.bmp)
.bmp)
Major developments in Sri Lanka's conflict:• 1975: Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam group forms. The group demands a separate state for minority ethnic Tamils in the island's north and east.
• 1983: Civil war begins.
• 1991: Tamil Tiger suicide bomber assassinates then-Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, apparently in revenge for sending Indian peacekeeping troops who ended up fighting the rebels.
• 1993: Tamil Tiger suicide bomber kills Sri Lanka's President Ranasinghe Premadasa after his government's failed peace efforts.
• February 2002: Sri Lankan government signs a cease-fire agreement with Tamil Tigers.
• June 2005: Relations between the government and rebels deteriorate over the issue of sharing international tsunami aid.
• August 2005: Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, an ethnic Tamil who opposed a separate state for the minority, is assassinated. Tigers are blamed.
• December 2005: Rebels launch first major attack since truce, killing at least 12 Sri Lankan navy sailors. A series of attacks follows.
• Feb. 22, 2006: Government and rebel officials meet in Switzerland for peace talks and agree to de-escalate violence. A second round of peace talks a few months later is postponed as the two sides argue over transport and security.
• June 8, 2006: Talks in Norway aimed at restoring peace collapse.
• July 20, 2006: Tamil Tigers close sluice gates of an eastern reservoir, cutting water to over 60,000 people, prompting the government to launch its first major offensive on Tiger territory since the 2002 cease-fire.
• Nov. 2, 2007: Tamil Tigers' political wing head S.P. Thamilselvan, believed to be the second-in-command of the group, is killed in a government air raid.
• Jan. 2, 2008: Government says Tamil Tigers must disarm before any future peace talks, a day after the authorities decide to withdraw from an internationally brokered cease-fire.
• Jan. 16, 2008: Sri Lanka's cease-fire deal officially terminated.
• Aug. 2, 2008: Sri Lankan military says troops enter the district housing the Tamil Tiger rebels' de facto capital for the first time in 11 years.
• Aug. 29, 2008: Sri Lanka urges civilians living in rebel-held areas to flee to government-controlled territory.
• Jan. 2, 2009: Government says the military has captured the Tamil Tigers' de facto capital, Kilinochchi.
By The Associated Press
As in the days of Noah...
