The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was a Tamil militant organisation that was based in northeastern Sri Lanka. Its aim was to secure an independent state of Tamil Eelam in the north and east in response to the state policies of successive Sri Lankan governments that were widely considered discriminative towards the minority Sri Lankan Tamils, as well as the oppressive actions—including anti-Tamil pogroms in 1956 and 1958—carried out by the majority Sinhalese.
The Tamil diaspora refers to descendants of the Tamil immigrants who emigrated from their native lands to other parts of the world. They are found primarily in Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, South Africa, Pakistan, Réunion, Canada, Mauritius, Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, North America, and the Caribbean.
Sri Lankan Tamils, also known as Eelam Tamils, Ceylon Tamils or simply Tamils, are members of the Tamil ethnic group native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. Today, they constitute a majority in the Northern Province, live in significant numbers in the Eastern Province and are in the minority throughout the rest of the country. 70% of Sri Lankan Tamils in Sri Lanka live in the Northern and Eastern provinces.
Major human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as well as the United States Department of State and the European Union, have expressed concern about the state of human rights in Sri Lanka. British rule in Ceylon, the government of Sri Lanka and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as well as various other paramilitaries and marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) rebels are accused of violating human rights. Although Sri Lanka has not officially practiced the death penalty since 1976, there are well-documented cases of state-sponsored 'disappearances' and murders.
Sri Lankan Moors are an ethnic minority group in Sri Lanka, comprising 9.2% of the country's total population. They are mainly native speakers of the Tamil language with influence of Sinhalese and Arabic words. They are predominantly followers of Islam. The Sri Lankan Muslim community is divided as Sri Lankan Moors, Indian Moors and Sri Lankan Malays as per their history and traditions.
Sri Lankan state-sponsored colonization schemes refers to the government program of settling mostly farmers from the densely populated wet zone in the sparsely populated areas of the dry zone in the North Central Province and the Eastern Province regions near tanks and reservoirs being built in major irrigation and hydro-power programs such as the Mahaweli project to create farming and fishing communities. This has taken place since the 1950s.
The Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora refers to the global diaspora of Sri Lankan Tamil origin. It can be said to be a subset of the larger Sri Lankan and Tamil diaspora.
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 which it stood for secession. Around 300 Tamils were killed in the riots.
The origins of the Sri Lankan Civil War lie in the continuous political rancor between the majority Sinhalese and the minority Sri Lankan Tamils. Before and during the early part of colonial rule by Europeans, Sri Lanka was under the rule of three separate kingdoms. War and peace was a status quo between nations, unlike the present status quo of war crimes and terrorism between majorities and minorities. During the colonial rule by Portuguese and then the Dutch, the three sovereign states were ruled as separate entities. The final British colonial rule amalgamated the entire island into a single administrative entity after independence the minorities were handed over to the mercy of the majority who were warring parties before the period of the European colonisation. According to Jonathan Spencer, a social anthropologist from the School of Social and Political Studies of the University of Edinburgh, the war is an outcome of how modern ethnic identities have been made and re-made since the colonial period, with the political struggle between minority Tamils and the Sinhalese-dominant government accompanied by rhetorical wars over archeological sites and place name etymologies, and the political use of the national past.
The expulsion of the Muslims from the Northern province was an act of ethnic cleansing carried out by the Tamil militant Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) organisation in October 1990. Due to increasing tensions between the Muslims (Moors) and Tamils in the North Sri Lanka and the Muslim opposition to the creation of a Tamil homeland, the LTTE forcibly expelled the 72,000 strong Muslim population from the Northern Province.
The Kattankudy Mosque Massacre was the killing of over 147 Muslim men and boys on the 3rd of August 1990. Around 30 armed Tamil militants raided four mosques in Kattankudy where over 300 people were prostrating in Isha prayers. The Sri Lankan Government accuses the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of committing the crime. The attack is widely attributed to LTTE, who denied their involvement in the massacre, and have never retracted that denial.
History of Eastern Tamils of Sri Lanka is informed by local legends, native literature and other colonial documents. Sri Lankan Tamils are subdivided based on their cultural, dialects & other practices as into Northern, Eastern and Western groups. Eastern Tamils inhabit a region that is divided into Trincomalee District, Batticalo District and Ampara District.
The 1956 Ceylonese riots, known as the Gal Oya riots, were the first ethnic riots between the majority Sinhalese and minority Tamils in the Dominion of Ceylon. The worst of the violence took place in the Gal Oya valley, 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 lost their lives during the violence. Although initially inactive, the police and army were eventually able to bring the situation under control.
Jaffna is the capital city of the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna District located on a peninsula of the same name. With a population of 88,138 in 2012, Jaffna is Sri Lanka's 12th most populous city. Jaffna is approximately six miles from Kandarodai which served as an emporium in the Jaffna peninsula from classical antiquity. Jaffna's suburb Nallur, served as the capital of the four-century-long medieval Jaffna Kingdom.
The Coast Veddas, by self-designation, form a social group within the minority Sri Lankan Tamil ethnic group of the Eastern province of Sri Lanka. They are primarily found in small coastal villages from the eastern township of Trincomalee to Batticalao. Nevertheless, they also inhabit a few villages south of Batticalao as well. They make a living by fishing, slash and burn agriculture, paddy cultivation of rice, basket weaving for market and occasional wage labor. Anthropologists consider them to be partly descended from the indigenous Vedda people, as well as local Tamils. Residents of the Eastern province consider their Vedar neighbors to have been part of the local social structure from earliest times, whereas some Vedar elders believe that their ancestors may have migrated from the interior at some time in the past.
Ati Konanayakar or Aathi Koneswaram is a regionally important Hindu temple in Tampalakamam village in the Trincomalee District of Sri Lanka. The name of the temple in Tamil means the "temple of the original lord of Koneswaram". It is situated 24 kilometers (15 mi) from the port town of Trincomalee. The temple was constructed during the 17th century as a successor to the Koneswaram temple that was destroyed by Portuguese colonials in 1622.
Malwattai is a rural village in the Ampara District situated within the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. Most of the residents are minority Sri Lankan Tamils and are farmers. It was founded in 1954 as village in the jungle by refugees fleeing the burning and destruction of once larger Sri Lankan Tamil village of Veeramunai by some members of Muslim dominant Sammanthurai. Life was affected by the insurgency and counter insurgency operations during the Sri Lankan civil war. Members of the village were also present within the Hindu temple at Veeramunai as refugees when it was attacked by Home Guards from Sammanthurai on August 12, 1990 resulting in the death of 55 civilians. Subsequently the village was resettled by returning refugees.
Sammanthurai, is a town in Ampara District of Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. Sammanthurai situated at 7°22′0″N81°48′0″E, is 4.8 km west of the Bay of Bengal coast. It lies between the towns of Ampara and Karaitivu along the A31 road. It is surrounded by paddy fields and it is renowned for its rice paddies and its inner harbour from ancient times.
Veerachcholai is a rural village in the Ampara District within the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. Most residents are Sri Lankan Tamilians, a minority and are farmers.
