MAGADEV ADAM KUHA KUMARAN L6F
When you think of Sri Lanka, you may think of a tropical paradise. A pearl in the Indian Ocean, lined with glimmering beaches and a diverse range of religions, culture and language. However, many people do not realise the dark tragedy that occurred on the island, the pain and suffering hiding under the facade of a paradise. This war is virtually unheard of in the Western world, considering the ongoing ethnic discrimination of Sri Lanka’s minorities (especially Tamils and Muslims). Persecution of Tamil Hindus occurs today to an extent. However, the perceived enemy has shifted toward the Muslim, mostly ethnically Tamil, community, particularly since the Easter Sunday bombings in 2019, which shook the world.
The two main languages that are spoken on the island are Sinhala (spoken by 75% of the population, 15 million speakers in Sri Lanka as well as worldwide) and Tamil (spoken by 25% of the population, 3 million in Sri Lanka with a total of 77 million speakers worldwide). The main religions are Buddhism (70.2%, who are mainly Sinhalese), Hinduism (12.6% who are mainly Tamils), Islam (9.7%, mainly Tamils) and Roman Catholic (6.1%, a mix of Tamils and Sinhalese).
Causes: Pre-1983
Sinhala Only Act 1956
The roots of the conflict lie with the passing of the Sinhala Only Act in 1956 by the then Prime Minister S.W.R.D Bandaranaike, which replaced English with Sinhala as the only official language of the country. This was a clearly a deliberate move to discourage Sri Lankan Tamils from working in the Ceylon Civil Service, as many did not know or need to know Sinhala. Many were fluent in English, and this was the link language in the country. The Act was seen as a move of cultural and economic discrimination against them, as many Tamil-speaking civil servants had to resign as they weren’t fluent in Sinhala. The Act was a prelude to many ethnic riots to come, only being reversed in 1978.The effect is clearly said by Sinhalese academic A.M. Navaratna Bandara “In 1956, 30 percent of the Ceylon administrative service, 50 percent of the clerical service, 60 percent of engineers and doctors, and 40 percent of the armed forces were Tamil. By 1970 those numbers had plummeted to 5 percent, 5 percent, 10 percent, and 1 percent, respectively”.
Policy of Standardisation in the 1970s
This controversial policy was instituted as another form of discrimination this time in education. For example, the qualifying mark for admission to the medical faculties was 250 out of 400 for Tamil students, but only 229 for Sinhalese. Thus, the number of Sri Lankan Tamil students entering universities fell dramatically. The policy was abandoned in 1977, but its effects were long-lasting as this drove many Tamil youth to join militant groups.
The Riot that turned into War: The Black July Riot 1983 (23rd July-25 July)
Anti-Tamil pogroms have been ongoing since independence in 1948. Including the Gal Oya riot in 1956 (aftermath of the Sinhala Only Act), 1958 pogrom, 1977 pogrom as well as the 1981 burning of the Jaffna Public Library by a Sinhalese mob in the presence of Sinhalese cabinet ministers. The 1983 Black July riot was that really took its toll on Tamils.
The cause was an ambush of Four Four Bravo military patrol near Jaffna (at Tamil city/region) in northern Sri Lanka, by the LTTE. The LTTE (The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam), which was one of the plethora of Tamil militant groups which had arisen by the discrimination by the Sinhalese dominated government, insurgency instead of peace was the only option for equal rights. All soldiers of the patrol were killed, this was retaliation for the killing of one of LTTE’s founding men Charles Anthony, by Sri Lankan forces.
The bodies were brought back to (the capital city) Colombo, a riot was instigated over the news of the ambush. Then hell broke loose and innocent Tamils in the capital were targeted. Sinhalese mobs targeted buildings with any Tamil connection. Neighbourhoods were terrorised by the mobs and some Tamil-owned buildings were sent ablaze in front of the President's House. The President's ministers were seen in various parts of Colombo directing the thugs to attack Tamils, rioters begin to use voter registration to identify Tamils using the electoral lists to identify Tamil homes and properties, signalling government participation. The violence spread across the nation. Motorists were dragged from their cars to be stoned and beaten with sticks. Sinhalese mobs would test passengers on their Sinhalese to identify if they were Tamils or not.
A witness quote from the Daily Telegraph, July 26th, 1983, “Others were cut down with knives and axes. Mobs of Sinhala youth rampaged through the streets, ransacking homes, shops, and offices, looting them and setting them ablaze, as they sought out members of the Tamil ethnic minority. A mob attacked a Tamil cyclist riding near Colombo's eye hospital. The cyclist was hauled from his bike, drenched with petrol, and set alight. As he ran screaming down the street, the mob set on him again and hacked him down with jungle knives.”
It cannot be forgotten however many Sinhalese took their Tamil friends into their homes to avoid death, hiding them at their own risk. The President at the time, Jayawardene blamed left-wing parties for inciting the violence and failed to apologize and blaming Tamils for ‘bringing it upon themselves’, as well as praising the mobs as ‘heroes’. Jayawardene’s famed quote summarised his racist beliefs in an interview with the Daily Telegraph few weeks prior to the riot: “really, if I starve the Tamils, the Sinhala people will be happy’
The main outcome was the rise in prominence and strength of Tamil rebel groups, angry at the ethnic discrimination by the government, who were supposed to protect all its citizens.
The War
The Civil War can be broken up into 4 stages and in between the third stage and the fourth stage there was the Peace Process of 2002-2006 in the Sri Lankan Civil War.
Eelam War I (1983-1987)
The LTTE launched a deadly ambush on a SL army patrol called Four Four Bravo killing an officer and 12 soldiers.
The political events mentioned above lead inevitably to the creation of Tamil militant groups in the North and East of the country, considered Tamil homeland. The most prominent was the LTTE formed in 1976, who engaged in hit and run attacks against moderate Tamil politicians. This stage of the war was mainly assassinations and mass murders on a tit for tat basis, often instigated by the Sri Lankan Army. The Kent and Dollar Farm massacres of 1984 committed by the LTTE was in retaliation of settlement of 62 Sinhalese convicts in predominantly Tamil areas after Tamil civilians living there were evicted by the Sri Lankan Army and used to further harass the Tamils to leave.
The Anuradhapura massacre by the LTTE on 146 Sinhalese men and women was followed by the Valvettithurai massacre as well as the Kumundi boat massacre, where 23 Tamil civilians died. The Akkaraipattu massacre of Tamil farm workers an unprovoked attack on innocents in 1984 by the SL Army.
The LTTE merged with other militant groups, fighting for a separate secular state. In response the SL Army launched “Operation Liberation” in 1987 to regain the Jaffna Peninsula (the North), it was successful and the LTTE managed to narrowly escape.
The Eelam Part I was the where the first of 378 suicide attacks would occur, when in 1987, the LTTE carried out their first suicide attack, Captain Miller of the Black Tigers on an army camp by carrying explosives through the wall on the camp.
Eelam War II (1990-1995)
The 13th Amendment agreed under the Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord in 1987 had not been fully implemented with a lack of devolution in Tamil provinces (still like this to this day). The PM at the time PM Premadasa refused to implement full devolution and dissolved the Councils created in the Tamil provinces. The LTTE killed 600 Sinhalese policemen in the Eastern Province. In response, the government placed an embargo on food and medicines entering the Jaffna Peninsula and the air force relentlessly bombed LTTE-targets in the area. The LTTE responded by attacking Sinhalese villages. Tit-for-tat attacks occurred, such as government death squads hunting down, kidnapping or killing Tamil youth suspected of sympathising with the LTTE.
The Bloodiest Battle of the Entire War: The First Battle of Elephant Pass 1991
In July 1991, 5,000 LTTE fighters surrounded the Elephant Pass base, Elephant Pass being the gateway to the Jaffna Peninsula (a thin strip of land connecting Sri Lanka to the Jaffna Peninsula). More than 2,000 died on both sides during the month-long siege and the LTTE kept it till their defeat in 2009.
Other major battles included the Battle of Pooneryn where the LTTE defeated the army in 1993.
Eelam War III (1995-2002)
The third stage was instigated when the LTTE broke
cease-fire by blowing up two gunboats of the SL Navy. The PM at this time, PM
Kumaratunga had negotiated a fruitless cease-fire and negotiations failed.
The SL Army was determined to retake control of the key LTTE stronghold of Jaffna Peninsula, considered a LTTE stronghold. In the SL Army, Operation Riviresa, the SL Army moved upwards whilst committing horrendous acts of violence. A major massacre began in August of 1995, where SL Air Force jets bombed St. Peter’s Church in Navali (Jaffna Peninsula) killing at least 65 refugees and wounding 150 others with various other massacres. By December 1995, the Jaffna Peninsula was under government control for the first time since the war began with 2500 soldiers and LTTE soldiers killed in the offensive and 7,000 injured. The LTTE with 350,000 Tamil refugees, fled inland into the sparsely populated Vanni region. The LTTE also committed the Dehiwala train bombing in 1996 in the capital city of Colombo during the rush hour with 64 civilian deaths.
In response, the LTTE launched Operation Unceasing Waves, winning other major cities/towns. The LTTE won the Battle of Mullaitivu in July 1996, a major town in the north east. In retaliation, the SL Army launched an offensive which led to the capture of the strategic town of Kilinochchi but stopped short after a failure to break Vanni region lines in 1997. In the midst of this, LTTE suicide and time bombing was at its prime. In 1996, the LTTE carried a deadly suicide bomb attack at the Central Bank in Colombo. In 1997, it bombed the SL World Trade Centre.
In 1998, the LTTE launched Operation Unceasing Waves II, capturing Kilinochchi. Operation Unceasing Waves III was launched and all the Vanni region fell back into LTTE hands. The SL Army took control of Jaffna, the Tigers failed in 2000 to retake the city.
2002-2006 Peace Process
The 9/11 attacks in 2001 caused the US government to make it difficult for Tamil Tigers to get overseas funding and support. The US began to send direct aid to the SL government despite its human rights record over the course of the civil war.
Throughout 2002 and 2003, the SL government and the Tamil Tigers negotiated various ceasefires and signed a Memorandum of Understanding, mediated by the Norwegians. Compromising with a federal solution, rather than the Tamils demand for a two-state solution or the government’s insistence on a unitary state. However, by 2003, the Tigers controlled the north and east regions of the country and the government declared a state of emergency. Disagreements over the handling of aid in Tiger-held areas between both sides in the devastating aftermath of the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004 led to the last to the last stage of the war.
Eelam War IV (2006-2009)
Further peace talks proved to be fruitless with talks in Geneva failing in 2006 and the SL Army pushed a massive offensive in the north and east regions. There were also LTTE attacks by the LTTE including Claymore mine attacks which killed 150 government troops. By this time the LTTE focused their targets on civilians including attacks against commuters in and around the capital city, Colombo. Also, the LTTE committed the Kebithigollewa massacre where Claymore mines killed 68 Sinhalese men and women.
Throughout the push the SL Army committed acts of violence towards Tamil civilians such as the Trincomalee (east) massacre of 5 Tamil students who were playing on the beach, then detained and killed in 2006. 13 Tamil civilians were killed on the islet of Kaylets in the North in 2006, as well as the Vankalai massacre of a family of four Tamils. The SL Army also committed acts of violence against foreign aid charities such as 17 persons were massacred who were working for the French charity Action Against Hunger (ACF), they were international humanitarian workers with their clearly marked T-shirts.
Further massacres occurred by the SL Army, with SL Airforce bombing on 61 Tamil schoolgirls at a first aid training course for A-level students (16-18 years old) on a 2-day training course set up by the LTTE in 2004 at Chencholai orphanage. Further air bombings occurred on Tamil innocents including the Vahari bombing which killed 45 in east. The Army took control of the east by 2007 with the Battle of Thoppigala and the fall of the North in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu, and the recapture of the Jaffna Peninsula by January 2009.
The end signalled mounting massacres by the SL Army on Tamil civilians and vice versa by the LTTE, the Battle of Anandapuram between March and April 2009.The last weeks of the war there was focused in a ‘No Fire Zone’, a small area where the SL Army were able push the Tamil Tigers into the no-fire zone set up for civilians, a pocket of land on the north east of the island called Mullivikal in Mullaitivu. The LTTE built a 2-mile-long earth bund (earth bank) in the no-fire zone, trapping over 30,000 civilians, but the bund was destroyed. On 21st April, SL Army troops launched an assault targeting LTTE leader, Vellupillai Prabhakaran. Rebels shot at those trying to escape and conscripting any able-bodied men, women, and children to fight.
Days later on the 25th of April, the area under LTTE control was reduced, an exodus of Tamil civilians occurred with the SL Army continuing to shoot despite civilians fleeing. 6,500 civilians were killed, and 14,000 others wounded, with the SL Army shooting those who were offered by the SL Army to surrender. Over 196,000 people fled the conflict zone, clashes continued between the forces with 50,000 people trapped were killed, with the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described it as a “bloodbath” with the desperate last fight in the ‘No-Fire Zone’. Gordon Weiss, the UN spokesman in Colombo said more than 100 children died during the “large-scale killing of civilians'’ The government denies firing on civilians to this day'’.
The Mullivaikkal massacre is remembered as the Mullivaikkal Remembrance Day on the 18th May yearly since 2009 with an upcoming one in 2021. The commemoration of the dead is banned by the SL government, with security being tightened in the run up in the Northern and Eastern provinces yearly, with schools and universities closed in those areas. The day is remembered amongst the Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora worldwide, notably in the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Switzerland, America as well as in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
The End of the War
By 16th May 2009, Sri Lanka declared a victory, the last LTTE strongholds crumbling and the SL troops killing 70 rebels attempting to escape by boat. By 17th May, the Tiger admitted defeat on the LTTE website: "This battle has reached its bitter end ... we have decided to silence our guns. Our only regrets are for the lives lost and that we could not hold out for longer". By the 18th of May 2009, the leader of the Tigers, Vellupillai Prabkharan was killed as well as the rest of the LTTE leadership, marking the end of the 26 years conflict.
Conclusion
It was a very costly war with 47,556 Tamil Civilians killed by the SL government between 1983 and 2004, with a total economic cost of the 25 year war was US $200 billion. What is remarkable is that the LTTE despite being a smaller fighting force managed to keep the SL Army at bay for 25 years. The SL Armed force had around 95,000 troops in 2001 to 210,000 troops in 2008 whereas the LTTE had 6,000 troops in 2001 and 30,000 troops in 2008.
Persecution is ongoing today by mainly militarised Buddhist monks (active in politics, pushing for violence against Muslims) and the government, who advocate for the ethnic cleansing of Tamils, now targeting Muslims. There has been increased persecution of Muslims since the Easter Sunday Bombings of 2019 as well as forced cremations for Muslims who died of COVID-19, which is directly against their religious laws. There is ongoing persecution of Tamil Hindus as well with the new Sri Lankan PM pardoning war criminals responsible for mass murders during the war.
However, action is being taken against the government with a recent march this February with the Pottuvil to Polikandy as explained in the article below (second link).
https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/pottuvil-polikandy-why-are-tamils-marching
Bibliography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lankan_Civil_War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origins_of_the_Sri_Lankan_civil_war
https://www.thoughtco.com/the-sri-lankan-civil-war-195086
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12004081
https://hir.harvard.edu/sri-lankan-civil-war/
https://www.tamilguardian.com/
THE CAGE -THE FIGHT FOR SRI LANKA AND THE LAST DAYS OF THE TAMIL TIGERS by Gordon Weiss. (Pictures as well as research from the book)