Rutgers Model United Nations 2 - IDIA

Rutgers Model United Nations 4
government officials did not intervene to put a stop to the destruction. This was also the
event in which the LITTE came to the forefront in the fight for an independent Tamil
state.
29 July 1987: Indo-Lanka Peace Accord
In a response to the ongoing civil war in Sri Lanka a peace accord was signed
between Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and President J.R. Jayewardene of Sri
Lanka. India felt the need to intervene in the matter because the people living in the
Jaffna peninsula were experiencing constant fighting because of the controversy of
control of the land. Under the agreement Sri Lankan troops were to withdraw from the
north and the LTTE were to disarm. Also included in the agreement is the merger of the
Tamil Eastern and Northern provinces. 13 Indian peacekeepers entered Sri Lanka with the
hope they would only be there for six months. Over 15,000 Indian peacekeepers were
sent to control the conflict, but heavy fighting and killing continued under their watch. 14
Many Sri Lankans were concerned about India’s presence in the country because they
feared they would never leave, or try to annex part of Sri Lanka to India. India’s
intervention in the situation was not looked favorably by Indian people. Riots were held
against the Indo-Lanka accord on the day it was signed and Rajiv Gandhi was attacked
after leaving the building after the signing of the peace accord. 15 The peace-keeping
mission was not successful and Indian troops build out three years later with no change in
the violence present in Sri Lanka.
1 May 1993: President of Sri Lanka Assassinated
President Ranasinghe Premadasa was assassinated at a May Day political rally in
May of 1993. He was killed by Tamil suicide bomber along with twenty four other
13 “Sri Lanka Tamil Leader Seeks Indian Military Intervention,” BBC Monitoring South Asia, October 15, 2008,
Lexis Nexis, http://www.lexisnexis.com.
14 Steven Weisman, “Tamils Dashing Indian Hopes for Peace in Sri Lanka,” The New York Times, October 18.
1987,
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.htmlres=9B0DE6DE153AF93BA25753C1A961948260&sec=&spon=&&sc
p=1&sq=%20Indo-Lanka%20Peace%20Accord&st=cse.
15 “India’s Congress Lacks Clear Allies in Sri Lanka,” BBC Monitoring South Asia, May 14, 2004, Lexis Nexis,
http://www.lexisnexis.com.