, elite use of English language etc., but because of the region’s common aspirations and problems, first of all in ensuring secure and quality life, and then seeking the rightful place for one fifth of humanity in the contemporary world.

What went wrong with the noble concept of SAARC, while similar regional formations such as the EU and ASEAN are successful elsewhere?

Disparity is the main issue. When SAARC was initiated in 1985, someone called it as Snow White and the Six Dwarfs while another saw it as the Big Bully and Six Dwarfs.

Right from the beginning there were two different perceptions behind the idea of regional cooperation in South Asia: the Indian ambition to bring the neighbours under its fold to address it security concerns and the neighbours’ outlook to make a forum to check India interfering into their affairs.

SAARC was doomed at the outset by such a dichotomy in perception.

Considering its size and gravity, India has to bear the bulk of the blame, for failure in coming out with the vitally needed leadership and statesmanship in forging feasible and conducive models to make SARRC successful.

India has allowed the differences between it and her neighbours to be manipulated deftly and subtly by forces that wanted to block the successful emergence of the region.

The situation witnessing a growing tendency among the peoples of the neighbouring countries that why should they care for the security of India when India doesn’t care for their security is going to be fatal to India and the region of South Asia in the long run.

It is alarming to note that five, out of the eight South Asian Countries, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal are listed as failed states.

This accounts for the misery of one fourth of the South Asian population. Not to mention the downtrodden masses of the other South Asian countries, including India, facing political and social injustices.

While there is an urgent need for the people of South Asia to join hands in asserting to their security, livelihood, rights and good governance, one can easily see that their governments, run by forces of vested interests, are the foremost impediment in forging the South Asian unity.

A typical demonstration is the way and timing of signing the Mannaar Basin oil agreement between an Indian corporate outfit and Sri Lanka, and the connotations behind it, while Eezham Tamils, the traditional shareholders of the sea space of the Mannaar Basin, facing genocide.

‘Grab what is possible from a burning house’ (Eriki’ra veeddil pidungkinathu michcham) is a saying in Tamil, characterizing the attitude.

While such greed is also evident in the acts of the so-called International Community, it is not expected from India that has a responsibility for the region.

It is a SAARC irony that while large-scale Indian investments and spatial occupations are taking place in the Eezham Tamil areas of Trincomalee and the Mannaar Basin, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu is concerned about petty holdings of Eezham Tamil individuals in Tamil Nadu.

India rightfully deserves addressing its security and economic interests in the region and no one can deny them. But it needs political farsightedness, sophistication and an altogether different outlook. Imitating the collapsing model of some world powers will not help. The issues involved are not merely to be viewed as Indian interests but as interests of South Asia.

Unfortunately, common people of South Asia are not concerned with the foreign policies of their governments. Illiteracy in the region is a reason. Unlike in some of the successful democracies in the world, foreign policy is never an election issue, influencing the choice of a government in South Asia.

In a region where political parties keep people engrossed in petty domestic issues to come to power, it becomes easier for a few individuals who are not responsible to the people, to decide the foreign policy in order to serve the forces of vested interests inside and outside.

For more than twenty years now, the SAARC governments have failed in making any headway and are beating around the bush. The fact that SAARC affairs are largely handled and decided by Security Advisors and intelligence officers indicates the gravity of the problem that it has not moved an inch from the precincts of security.

The various subsidiaries of SAARC, initiated with a slogan ‘people to people contact’, are bogus outfits only to reflect the governments and to accommodate people in the service of those governments. They never reflect the real people and seldom go beyond the South Asian capitals. In fact, the peoples’ contacts have very much shrunk today than it was in the days without SAARC.

The South Asian countries have to boldly think of new theoretical frameworks and models to pursue regional cooperation, if the present one has failed. South Asia needs to invent something to suit its heritage.

There was no political India or South Asia in the past. But homogeneity of the region was always there in its peoples and cultures.

Imperial unity in this region was achieved only on a very few, short-lived occasions, before the colonial empire: Asoka’s empire collapsed after him and Aurangzeb’s empire crumbled with the rise of the Marattas.

The strength of unity and regional cooperation in South Asia lies not in its political units of today, but in its peoples and cultures.

Any attempt to make SAARC a meaningful reality should therefore begin from exploring ways of allowing the peoples of South Asia their rightful public space, recognition of their identities and allowing their right to peacefully interact.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa is hopeful on focusing the issue of 'terrorism' in South Asia in the forthcoming summit.

Failure to address the aspirations of people and responding to them with state terror are the root cause for all forms of violent conflicts.
http://tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=26411

Pushing Muslims into the corner! When do we learn?

Pushing Muslims into the corner! When do we learn?

Saturday ,19 July 2008( Posted : 05:07:22GMT)

By Latheef Farook

This is in response to the July 7, 2008 opinion column of Mr. Janaka Perera under the title 'Ethnic enclaves versus national unity'.

With regard to objections raised to building 500 houses for Muslim tsunami victims in Norochcholai I wish to bring the following facts to the notice of your discerning readership:

The Muslim community lost almost one percent of its population in the Tsunami with the worst affected areas being in the east coast. Yet the government, state agencies, politicians and even foreign donors were indifferent to their unprecedented sufferings. They managed to overcome the early days only due to Muslim organizations and it was the JVP which helped them clear the debris.

They asked "what happened to the almost three billion dollar aid which flowed into the country. A report by the Auditor-General, S.C. Mayadunne, disclosed how the politicians and the bureaucracy misspent or misappropriated hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of tsunami aid and, in one incident, though only 599 families were affected, around 16,000 families were paid Rs. 73.395 million ($723,460) worth of aid in the divisional secretariat of Negombo which was relatively unscathed by the tsunami.

But until then no action was initiated against the culprits despite clear evidence forcing Japanese special envoy Yasushi Akashi to emphasize the need to distribute aid in an equitable, transparent and accountable manner while the World Bank coordinator in the reconstruction process, Alastair McKechnie "insisted on the need for equitable distribution of aid".

It was to resettle 4,700 Muslim tsunami victims rendered homeless in the coastal areas of Akkaraipattu, Sainthamaruthu, Kalmunai and Maruthamunai and undergoing untold misery and hardships in 54 refugee camps for the past four and a half years that the Saudi government came forward to build 500 houses.They were built on a 40 acre land, once acquired by Hingurana Sugar Industries and was abandoned for more than 30 years as being unsuitable for cultivation, approved by the President and the Government Task Force to Rebuild the Nation, TAFREN, for building houses for Muslim tsunami victims.

This is a humanitarian project .The obvious question is "aren't the Muslim tsunami victims entitled to assistance and why were there no objections at its planning stage by those dreaming with a destructive ideology to send the island's Muslim community to Saudi Arabia and Tamils to South India. The planning and the building has gone on for over 3 to 4 years in full view and within the full knowledge of everyone- why is anyone creating this needless racial crisis at this critical time of the nation's history- except perhaps to add more fuel to the crisis and create more chaos.

The Sinhalese and the Muslims have a very harmonious relationship in those areas (as in the rest of the island) and do not view the building of these houses as any interference with the sacred Deegavapiya vihare or as a threat to it but as a humanitarian act of giving shelter to the homeless and the destitute . This can be independently verified. It can also be verified from the respected members of the Sangha that it was the Muslims who nurtured the sacred area and the sacred Chaitya at the time when it was in a state of disrepair and abandoned and there were no Sinhalese then.

Perhaps Mr. Janaka Perera may not be aware that around 70 percent of Muslims in the country live below poverty line and around ten percent of the Muslims driven out from their homes and lands in the North languish in the refugee camps in and around Putttalam in appalling conditions. With callous respect to the lives and property of Muslims both the government and the LTTE fought their battle, over the Mavilaru water dispute, by bombing the residential areas of Mutur where the entire population of around 60,000 had to flee to refugee camps in Kantale while their properties were destroyed and around 200 innocent Muslims slaughtered by the LTTE.

Today Muslim fishermen in and around Mutur are prevented from fishing in the deep sea depriving them of their livelihood with reports of their children fainting in schools from hunger. Obstacles were placed for Muslim farmers from cultivating their agricultural lands and carrying out their routine livestock industry. Muslim traders in the east complain of drop in business due to the current tense situation. Their lands were grabbed under various pretexts. Thus their question is one of survival.

Contrary to the organized propaganda, no Muslim ever wanted to grab an inch of land from any one. All what they want is to be left alone to live in peace in their own lands with members of other communities as they have lived for centuries.

Mr. Perera suggested that the land policy in the East has to be formulated on the basis of the 1981 census. But what he failed to state was that, according to 1921 census the Sinhalese population of the combined Ampara and Batiicaloa districts was less then 5 percent. After the Gal Oya settlements, the 1971 census recorded that Ampara had 126,033 Muslims, constituting 46.2 percent, out of the total population of 272,605. The same census showed that the Sinhalese population was 82,868 or 30.39 percent of the total population. Therefore even by the process of natural increase at 2 percent per annum one would expect the number to reach 101,105 by 1981. But their number increased to 146,371 according to 1981 census showing that 45,356 Sinhalese have been brought into Ampara after the Gal Oya settlements without any land Kachcheri.

This reduced the Muslim population from 46.2 percent to 41.6 percent and increased Sinhalese population from 30.39 to 37.6 percent. Thus his suggestion to formulate the land policy on the basis of 1981 census, makes one wonder whether he represents the neo nationalists who have already prepared the ground work for 'Sinhalisation' of the east. According to local media these neo nationalists are in the driving seat of the government and the administration in the east has been systematically militarized with people of like minded ideology. They have the police, army, navy and the STF with them .Finally they managed to install pro government TMVP leader Pillaiyan as the chief minister of the east, despite all the promises to the Muslims, setting the stage for the smooth implementation of their land grabbing and 'Sinhalisation' policies.

The frightened Muslims in the east, let down by their own politicians, do not know what to do.

It was under these circumstances that a subtle media campaign had been underway describing Muslims in the east as jihadists, wahabis, terrorists in their drive to project Muslims as villains as usually done by Israel and its western supporters before they commit their crimes. This is a classic case of propagandist scare-mongering which we encounter in the Western media on a regular basis.

Daily mirror

Another civilian tragedy kills 4

Four people including a 9-year-old child and a woman were killed and 25 injured yesterday when suspected LTTE cadres fired at a CTB bus travelling along the Buttala-Kataragama main road that borders the Yala National Park, police said.

They said the act of terror took place at around 10:45 am near Galge at the 149th milepost. The bus driver had sped through the ambush and driven the bus to Kataragama and admitted the injured to the Kataragama hospital. Later eight of the seriously injured passengers were rushed to the Hambantota Base Hospital.

Police media spokesman Ranjith Gunasekera said the gunmen who were hiding in the area which was surrounded by thick jungle had raked the passing bus.

He said two of the dead were identified as H.M. Karunawathie (47) from Dambagalla and her son H.M. Madushanka (12).

The road was closed immediately after the incident and a joint military and police search operation was launched to track down the killers.

SSP Gunasekera said that in what appeared to be a related incident the personnel on duty at the No: 38 checkpoint on this road had heard gunfire from within the jungle last week but a search operation had revealed nothing suspicious.

The Buttala-Kataragama road was only reopened in June this year after being closed for more than a month following suspected LTTE activity including two claymore mine explosions that targeted a passenger bus and a tractor carrying soldiers.

The road was reopened after a large number of checkpoints manned by police, army and civilian defence force personnel were set up along this road and the surrounding jungle. The traffic along this popular pilgrim route had increased over the last few weeks due to the Kataragama Esala festival season which began with the Mal Perehera last Saturday and ending on July 19.

SSP Gunasekera said security in the area had also been beefed up in view of the large number of devotees and VIPs attending the festival.

http://www.dailymirror.wijeya.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsDetailView.aspx?ARTID=20287

Lal Kantha claims strike a success, but admits failure to mobilize more

VP trade union leader MP K. D. Lal Kantha claimed yesterday’s token strike was a success but in the same breath admitted that they failed to muster the entire work force into the agitation.

"The token strike was successful in our view. We earlier said that public, private and estate sectors would participate but at the last moment we decided to limit private sector participation only to a demonstration level. We think around 70 per cent of the public sector and a large number of estate sector workers were on strike," he told a press conference held at the National Library Auditorium.

He admitted that the unions failed to mobilize workers into action and attributed it to the government’s pressure and influence.

"In some places we could not get a single worker out, but we managed to register our protest. We gained a lot of experience.

This is only the first step of our agitation. We experienced both negative and positive outcomes and there were setbacks. We hope to eliminate the negative factors in future and we now know our weaknesses and strengths," he said.

The effect of the strike was not felt by people since there was a continuous supply of electricity and water. Transport was also available. "We managed to get 10 per cent of CTB workers out on strike. We did not want to cut down water and power and get transport stalled since we do not want to oppress the public. If we did that the public would have been inconvenienced and their anger would have been been aroused against us. We are a responsible trade union movement and did not want to go that far but if we wanted we could have definitely done that," Lal Kantha said.

The National Trade Union Center had called for a token strike with several aims and most of them were achieved. "We wanted to assess how the government, workforce, administrations and security forces would respond to a strike situation. Now we have witnessed that. We saw how the government controlled media was converted into SLFP controlled media. We observed how the police and forces were used to disrupt our action. The strike gave us the opportunity to study the levels of participation by workers. We had got that assessment and it would be useful in our future struggles," he said.

"The UNP’s Jathika Seveka Sangamaya had come forward to support the strike though the NTUC did not invite them. Private bus owners too promised to join forces on condition that NTUC include the demand of provision of subsidized fuel for passenger transport services. "We started with 366 unions and this was increased to 660 unions. We did not stage a proper organized union action which we may do in the future, "Lal Kantha said

He thanked workers, unions and other social forces that helped the NTUC’s call for a token strike. "We thank the private media which maintained balance reporting right from the beginning of this issue", he said.

http://www.island.lk/2008/07/11/news3.html

LTTE says ready for ceasefire and peace talks

Facing a concerted military offensive by the Sri Lankan army in its stronghold of Jaffna peninsula, the LTTE on Thursday expressed readiness for ceasefire and peace talks with the island government.

LTTE's political wing chief, V Nadesan, said that the group was ready for a ceasefire now, while accusing the Sri Lankan government of "abrogating" the six-year-long ceasefire which came to an end early this year.

Nadesan, in a telephonic interview to Times Now television, said the LTTE was not against peace negotiations. "Yes" was his answer when asked whether the LTTE was for the ceasefire starting again.

"It is the Sri Lankan state that unilaterally abrogated the ceasefire agreement and is unleashing a war against the Tamils in their homeland," he charged.

"We are not against ceasefire or peace talks," he said.

Asked about the petition filed by Nalini, sentenced to life in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, seeking premature release, Nadesan said the LTTE believed that holistic changes will take place and the Indian government "will recognise the legitimate aspirations of Tamil people and their freedom struggle. And Nalini's release will start the holistic change." He also termed Priyanka Vadhra's visit to the Vellore prison to meet Nalini a few months ago as a "humanitarian gesture." LTTE, which was indicted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination, continues to be banned in India.

Nadesan's interview came as the Sri Lankan military chief LT Gen Sarath Fonseka claimed on June 30 that LTTE had lost capability to fight as a conventional force and its cadre strength had dropped to 5000 from 8000 in August 2006.

One soldier was killed in a confrontation with security forces in Jaffna peninsula yesterday, the military said, adding another army personnel died in Serunuwara in Trincomalee. In another clash, troops killed an LTTE cadre on Wednesday in Kiriibbanwewa in Welioya, the Media Centre for National Security (MCNS) said.

One more Tamil Tiger was shot dead in the same area in a clash with troops on Wednesday, it said.

The army killed another three LTTE cadres in Palamodai in Vavuniya yesterday, the MCNS said, adding five more Tiger rebels were shot dead in the same region in intense clashes later in the day.

One LTTE cadre was gunned down in Palamodai after the troops destroyed a rebel bunker on Wednesday, it said.

At least two LTTE cadres were killed in a battle in Navavi in Vavuniya yesterday, the MCNS said.

LTTE says ready for ceasefire and peace talks

Govt. to penalize strikers, JVP says won’t take it lying down

By Sandun A Jayasekera The government yesterday decided to take disciplinary action against public servants who struck work on Thursday and as a result casual employees who participated in the strike now face losing their jobs, government sources said. The government instructed department heads to issue letters to casual employees who absented themselves from work on July 10 and called for an explanation within three days or face dismissal on Monday. The sources said that disciplinary action would also be taken against all permanent employees who participated in the trade union action on July 10. “The Department Head has the power to terminate the services of casual employees at any time without calling for an explanation. But on sympathetic grounds casual employees who resorted to trade union action on July 10 have been given an opportunity to explain. However, they will have to give a good reason for absenting themselves from the work on Thursday,” the spokesman said. Sources said that Government and semi government institutions employ some 300,000 casual employees. UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayaka said the opposition condemned the government’s move to penalize the strikers. “The Mahinda Rajapaksa government is depriving the public servants of their legitimate rights to engage in trade union action. We will never let it happen and mobilize all forces to fight this act of injustice by the government,” he said Mr. Attanayake said that if the government went ahead with its threats, the UNP would seek legal redress in overcoming undemocratic and anti-labour measures, Mr. Attanayaka said. Meanwhile, the JVP’s trade union firebrand K.D. Lal Kantha said President Rajapaksa was informed about the July 10 token strike on May 16 and the heads of all other state establishments and departments two weeks in advance, as such no department head has the right to take action against employees who participated in the one day strike. “We are ready to meet the challenge. If the government continues to suppress the working class in this manner we will mobilize the entire working class against these oppressive measures of the government in addition to resorting to legal action,” Mr. Lal Kantha said. http://www.dailymirror.wijeya.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsDetailView.aspx?ARTID=20285

Sri Lanka Political parties

Political life in Sri Lanka is open and vigorous, with a wide range of views represented among the political parties, many of which have their roots deep in the pre-independence era. In the time since independence, considerations of religion, language, and culture have largely displaced ideology as the issues around which multi-ethnic Sri Lanka's political life evolves. In the last decade, ethnic struggle—and violence—between the government, dominated by majority Sinhalese, and militant minority Tamil separatists has dominated the political process.

The United National Party (UNP) was the main party of the independence movement, and its widely respected leader, D. S. Senanayake, as head of a coalition of which the UNP was the chief unit, became Ceylon's first prime minister after independence. He won a major victory in 1952 and continued in power until he died in 1956. The divided opposition failed to agree on a leader until 1951, when Solomon Bandaranaike left the UNP to form the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). Over the years, the SLFP became the island's other major political party, advocating—like the UNP—a non-aligned foreign policy, with the UNP friendlier to the West, the SFLP, to the former Eastern bloc. Both find their support from within the majority Sinhalese community, and like most other parties, both are led mostly by high caste Sinhalese.

Shortly before the 1956 elections, Bandaranaike formed the People's United Front (Mahajana Eksath Peramuna—MEP), composed of his own SLFP, the Trotskyite Lanka Sama Samaja (LSSP), and a group of independents. The MEP called for the extension of state control, termination of British base rights, nationalization of tea and rubber plantations, and a foreign policy of strict nonalignment. In the elections, the MEP won 51 seats, and Bandaranaike became prime minister, holding power until September 1959 when he was assassinated by a Buddhist monk.

In elections March 1960, the UNP won 50 of the 151 seats at stake, the SLFP, 46 seats, and other parties, the remaining 55. UNP leader Dudley Senanayake failed to muster a majority, and new elections were called for July. In this second round of polling, the UNP won a majority of the popular vote but only 30 seats. The SLFP, led by its slain leader's widow, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, won 75, and with her supporters on the left, she was able to form a government, becoming the first woman in the world to hold office as prime minister. She committed her government to pursuing continuation of her husband's agenda, including nationalization of enterprises.

In the 15 years that followed, the UNP and the SLFP alternated in power for periods no longer than seven years. In 1965, Dudley Senanayake became prime minister after the UNP won 66 of the 151 legislative seats, but the SLFP's Sirimavo Bandaranaike was returned to power in the 1970 elections as the head of a coalition that included the Trotskyite LSSP and the pro-Soviet Ceylon Communist Party (CCP). In response to an insurrection fomented in 1971 by the Janatha Vimukhti Peramuna (JVP), a militant Sinhalese party in the south, Bandaranaike imposed a state of emergency on the island that lasted for 6 years. She pushed through a new constitution in 1972.

By 1977, Banderanaike's public image had declined. No longer supported by her former coalition partners, she was humiliated at the polls by J. R. Jayewardene's UNP which was returned to power with 51% of the popular vote and 142 of (the then) 168 seats in parliament. The moderate Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), which had swept Tamil areas of the north and east, became the major opposition party in parliament with 16 seats and the SLFP representation in the house fell to a bare eight seats.

Jayewardene's sweeping victory enabled him to fulfill the UNP's campaign pledge to introduce a French-style presidential system of government. Forsaking the now-eclipsed office of prime minister, he set out as president to use his new powers to open the economy and to make a new effort to reconcile with the increasingly disaffected Tamil minority. In the local elections and parliamentary by-elections of May 1983, the UNP strengthened its commanding position by gaining control of a majority of municipal and urban councils and winning 14 of 18 parliamentary seats contested.

The CCP and two other leftist groups, the People's Liberation Front and the New Socialist Party, were banned in 1983 on charges of playing a role in the ethnic riots which swept the island in July; leaders of the Communist Party were subsequently arrested. In August 1983, TULF members of parliament, after several fruitless years of negotiations with Jayewardene aimed at devolving power to local levels, were confronted with a constitutional amendment aimed at them by the UNP's two-thirds majority that required all MP's to pledge their allegiance to a unitary state. They abandoned parliament, and by now most have been killed, as the leadership of the Tamil movement fell into the hands of those advocating violence and complete independence as the only sure ways to protect Tamil ethnicity. The TULF was decimated in parliamentary elections in February 1989, which saw the emergence of several small Tamil parties with reputed ties to the rebels.

In presidential elections held in December 1988, Prime Minister Premadasa beat the SLFP's Sirimavo Bandaranaike in a close race marred by ethnic violence. He was sworn in as Jayewardene's successor on 2 January 1989. In February, he led the UNP to a strong victory in parliamentary polling, capturing 125 of the 225 seats under a new proportional voting system; he then named Dingiri Wijetunga as prime minister. These elections also saw the debut of the United Socialist Alliance (USA), a new political grouping set up in 1987 and composed of the SLFP's former coalition partners on the far left, including the CCP, the LSSP, and the Sri Lanka Mahajana Party (SLMP); the USA took 4 seats, while the SLFP won 67.

In the summer of 1991, Premadasa beat back a sudden challenge to his position by leading members of his party in parliament, suspending the parliament for a month to delay debate on a motion they had filed to impeach him for abuse of his authority. But in a rising tide of violence and assassinations of governmental officials across the island, President Premadasa himself became a victim of a Tamil bomber on 1 May 1993. The Parliament unanimously elected Prime Minister Wijetunga as his successor on 7 May 1993.

A "snap" election called six months early by President Wijetunga as part of his campaign for re-election himself in November 1994 backfired on 16 August 1994 when the voters rejected the UNP by a small margin. In its place, they elected to office a seven-party, leftist coalition—now dubbed the People's Alliance (PA)—led by the SLFP's Sirimavo Bandaranaike and Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga—mother and daughter, 80 and 49 years of age, respectively. More vigorous but less experienced, the younger Kumaratunga promptly became prime minister.

The results of the elections, by seats won, were as follows: People's Alliance, 105; United National Party, 94; Eelam People's Democratic Party, 9; Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, 7; Tamil United Liberation Front, 5; People's Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam, 3; Sri Lankan Progressive Front, 1; and the Upcountry People's Front, 1.

Kumaratunga won election on the promise of ending the civil war. Her offers of limited regional autonomy for Tamils within the Sri Lankan state were initially turned down by the LTTE leader, Velupillai Prabakaran (most of the moderate Tamil leaders have been assassinated). Her attempts at a military solution were also unsuccessful until a cease-fire and peace talks emerged in 2002. Citing parliament's rejection of her proposals for strengthening the prime minister's powers and for granting regional autonomy to the Tamils, Kumaratunga called for presidential elections ahead of schedule in December 1999. The race between the president and her UNP rival, Ranil Wickremasinghe, was close. However, three days before polling, Kumaratunga was injured in an assassination attempt, bringing out a sympathy vote. She was returned to office with 51.1% of the votes compared to her opponent's 42.7%. In November 1994, presidential elections were held. UNP leader Gamini Dissanayake fell victim to the island's endemic violence and his widow Srima Dissanayake was appointed to run against the younger Kumaratunga. While the latter's political party won only a slim plurality and had to govern by coalition, in the presidential race she won a commanding majority (63%–36%) and, upon becoming president, appointed her mother prime minister.

In the parliamentary elections held 7 December 2001, Wickremasinghe's United National Party took 109 seats, and united with the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress's (SLMC) 5 seats to take control of parliament. Kumaratunga's People's Alliance coalition took 77 seats, and the People's United Liberation Front, uniting with the PA, took 16 seats. The Tamil United Liberation Front took 15 seats, the Eelam People's Democratic party took 2 seats, and the Democratic People's Liberation Front secured 1 seat.

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