Rajapaksa explored outcomes from two rounds of proforma talks at Geneva and Oslo in 2005-06 but became convinced that the LTTE, under The LTTE was offered the best chances for devolution by Wickeremesinghe, when both sides agreed to explore a federal solution in December 2002, but the Tigers reneged on this proposal. The first of five attempts was the failed Indo-Sri Lanka Accord, which was followed by efforts towards powersharing, made by Presidents R Premadasa and Chandrika Kumaratunga, Prime Minister Ranil Wickeremesinghe and President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Ceasefires were accompanied by five direct and two back-channel negotiations with the LTTE. The centrepiece of previous government strategies was to bring the LTTE to the negotiating table. The security forces scored a historic victory on, when the Tigers capitulated near their stronghold of Mullaithivu. The decisive Eelam War IV started at Mavil Aru in July 2006 and flared up into an all-out offensive. It was officially revoked by the Sri Lankan Government (SLG) only in January 2008, though for all practical purposes, it had been broken in 2006.
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The next round of fighting (Eelam War III) began in April 1995, and culminated in the February 2002 ceasefire, the longest in the conflict. Eelam War II began in July 1990 and closed in a ceasefire in January 1995. The LTTE’s brush with the Indian Peacekeeping Forces (IPKF) from October 1987 to March 1990 ended inconsequentially.
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India intervened to end the war in which the SLA had the upper hand. Introduction Four watershed events spurred the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka – the SinhalaOnly Act of 1956, the Republican Constitution of 1972, the Parliamentary elections of 1977 and the 1983 ethnic riots.1 The killing of 13 Sri Lankan Army (SLA) soldiers by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on 23 July 1983 marked the initiation of armed hostilities and the beginning of Eelam War I, which ended in 1987. Creating Capabilities: Sri Lankan Military and the LTTE Published in India by Kalpana Shukla KW Publishers Pvt Ltd New Delhi: 4676/21, First Floor, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi 110002 Phone: +3498 / 43528107 email: / MUMBAI: 15 Jay Kay Industrial Estate, Linking Road Extn., Santacruz (W), Mumbai 400054 Phone: +4110 / 26613505 email: Printed and Bound in IndiaĤ. The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not represent the views of the Centre for Land Warfare Studies.
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