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Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF), was the Indian military contingent performing a peacekeeping operation that was formed to oversee the peace accord signed between India and Sri Lanka in 1987, trying to solve the ethnic conflict between Tamils and Sinhalese in Sri Lanka.
The mandate of the IPKF was to keep the peace between the main Tamil rebel group LTTE and the Sri Lankan armed forces. From the start, the LTTE did not trust the IPKF fully and the Sri Lankan forces and the JVP loathed the foreign presence on their soil.
The IPKF was drawn into conflict with the LTTE in late 1987. In brutal fighting that took about three weeks, the IPKF took control of the Jaffna Peninsula from the LTTE rule, something that the Sri Lankan army had tried and failed to achieve for several years. Supported by Indian Army tanks, helicopter gunships and heavy artillery, the IPKF temporarily routed the LTTE. But this victory came at a price, as the IPKF lost over 1200 soldiers.
The subsequent years saw several operations being carried out and more casualities being suffered. Eventually, the IPKF was forced to leave Sri Lanks on 31 March 1990, because of a specific request by the Sri Lankan President Premadasa, who had turned full circle and made a pact with the rebel Tamil Group LTTE. He specifically requested the IPKF to leave and India had no choice other than to withdraw her troops. As a result, relations between India and Sri Lanka became extremely sour and India vowed never to offer any military help to Sri Lanka again. This policy was not changed when Sri Lanka urgently requested its help later in Chandrika Kumaratunga's regime to ward off LTTE fighters approaching Jaffna. India has since softened and agreed to sign a defence pact with Sri Lanka.
Casualties
The IPKF suffered a little over 1,200 killed in action and several thousands in wounded--leading to the cynical appelation "Indian People Killing Force." Its role in the Sri Lankan conflict was much maligned by voices both there and at home. On the international scene, it is all but forgotten. After several years, the Sri Lankan Armed Forces realised the role of IPKF and proposed building a memorial to the Indian Dead in Sri Lanka. The debacle that was IPKF's intervention in Sri Lanka is raised at times in Indian political discourse whenever the situation in Sri Lanka shows signs of deteriorating, and there is a question of intervening; or, in Sri Lankan politics (particularly by the LTTE), when it is proposed that India, or, more broadly, other foreigners, had ought to have a role in promoting peace on the island nation.
Though the LTTE claim that only 800 of their troops died, with the defection of an LTTE commander it has been clarified that over 3,000 LTTE cadres died while fighting the IPKF.
Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi
The decision to send the IPKF in Sri-Lanka was taken by then prime-minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi. In an action of apparent revenge, the LTTE assassinated him at a public rally that he was attending at Sriperumbudur on May 21, 1991. The assassination was done by a suicide bomber named Dhanu, who was a member of the LTTE.
References
- Dixit, J. N. (2003) Assignment Colombo. Vijitha Yapa Publications, Colombo, ISBN 955-8095-34-6
- Balasingham, Adele. (2003) The Will to Freedom - An Inside View of Tamil Resistance. Fairmax Publishing Ltd, 2nd ed. ISBN 1-903679-036
- Narayan Swamy, M. R. (2002) Tigers of Lanka: from Boys to Guerrillas. Konark Publishers; 3rd ed. ISBN 8122006310
External links
- The Indian Army in Sri Lanka 1987-1990
- Indian Jawan- A Tribute To The Indian Soldier
- Overview of Mission
- Case Study in Operations Other Than War
- Rajiv Gandhi's War Crimes
"Indian Peace Keeping Force"