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1 1 (January 28, 2021)

handle is hein.crs/govebsk0001 and id is 1 raw text is: r La rnia t Sri Lanka Updated January 28, 2021 Background and Historical Setting The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, known as Ceylon until 1972, is a constitutional democracy in South Asia with relatively high levels of development. It is strategically located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern tip of India's Deccan Peninsula. The island nation was settled by successive waves of migration from India beginning in the 5th-century BC. Indo-Aryans from northern India established Sinhalese Buddhist kingdoms in the central part of the island. Tamil Hindus from southern India also settled in northeastern coastal areas and established a kingdom on the Jaffna Peninsula. Beginning in the 16th century, Sri Lanka was colonized in succession by the Portuguese, Dutch, and English. Although Ceylon gained its independence from Britain peacefully in 1948, succeeding decades were marred by ethnic conflict between the country's Sinhalese majority, clustered in the densely populated South and West, and the largely Hindu Tamil minority living in the North and East. Following independence, the Tamils-who had attained educational and civil service positions under the British- increasingly faced discrimination from the Sinhalese- dominated government, which made Sinhala the sole official language and gave preferences to Sinhalese in university admissions and government jobs. The Sinhalese, who had deeply resented British favoritism toward the Tamils, saw themselves not only as the majority in Sri Lanka, but also as a minority in a larger regional context that includes over 60 million Tamils in southern India. Civil War and Subsequent Political Developments For 26 years, from 1983 to 2009, Tamil militant separatist group the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) sought to establish a separate state or internal self-rule in the Tamil-dominated areas of Sri Lanka. Political, social, and economic development was constrained by the ethnic conflict and war between the government and the LTTE, which cost an estimated 70,000-130,000 lives. After the civil war's violent end in May 2009, when the military crushed LTTE forces and precipitated a humanitarian emergency in Sri Lanka's Tamil-dominated north, attention turned to whether the government had the ability and intention to build a stable peace in Sri Lanka. Former President (2005-2015) and current Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa faced criticism for an allegedly insufficient response to reported war crimes by government forces, a nepotistic and ethnically biased government, increasing restrictions on media, and uneven economic development. In the January 2015 presidential election, Mahinda was defeated by Maithripala Sirisena. Parliamentary elections later in 2015 led to the formation of a unity government supportive of Sirisena's reform agenda, including efforts to reduce the authority of the executive presidency. Figure I. Sri Lanka In Brief Sirisena's governing coalition began to fracture after a poor performance in February 2018 local elections, losing to the newly-formed Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party, which capitalized on rising Sinhalese ethnic nationalism. In late 2018, Sirisena sparked a political crisis when he tried unsuccessfully to dismiss then-Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe of the opposition United National Party (UNP), and replace him with Mahinda Rajapaksa. The 2019 and 2020 Elections Gotabaya Rajapaksa, brother of former President and current Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, was sworn in as president in November 2019. Gotabaya won the election with 52.3% of total votes, while his main political rival, Sajith Premedasa of the UNP, received 42% of the vote. Gotabaya had campaigned heavily on a platform of national security, pledging to suppress Islamist extremism. His and his brother's key base of support is the Sinhalese Buddhist majority. Most Tamils, who are largely Hindu or Christian, as well as most Muslims, voted for Gotabaya's opponent. Former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe of the UNP announced his resignation following the election. This move opened the way for Gotabaya to select his brother as prime minister. The Rajapaksas' political base was further strengthened in 2020 when the SLPP won 145 of 225 seats in parliament. The SLPP, with its allies, now has over two thirds support in parliament, which gives the Rajapaksas the supermajority needed to carry out promised amendments to the constitution. In October 2020, Sri Lanka's parliament passed an amendment that strengthens the powers of the ittps://crsreports.congress.gov

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