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.
Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) was the Indian military contingent performing a peacekeeping operation in Sri Lanka between 1987 and 1990. It was formed under the mandate of the 1987 Indo-Sri Lankan Accord that aimed to end the Sri Lankan Civil War between Sri Lankan Tamil militant groups such as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan military.
Black July was an anti-Tamil pogrom that occurred in Sri Lanka during July 1983. The pogrom was premeditated, and was finally triggered by a deadly ambush on a Sri Lankan Army patrol by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on 23 July 1983, which killed 13 soldiers. Although initially orchestrated by members of the ruling UNP, the pogrom soon escalated into mass violence with significant public participation.
The 1977 anti-Tamil pogrom in Sri Lanka followed the 1977 general elections in Sri Lanka where the Sri Lankan Tamil nationalistic Tamil United Liberation Front won a plurality of minority Sri Lankan Tamil votes. In the elections, the party stood for secession. An official government estimate put the death toll at 125, whereas other sources estimate that around 300 Tamils were killed by Sinhalese mobs. Human rights groups, such as the UTHR-J, accused the newly elected UNP-led government of orchestrating the violence.
The Jaffna lagoon massacre or Kilaly massacre occurred on January 2, 1993, when a Sri Lankan Navy Motor Gun Boat and a number of smaller speed boats intercepted a number of boats transporting people between the south and north shores of the Jaffna Lagoon in the Northern province in Sri Lanka, and attacked them under the glare of a spot light. The estimated number of deaths range from thirty five (35) to one hundred (100). However, only fourteen (14) bodies were recovered. It was reported that other victims of this massacre were burnt along with their boats. The Sri Lankan government claims that the boats were transporting rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) cadres.
Kankesanthurai, colloquially known as KKS, is a port suburb, fishing division and resort hub of the Jaffna District, Northern Province, Sri Lanka. Formerly an electoral district, Kankesanthurai is home to the Kankesanthurai beach, Keerimalai Naguleswaram temple and the Maviddapuram Kandaswamy Temple. The port's harbour has served as an arrival and departure point for pilgrims since classical antiquity and is named after the Sri Lankan Tamil god Murukan. Kankesanthurai suburb has many fishing villages and Grama Niladhari and is a northern part of Valikamam, one of the three regions of ancient habitation on the Jaffna peninsula, located on the peninsula's northern coast, 12 miles from Jaffna city, 85 miles from Mannar and 155 miles from Trincomalee.
Eelam War I is the name given to the initial phase of the armed conflict between the government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE.
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).
The Jaffna hospital massacre occurred on October 21 and 22, 1987, during the Sri Lankan Civil War, when troops of the Indian Peace Keeping Force entered the premises of the Jaffna Teaching Hospital in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, an island nation in South Asia, and killed between 60 and 70 patients and staff. The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the government of Sri Lanka, and independent observers such as the University Teachers for Human Rights and others have called it a massacre of civilians.
The 1989 Valvettiturai massacre occurred on 2 and 3 August 1989 in the small coastal town of Valvettiturai, on the Jaffna Peninsula in Sri Lanka. Sixty-four Sri Lankan Tamil civilians were killed by soldiers of the Indian Peace Keeping Force. The massacre followed an attack on the soldiers by rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam cadres. The rebel attack had left six Indian soldiers, including an officer, dead, and another 10 injured. Indian authorities claimed that the civilians were caught in crossfire. Journalists such as Rita Sebastian of the Indian Express, David Husego of the Financial Times and local human rights groups such as the University Teachers for Human Rights have reported quoting eyewitness accounts that it was a massacre of civilians. George Fernandes, who later served as defense minister of India (1998–2004), called the massacre India’s My Lai.
Valvettithurai, sometimes shortened as VVT or Valvai, is a coastal town of Jaffna District on the northeast coast of the Jaffna Peninsula in Northern Province, Sri Lanka governed by an Urban Council of the same name. Valvettithurai was historically known for its seafaring traditions and olden transnational shipping trade.
The Chunnakam Police station massacre refers to the killing of 19 ethnic Tamil civilians by the Sri Lankan Police, at Chunnakam, a suburb of Jaffna in 1984. This was among the first of the series of massacres of Tamil civilians by the Sri Lankan state forces, since the outbreak of the Sri Lankan Civil War.
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.
Chunnakam Power Station was a thermal power station in Chunnakam in northern Sri Lanka. Commissioned in 1958, the station is owned and operated by the state-owned Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB). It was decommissioned in 2013, and replaced by the Uthuru Janani Power Station, which is constructed less than 100m south of the Chunnakam Power Station.
The Veeramunai massacres refers to the mass killing and disappearances of over 250 Tamil civilians by Sri Lankan security forces and Muslim home guards in 1990.
