Lanka: Sri Lanka

lanka: Key dates in Sri Lanka's recent history of conflict and contributions to U.N. peacekeeping 1948 The United Nations deploys its first-ever peacekeeping mission to the Middle East.1960 Sri Lanka makes its first U.N. peacekeeping contribution, sending six soldiers to the U.N. mission in Congo.1983 Civil war breaks out in Sri Lanka, with rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam fighting government forces for an ethnic Tamil homeland in the island's north and east.1987 Indian peacekeepers begin a three-year deployment in Sri Lanka.2004 Sri Lanka opens a U.N. peacekeeper training camp in the hillside resort town of Kukuleganga.2004 Sri Lanka sends an infantry battalion of 950 troops to serve in the U.N. mission in Haiti, according to Metro News. Over the next four years, it will join seven other missions in South Sudan, Congo, Ivory Coast, Lebanon, Liberia, Timor and Western Sahara.2005 The U.N. acknowledges sexual abuse and exploitation are a problem within some of its peacekeeping missions, and pledges to improve transparency, accountability and justice on the matter.2005 Mahinda Rajapaksa is elected Sri Lanka's president, and leads the military campaign against the Tamil rebels.2007 A U.N. investigation details evidence of a sex ring involving at least 134 Sri Lankan military troops and at least nine Haitian children. Yet, even as Sri Lanka refused to investigate alleged war crimes by its troops during that conflict, the U.N. continued to deploy thousands of Sri Lankan peacekeepers to guard some of the world's most vulnerable populations. Sri Lanka responds by repatriating 114 peacekeepers still on deployment. It refuses to give the AP any details on how it investigated the case, or to explain why so few were punished or what exactly those punishments entailed.2009 Sri Lankan troops declare victory in the civil war after defeating the Tamil rebels. Years later, it acknowledges it forced one officer to retire and dismissed one soldier from service, while imposing unspecified punishments on up to 21 others. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.