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Asia
"Resplendent land" – that is what the name Sri Lanka means. Sri Lanka has close historical ties with Europe. In the 16th century, European colonial powers took over control of the kingdom as it was then. Having already made the island, known in those days as Ceylon, a crown colony, in 1815 the British deposed the last Sinhalese ruler. The British governed Ceylon for 150 years and introduced tea, which for a long time was the island's main export. In 1948, Ceylon gained independence and in 1972, it became a republic, taking the name Sri Lanka. In contrast to the situation in many other Asian countries, Sri Lanka always had a democratic political system since it achieved independence.
For more than a quarter of a century, however, the island state was torn by severe domestic conflicts between Sri Lanka’s two largest ethnic groups, the Sinhalese and the Tamils. Tamil separatists in the north and east of the country fought for an independent Tamil state. According to UN estimates, the conflict claimed up to 100,000 lives. Although the civil war ended in May 2009, the humanitarian situation in the former combat zones remains tense.
Early presidential elections held in January 2010 were won by incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa by a clear margin. In the subsequent parliamentary elections in April 2010, the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) led by Rajapaksa secured almost 60 per cent of the vote, only narrowly missing the two-thirds majority needed to change the constitution. Nonetheless, in August 2010, Rajapaksa amended the constitution so as to remove the bar on the president's serving more than two six-year terms.
For many people in the north-east of Sri Lanka, the situation remains critical. Of the 300,000 refugees originally being held by the government in camps, sometimes by force, around 25,000 people are still waiting to return home. Conditions are bad not only in the camps but also in the former conflict regions, where there is often a lack of food, safe drinking water and medical care.
German development cooperation with Sri Lanka
After the renewed outbreak of civil war, the German government restructured its development cooperation with Sri Lanka between 2006 and 2009 and adjusted its ongoing projects and programmes. Many of the experts deployed in Sri Lanka had to be pulled out and some projects and programmes were cut short. German development cooperation in Sri Lanka is currently conducted in line with the OECD principle "stay engaged, but differently". The scaled-down project portfolio is therefore geared entirely towards conflict prevention and peacebuilding.
The German government currently supports five areas of activity in its bilateral development cooperation: strengthening local peace initiatives, promoting governance in the north and east, supporting the microfinance sector, peace education, and assistance for internally displaced persons (via the "Alliance Development Works" comprising various German non-governmental organisations). The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) provided 5 million euros in 2010 for ongoing activities.
The German government is working hard to help bring about a long-term political solution, because dialogue and conciliation are the only way to create a viable future for the country and ensure that the people of Sri Lanka can live together in lasting peace.
German Embassy

German Embassy in Sri Lanka
40 Alfred House Avenue
Colombo 3
Sri Lanka
Phone: +94 / 11 / 258 04 31
Fax: +94 / 11 / 258 04 40






