Sri Lanka in 2012: Securing the State, Enforcing the ‘Peace'

Since the end of the civil war in May 2009, Sri Lanka’s government has continued to consolidate the unitary state and centralize power by combining political reform, patronage, and economic development. However, two forces countering such unity and centralization became evident during the course of the year. First, tensions and contradictions associated with the simultaneous pursuit of political centralization alongside rapid economic development and liberalization. Second, there has been an intensification of external pressures to bring about a political settlement with the Tamils and to address government accountability, including its alleged involvement in war crimes