Sri Lankan Civil War

The Sri Lankan Civil War was a conflict fought on the island of Sri Lanka. Beginning on 23 July 1983, there was an intermittent insurgency against the government by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (the LTTE, also known as the Tamil Tigers), a separatist militant organisation which fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eelam in the north and the east of the island. After a 26-year military campaign, the Sri Lankan military defeated the Tamil Tigers in May 2009, bringing the civil war to an end.
For over 27 years, this civil war caused significant hardships for the population, environment and the economy of the country, with an estimated 80,000–100,000 people killed during its course. During the early part of the conflict, the Sri Lankan forces attempted to retake the areas captured by the LTTE. The tactics employed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam against the actions of Government forces resulted in their listing as a terrorist organisation in 32 countries, including the United States, India, Canada and the member nations of the European Union. The Sri Lankan government forces have also been accused of human rights abuses, systematic impunity for serious human rights violations, lack of respect for habeas corpus in arbitrary detentions and forced disappearances.
After two decades of fighting and four failed tries at peace talks, including the unsuccessful deployment of the Indian Army, the Indian Peace Keeping Force from 1987 to 1990, a lasting negotiated settlement to the conflict appeared possible when a cease-fire was declared in December 2001, and a ceasefire agreement signed with international mediation in 2002. However, limited hostilities renewed in late 2005 and the conflict began to escalate until the government launched a number of major military offensives against the LTTE beginning in July 2006, driving the LTTE out of the entire Eastern province of the island. The LTTE then declared they would "resume their freedom struggle to achieve statehood".
In 2007, the government shifted its offensive to the north of the country, and formally announced its withdrawal from the ceasefire agreement on 2 January 2008, alleging that the LTTE violated the agreement over 10,000 times. Since then, aided by the destruction of a number of large arms smuggling vessels that belonged to the LTTE, and an international crackdown on the funding for the Tamil Tigers, the government took control of the entire area previously controlled by the Tamil Tigers, including their de facto capital Kilinochchi, main military base Mullaitivu and the entire A9 highway, leading the LTTE to finally admit defeat on 17 May 2009. Following the end of the war, the Sri Lankan government claimed Sri Lanka as the first country in the modern world to eradicate terrorism on its own soil. Following the LTTE's defeat, pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance dropped its demand for a separate state, in favour of a federal solution. In May 2010, Mahinda Rajapaksa, the president of Sri Lanka, appointed the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) to assess the conflict between the time of the ceasefire agreement in 2002 and the defeat of the LTTE in 2009.

Sri Lankan Civil War

Date	23 July 1983 – 18 May 2009 (25 years, 9 months, 3 weeks and 4 days)
Location	Sri Lanka
Result	Sri Lankan government victory Rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam organization is wiped out Sri Lankan government reestablishes control over entire island Tamil National Alliance drops the demand for a Separate state
Territorial changes	Government regains total control of former LTTE-controlled areas in the North and East of the country.

Belligerents
1.Sri Lanka	1.LTTE	.Indian Peace Keeping force(1987-90)

Commanders  and leaders
Sri lankan govt. 1.Junius Richard Jayawardene(1983-89) 2.Ranasinghe Premadasa(1989-93) 3.Dingri Banda Wiietunge(1994-2005) 4.Mahinda Rajapaksa(2005-2009)	LTTE 1.Velupillaj Prabhakaran(1983-2009) 2.Selvarasa Pathmanathan(2009)	India 1.R.Venkatarrman(1987-90) 2.Rajiv Gandhi(1987-89) 3.VP Singh(1989-90)

Strength
Sri Lanka Armed Forces 95,000 (2001) 118,000 (2002) 158,000 (2003) 151,000 (2004) 111,000 (2005) 150,900 (2006)	LTTE (excluding Auxiliary forces): 6,000 (2001) 7,000 (2003) 11,000 (2005) 8,000 (2006) 7,000 (2007) (including Auxiliary forces): 25,000 (2006) 30,000 (2008)	Indian Peace Keeping Force: 100,000 (peak)

Casualties  and losses
23,327+ killed 60,000+ wounded (Sri Lankan military and police)	27,000+ LTTE's and other Tamil militants killed 11,644 Tigers captured	1,200 killed (Indian Peace-Keeping Force)

16 May 2009: Sri Lankan Government declared a military defeat of LTTE.
17 May 2009: LTTE admit defeat by Sri Lankan Government.
19 May 2009: Mahinda Rajapaksa officially declares civil war over in parliament.

Costa Rican Civil War

The Costa Rican Civil War was the bloodiest event in 20th-century Costa Rican history. It lasted for 44 days (from 12 March to 24 April 1948), during which approximately 2,000 people are believed to have died. The conflict was precipitated by the vote of the Costa Rican Legislature, dominated by pro-government representatives, to annul the results of the Presidential election held in February, alleging that the triumph of opposition candidate Otilio Ulate had been achieved by fraud. This caused a rebel army under commander Jose Figueres to rise up against the government of President Teodoro Picado, which it quickly defeated. After the war, Figueres ruled for a year and a half as head of a provisional government Junta which abolished the military and oversaw the election of a Constitutional Assembly in December, which subsequently produced the new 1949 constitution. The junta then stepped down and handed power to Ulate. Costa Rica has not experienced any significant political violence since.

Beginning of civil War

The annulment of the election results in 1948 and the attack on Dr. Valverde's home on the same day appeared to provide for Figueres the proof that he needed to show that the government had no intention of ceding to the will of the people. His hatred for Calderón, combined with his idealism, fueled his desire for war. On March 11, Figueres made the call that brought in the arms and military leaders Figueres needed for a successful campaign. On March 12, his National Liberation Army exchanged fire with government forces, and the war began.

Background

In the 1940s, the Costa Rican political scene came to be dominated by Rafael Angel Calderon, a medical doctor who served as President of Costa Rica from 1940 to 1944. The Constitution forbade consecutive reelection, so Calderón's National Republican Party had fielded as its candidate for the 1944 elections law professor Teodoro Picado, who was perceived as a weak figure controlled by Calderón.
The Picado administration resorted several times to the use of military force in order to keep the peace, and pro-Calderón elements within the military institution would often become involved in street violence, which helped to sully the image of the military in the minds of the people. The Costa Rican communist movement, organized in the Popular Vanguard Party led by congressman Manuel Mora, was allied to Picado's government and contributed to the unrest by deploying its militia against the opposition. As the violence grew, supporters of the opposition began to carry guns, and the police began to threaten the use of firearms rather than just beating demonstrators.
Disgust with the government's violent reprisals against the opposition led to the Huelga de Brazos Caídos, a strike that stalled commerce in Costa Rica for seven days. Pro-Calderón and communist demonstrators began to sack those businesses that participated in the strike, and Picado was forced to respond to the strike with force by intimidating merchants and professionals and threatening workers with dismissal and military service. By the end of the strike, police and military forces patrolled the streets, and San José appeared as if under a state of siege.
Calderón himself was the ruling party's candidate for the election of 1948 and there were widespread fears that the government would intervene to ensure his triumph against his main opponent, journalist Otilio Ulate. To assuage these fears, Picado's government for the first time in Costa Rican history placed the election under the control of an independent Electoral Tribunal.

Costa Rican civil war

Date	12 March – 24 April 1948 (1 month, 1 week and 5 days)
Location	Costa Rica
Result	National Liberation Army victory.

Belligerents
National liberation Army	Government of Costa Rica

Commanders and leaders
Jose Figueres	Teodoro Picado Michalski

Casualties and losses

2,000 dead

Indo-Pakistani War of 1947

The Indo-Pakistani War of 1947–1948, sometimes known as the First Kashmir War, was fought between India and Pakistan over the princely state of Kashmir and Jammu from 1947 to 1948. It was the first of four wars fought between the two newly independent nations. Pakistan precipitated the War a few weeks after independence by launching tribal lashkar (militia) from Waziristan in an effort to wrest Kashmir from India. The result of the war still affects the geopolitics of both countries.
On 22 October 1947 the Pakistani armed forces crossed the border with the claim that they needed to suppress a rebellion on the southeast of the kingdom. Local tribal militias and the Pakistani forces moved to take Srinagar but on reaching Uri they encountered defensive forces. Hari Singh made a plea to India for assistance and signed the Instrument of Accession. The British government also took part in stopping the Pakistani forces from advancing.
The war was initially fought by the forces of the princely state and tribal militias from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas. Facing the assault and a Muslim revolution in the Poonch and Mirpur area, the ruler of princely state of Kashmir and Jammu signed an Instrument of Accession to the Indian union. Indian and Pakistani armies entered the war subsequently. The fronts solidified gradually along what came to be known as the Line of Control. A formal cease-fire was declared at 2359 hours on the night of 1/2 January 1949.

 

Background

Prior to 1815 the area now known as "Jammu and Kashmir" comprised 22 small independent states (16 Hindu and 6 Muslim) carved out of territories controlled by the Afghanistan Amir (King) combined with those of local small rulers. These were collectively referred to as the "Punjab Hill States". These small states, ruled by Rajput kings, were variously independent, vassals of the Mughal Empire since the time of Emperor Akbar or sometimes controlled from Kangra state in the Himachal area. Following the decline of the Mughals, turbulence in Kangra and Gorkha invasions, the hill states fell one by one under the dominance of the Sikhs under Ranjit Singh.
The First Anglo-Sikh War (1845–46) was fought between the Sikh Empire, which asserted sovereignty over Kashmir, and the East India Company. In the Treaty of Lahore in 1846, the Sikhs were made to surrender the valuable region (the Jullundur Doab) between the Beas River and Sutlej River and required to pay an indemnity of 1.2 million rupees. Because they could not readily raise this sum, the East India Company allowed the Dogra ruler Gulab Singh to acquire Kashmir from the Sikh kingdom in exchange for making a payment of 750,000 rupees to the East India Company. Gulab Singh became the first Maharaja of the newly formed princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, founding a dynasty, that was to rule the state, the second-largest principality during the British Raj, until India gained its independence in 1947

 Operation Bison

During this time the front began to settle down. The siege of Poonch continued. An unsuccessful attack was launched by 77 Parachute Brigade (Brig Atal) to capture Zoji La pass. Operation Duck, the earlier epithet for this assault, was renamed as Operation Bison by Cariappa. M5 Stuart light tanks of 7 Cavalry were moved in dismantled conditions through Srinagar and winched across bridges while two field companies of the Madras Sappers converted the mule track across Zoji La into a jeep track. The surprise attack on 1 November by the brigade with armour supported by two regiments of 25 pounders and a regiment of 3.7-inch guns, forced the pass and pushed the tribal/Pakistani forces back to Matayan and later Dras. The brigade linked up on 24 November at Kargil with Indian troops advancing from Leh while their opponents eventually withdrew northwards toward Skardu.


Indo-Pakistan War of 1947-1948
Indian soldiers during the 1947–1948 war

Date:

22 October 1947 – 31 December 1948 (1 year, 2 months, 1 week and 2 days)

     Location:  Kashmir

Result	Princely state of Jammu and Kashmir dissolved. Pakistan took control of roughly a third of Kashmir (Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan), whereas India took control of the rest Kashmir valley,Jammu and Ladakh).
Territorial changes	UN Ceasefire Line of 1949 (later becomes Line of Control after the Simla Agreement of 1972) established to divide erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir between the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir (roughly 101,387 km²) and the Pakistan regions which subsequently became Azad Kashmir (13,297 km²) and the Gilgit Baltistan (72,496 km²).

Belligerents
1.Dominion of India 2.Princely State of Jammu Kashmir	1.Dominion of Pakistan 2.Tribal militias 3.Furqan Force
Commanders and leaders INDIA 1.Fid M. K M. Cariappa 2.Lt Gen S.M. Shri nagesh 3.Maj Gen. K.S Thimayya 4.Maj. Gen. Kalwant Singh  PAKISTAN 1.Maj Gen. Akbar khan 2.BGen Ayub Khan 3.ACdre. Mukhtar Dogar 4.Cdre.H.M.S Choudri 5.Mirza Mahmaod Ahmad                                                        Casualities and losses India 1,500 killed 3,152 wounded Pakistan:1,500 killed ~3,000 wounded