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| 1983–85 |
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| A political settlement was attempted while the insurgent struggle continued in the north and the east. | 1 |
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| 1986 |
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| Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike received a presidential pardon, which restored her civic and political rights. Head of SLFP, she remained outside Parliament while her son continued as leader of the parliamentary opposition. | 2 |
| Autonomy for the Tamil north was promised by Jayawardene. | 3 |
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| 1987 |
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| Siege of Tamils in Jaffna by the Sri Lankan army. India intervened, responding to Tamil protests concerning the number of Tamil casualties. | 4 |
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| July 29 |
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| Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi of India and Pres. J. R. Jayawardene of Sri Lanka sign a peace agreement recognizing the Tamil language as a national official language along with Sinhala. | 5 |
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| Oct. 7 |
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| The government introduced bills to recognize Tamil along with Sinhala as an official language, with English designated as a “link language,” and to provide for provincial councils, thus giving constitutional recognition to a devolution of power to the localities. | 6 |
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| Nov. 12 |
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| The 13th amendment was passed. | 7 |
| The presence of an Indian peacekeeping force led to political changes in Tamilnad (India) as well as in Sri Lanka. The Tamilnad government retreated from support of terrorist groups and encouraged the peace accord. Although extremist Tamils felt betrayed, more moderate Tamils expressed satisfaction with the accord, since it guaranteed devolution of power to the northern and eastern provincial units. Many Sinhalese expressed dissatisfaction, feeling that too much power and land had been granted to Tamils. Thus the conflict still remained largely unresolved. | 8 |
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