Indian intervention in the Sri Lankan Civil War

Indian Intervention in the Sri Lankan Civil War

Date	29 July 1987 – 24 March 1990 (2 years, 7 months, 3 weeks and 2 days)
Location	Sri Lanka
Result	Withdrawal of the IPKF from Sri Lanka, Civil war continues. No result.

Belligerents

Indian Peace Keeping Force

Sri Lanka

Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)

Commanders and leaders

R. Venkataraman

Rajiv Gandhi

V P Singh

Maj.Gen. Harkirat Singh

Maj.Gen. Ashok K. Mehta

Velupillai Prabhakaran

Casualties and losses

IPKF: 1,138 killed, 2762 Wounded

The Indian intervention in the Sri Lankan Civil War was the deployment of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka intended to perform a peacekeeping role. The deployment followed the Indo-Sri Lankan Accord between India and Sri Lanka of 1987 which was intended to end the Sri Lankan Civil War between militant Sri Lankan Tamil nationalists, principally the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and the Sri Lankan military.

The original intention was the Indian Peace Keeping Force would not be involved in large scale military operations. However, after a few months, the Indian Peace Keeping Force engaged the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in a series of battles. During the two years in which it was deployed, the IPKF fought numerous battles against the LTTE. The IPKF began withdrawing in 1989, and completed the withdrawal in 1990.

The LTTE and other Tamil militant groups developed strong relationships with political parties in South India, such as Pure Tamil Movement (led by Perunchithiranar), Dravidar Kazhagam (led by K. Veeramani), Kamaraj Congress (led by Nedumaran) during the late 1970s. These Tamil parties firmly backed the militants' cause of creating a separate Tamil Eelam within Sri Lanka. Thereafter, LTTE developed relations with M. G. Ramachandran and M. Karunanidhi, who served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, succeeding one another.

Although Sri Lanka was a key member of Non-Aligned Movement in its initial stages, the Government of Sri Lanka's policies became pro-western as J. R. Jayewardene was elected prime minister with his landslide victory in 1977 parliamentary election. Subsequently, he introduced a new constitution and Open economy to Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is the first South-Asian country to adopt Liberal open economy.

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