Sri Lanka: Key People & Parties.
Political Parties and Organisations
Janatha Vimukti Peramuna (People’s Liberation Front – JVP): A Marxist, Sinhalese nationalist, political party. JVP led two insurgencies in the early Seventies and late Eighties – both were brutally crushed by the government (led by the UNP in both cases). The first left 20,000 dead, the second 50,000 and the party almost unable to function. Opposed to any idea of Tamil autonomy, the JVP supported Rajapaksa in the 2004 elections, but switched to Fonseka in 2010.
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE): Usually just referred to as the Tamil Tigers. The LTTE were the primary rebel group in the Sri Lankan conflict until their defeat in May 2009. Founded in 1974, and for much of its existence, led by Velupillai Prabhakaran, the LTTE fought a brutal campaign against the Sri Lankan government. A proscribed terrorist organisation in many countries, and one of the first groups to systematically make use of suicide bombing, the LTTE attacked civilian as well as military targets.
New Democratic Front: The alliance of political parties created to support the Fonseka candidacy in the 2010 elections. A loose coalition of disparate groups including the Marxist People’s Liberation Front (JVP), the United National Party (UNP) – the main opposition party – and the Tamil nationalist Tamil National Alliance (TNA).
Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP): Currently the party in power, led by Rajapaksa. The party was responsible for the passing of the Sinhala Only Act in 1958.
United National Party (UNP): Currently the main opposition party, but spent the majority of the Seventies and Eighties in power. It was a UNP government that carried out the brutal reprisals against the JVP – allegedly using death squads in 1989 – and passed the Prevention of Terrorism Act which gave the
government sweeping powers to counter the LTTE insurgency in the North and East.
United People’s Freedom Alliance: Coalition of Sinhalese nationalist political parties that supported the SLFP candidate, Rajapaksa, in the 2004 and 2010 presidential elections.
People
Sarath Fonseka: Commander of the army during the defeat of the LTTE. Fonseka stood against Rajapaksa in the 2010 presidential election. A staunch Sinhalese nationalist for most of his life, Fonseka tempered these views during the 2010 election campaign as he sought to gain the support of ethnic minorities opposed to Rajapaksa.
Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan (aka Colonel Karuna Amma): Led a breakaway faction of the LTTE in 2004, ostensibly in protest that the LTTE leadership – based in the North of the country – did little for the situation in the east. With Karuna’s group receiving backing from the Sri Lankan government, the two factions fought briefly in 2004, before Karuna laid down his weapons and entered national politics. He is currently serving as Minister for National Integration, and is the only former LTTE member to enter mainstream politics.
Velupillai Prabhakaran: Founder and leader of the LTTE until his death in 2009. He formed the LTTE out the Tamil New Tigers around 1974, and shortly after the group was implicated in the assassination of the Mayor of Jaffna in 1975, which marked the beginning of a new stage in the conflict.
Mahinda Rajapaksa: Current President of Sri Lanka, serving since 2004. Rajapaksa led the country during the final days of the civil war in 2009. Although he initially seemed to prefer a negotiated settlement with the LTTE, he soon took the uncompromising approach that led to the group’s military defeat in 2009. Shortly after, he was returned to power in an early presidential election, with 57 per cent of the vote in January 2010.
