1984 Kokkilai massacres (army)

Last updated

Kokkilai massacre
Location map Sri Lanka Northern Province EN.svg
Location of Northern Province, Sri Lanka
Location Mullaitivu District, Northern Province, Sri Lanka
Date15–16 December 1984 (+8 GMT)
Target Sri Lankan Tamil Civilians
Attack type
Mass murder, mass shooting, settler colonialism
Deaths131
InjuredUnknown
Perpetrators Sri Lankan military

1984 Kokkilai massacres refers to a series of massacres of Sri Lankan Tamil civilians when the Sri Lankan military attacked the village of Kokkilai and several neighboring villages in Mullaitivu District, Northern Province, Sri Lanka. The attack left several civilians including women and children dead and their property destroyed. The attacks resulted in widespread displacement of native residents and subsequently their lands were colonized by Sinhala settlers. [1]

Contents

Incident

On 15 December 1984, a large number of Sri Lankan military troops entered the coastal villages of Kokkilai, Kokkuthoduvai, Alampil, Nayaru and Kumulamunai in Mullaitivu District. The Sri Lankan Army arrived and announced that several villages were to vacate within 24 hours. Entire villages in the region such as Kokkilai, Kokkuthuduvai, Karnaddu kerni and Koddai Keri amongst others were ordered to vacate within a day’s time. The military then began killing people and destroying property. 131 civilians were killed including 31 women and 21 children. More than 2,000 families were forced to relocate following the attacks and subsequent colonisation attempts of their lands by the Sinhala population. They remain displaced to this date. [1] [2]

State colonization of Tamil areas

The Kokkilai massacres has come to be viewed as a part of the greater Sri Lankan state sponsored colonization of Sinhalese in Tamil areas. [3]

The Mullaitivu District had historically been a Tamil area, and the population was almost entirely Tamil in the district. The villages situated at the southernmost part of the district, serving as the vital link between the North and the East became favorite targets for colonies of the Government. The fishing villages in the district including Kokkilai were colonized by Sinhala fishermen from Negombo and Chilaw. [4]

In December 1984, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam reprised these colonization attempts by attacking these newly established colonies in North-East which were heavily protected by Sri Lankan military and Sri Lankan Home Guards who had earlier ethnically cleansed the native Tamil population from these villages.

Following the recapture of the North and East by Government forces, the land border between Mullaitivu District and Trincomalee District were once again colonized with Sinhalese settlers in what were traditionally Tamil lands. Sinhalese were settled in traditionally Tamil land, given land, money to build homes and security provided by the Special Task Force. [5] As a result, the demographics of the region had been significantly altered and a new division called the Weli Oya Divisional Secretariat (a Sinhalese corruption of the Tamil term ""Manal Aru") was carved in the southern parts of the Mullaitivu district. Today the majority of the population in the area is Sinhalese while Tamils have been systematically denied any claim to their lands. [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sri Lankan civil war</span> 1983–2009 Sri Lankan internal conflict

The Sri Lankan civil war was a civil war fought in Sri Lanka from 1983 to 2009. Beginning on 23 July 1983, it was an intermittent insurgency against the government by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam led by Velupillai Prabhakaran. The LTTE fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eelam in the north-east of the island, due to the continuous discrimination and violent persecution against Sri Lankan Tamils by the Sinhalese-dominated Sri Lanka government.

Sri Lankan state-sponsored colonization schemes is the government program of settling mostly Sinhalese farmers from the densely populated wet zone into the sparsely populated areas of the dry zone. This has taken place since the 1950s near tanks and reservoirs being built in major irrigation and hydro-power programs such as the Mahaweli project.

The Kent and Dollar Farm massacres were the first massacres of Sinhalese civilians carried out by the LTTE during the Sri Lankan Civil War. The massacres took place on 30 November 1984, in two tiny farming villages in the Mullaitivu district in north-eastern Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan government labeled this as an attack on civilians by the LTTE.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1984 Kokkilai massacre (LTTE)</span>

The Kokkilai massacre was a massacre of Sinhalese civilians carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the coastal village of Kokkilai. It was the group's second massacre of Sinhalese civilians.

Eelam War I is the name given to the initial phase of the armed conflict between the government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sri Lanka Civil Security Force</span> National Home Guard Service

The Department of Civil Security is an auxiliary force administered by the Ministry of Defence.

Eelam War III is the name given to the third phase of armed conflict between the Sri Lankan military and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mullaitivu District</span> Administrative District in Northern, Sri Lanka

Mullaitivu District is one of the 25 districts of Sri Lanka, the second level administrative division of the country. The district is administered by a District Secretariat headed by a District Secretary appointed by the central government of Sri Lanka. The capital of the district is the town of Mullaitivu.

The Battle of Mullaitivu, also known as the First Battle of Mullaitivu and codenamed Operation Unceasing Waves-1, was a battle between the militant Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Sri Lankan military during the Sri Lankan Civil War for control of the military base in Mullaitivu in north-eastern Sri Lanka.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1956 anti-Tamil pogrom</span> First major Sinhalese-Tamil clash in Ceylon

The 1956 anti-Tamil pogrom, also known as the Gal Oya riots, was the first organised pogrom against Sri Lankan Tamils in the Dominion of Ceylon. It began with anti-Tamil rioting in Colombo, followed by anti-Sinhalese rioting in the Batticaloa District. The worst of the violence took place in the Gal Oya valley after the Batticaloa attacks, where local majority Sinhalese colonists and employees of the Gal Oya Development Board commandeered government vehicles, dynamite and weapons and massacred minority Tamils. It is estimated that over 150 people, mostly Tamils, had died during the violence. The police and army were eventually able to bring the situation under control.

Kokkilai or Kokilai or Kokkulaay is a town in the Mullaitivu District, Sri Lanka. It is located about 40 km south-east of the District capital Mullaitivu. It is a coastal town, located next to Kokkilai lagoon, it is also close to Trincomalee District border.

Weli Oya,(Sinhala: වැලිඔය, romanized: Weli Oya) is a Sinhalese colony area in Mullaithivu District, Sri Lanka formerly known as Manal Aru. Weli Oya has been affected by the Sri Lankan civil war and government Sinhala colonization programs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rajarata</span>

Rajarata was one of three historical regions of the island of Sri Lanka for about 1,700 years from the 6th century BCE to the early 13th century CE. Several ancient cities, including Tambapanni, Upatissa Nuwara, Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa, were established as capitals within the area by successive rulers. Rajarata was under the direct administration of the King. Two other areas, Mayarata and Ruhunurata, were ruled by the king's brothers "Mapa" and "Epa". The Magha invasion in the 13th century brought about the end of the Rajarata kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1985 Trincomalee massacres</span> Attacks on Tamil civilians by Sri Lankan military and home guards

The 1985 Trincomalee massacres refers to a series of mass murder of Tamil civilians by the Sri Lankan military and Sinhalese home guards in Trincomalee District, Sri Lanka. In a succession of events that spanned over two months, hundreds of Tamil civilians were massacred and thousands were driven out by the Sri Lankan military and Sinhalese mobs in order to colonize the area. Almost every Tamil settlement in the district was destroyed during this well-orchestrated campaign to drive out the local Tamil population. Several Tamil women were also raped. In September 1985, the entire Tamil population of Trincomalee town was displaced to forests and refugee camps in an attack that wiped out the town, including the destruction of 12 temples and a mosque. Since August 16, over 50,000 Tamils who were forced to flee the town ended up in refugee camps in the Jaffna and Batticaloa districts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1984 Manal Aru massacres</span> Massacre of Tamil civilians by Sri Lankan military

The Manal Aru massacres of 1984 refers to a series of massacres of Sri Lankan Tamil civilians by the Sri Lankan military across numerous traditional Tamil villages in the Manal Aru region which spans across the Mullaitivu and Trincomalee districts. The motive behind the massacres was to drive out the local Tamil population from their villages, in order to replace them with thousands of Sinhala settlers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1987 Eastern Province massacres</span> Massacres of Sinhalese in the Eastern Province by Tamil militant groups

The 1987 Eastern Province massacres were a series of massacres of the Sinhalese population in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka by Tamil mobs and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during the Sri Lankan Civil War. Though they began spontaneously, they became more organized, with the LTTE leading the violence. Over 200 Sinhalese were killed by mob and militant violence, and over 20,000 fled the Eastern Province. The violence has been described as having had the appearance of a pogrom, with the objective of removing Sinhalese from the Eastern Province.

The Battle of Weli Oya, took place between the militant Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Sri Lanka Army during the Sri Lankan Civil War for control of the military bases in Weli Oya in northern Sri Lanka on 28 July 1995.

The Battle of Janakapura, was a battle between the militant Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Sri Lanka Army during the Sri Lankan Civil War for control of the military camp at Janakapura in Weli Oya in northern Sri Lanka on 25 July 1993.

References

  1. 1 2 Massacres of Tamils(1956-2008). Chennai: Manitham Publications. 2009. p. 15. ISBN   978-81-909737-0-0.
  2. ↑ "State aided Sinhala colonisation" (PDF). PTS Sri Lanka. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  3. ↑ "'Systematic Sinhalisation in North' - Tamil politicians". JDS Lanka. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  4. ↑ T. Sabaratnam. "Chapter 23: Manal Aru becomes Weli Oya". Pirapaharan. Ilankai Tamil Sangam. Retrieved 4 October 2009.
  5. ↑ "The war - one year on". Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  6. ↑ Sensitive colonization in Manal Aru area in Mullaithivu district. UTHR Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.