Kalmunai massacre

Last updated

Kalmunai massacre
Location Eastern Province, Sri Lanka
Date20 June 1990
Target Sri Lankan Tamil Civilians
Deaths160-250
Perpetrators Sri Lanka Army Muslim Home Guard

The Kalmunai massacre refers to a series of mass killings that occurred in June 1990 in Kalmunai, a municipality within the Ampara District of Sri Lanka's Eastern Province. The massacre of Tamil civilians was allegedly carried out by the Sri Lankan Army in retaliation for an earlier massacre of Sri Lankan police officers. The University Teachers for Human Rights, a human rights organization, put the number of dead in the second massacre at 250, while a local Member of Parliament claimed that at least 160 people were killed. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Contents

Civilian massacre

After the LTTE massacred the police officers on 11 June 1990, the town of Kalmunai was allegedly subjected to intense shelling by the Army. As a result, the LTTE withdrew from the town. Subsequently, once the Army had occupied the town, the massacre of civilians began on 20 June 1990. [2] One account claimed that Sri Lankan Army personnel took position at Kalmunai Rest House junction where Tamil civilians were allegedly kidnapped. The abducted were then allegedly burned behind the shops of Muslim businessmen. While the exact death toll is disputed, a member of Sri Lanka's parliament alleged that more than 160 people were killed. [1] However, the UTHR said that the number of people who died or disappeared was in excess 1,000 and alleged that over 250 were killed. [2] [3] It further alleged that this massacre was the "largest bout of slaughter a single town in the island had witnessed in such a short time". [6]

Later attacks

On 27 June 1990, 75 people were allegedly rounded by the Sri Lankan Army and later burned and a further 27 headless bodies washed ashore Kalmunai beach. In all, the UTHR allege that 7,000 people were killed in June. [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

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.

The Kokkilai massacre was carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

The Anuradhapura massacre occurred in Sri Lanka in 1985 and was carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. This was the largest massacre of Sinhalese civilians by the LTTE to date; it was also the first major operation carried out by the LTTE outside a Tamil majority area. Initially, EROS claimed responsibility for the massacre, but it later retracted the statement, and joined the PLOTE in denouncing the incident. The groups later accused the LTTE for the attack. Since then, no Tamil militant group has admitted to committing the massacre. However, state intelligence discovered that the operation was ordered by the LTTE's leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. He assigned the massacre to the LTTE Mannar commander Victor and it was executed by Victor's subordinate Anthony Kaththiar. The LTTE claimed the attack was in revenge of the 1985 Valvettiturai massacre, where the Sri Lanka Army killed 70 Tamil civilians in Prabhakaran's hometown.

The Dehiwala train bombing was a terrorist attack carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during the rush hour of July 24, 1996.

The Palliyagodella massacre was carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) against the mostly Muslim population of the Palliyagodella village located on border region of the northern part of Sri Lanka that were controlled by the Tigers at the time. This was the largest massacre of Muslim civilians by the LTTE to date. Village eyewitnesses claim that some 285 men, women and children, around a third of the population, were killed by a 1,000 strong force of the Tamil Tigers; however, the Sri Lankan government states that the LTTE massacred 166 to 171. All but 40 of the victims of the Palliyathidal massacre were Muslim; the rest were Sinhalese.

The Gonagala Massacre was a massacre that occurred on 18 September 1999, in the small village of Gonagala, located in the Ampara District of Sri Lanka. According to reports, over 50 men, women and children were hacked to death in the middle of the night. The massacre is attributed to the LTTE, which is banned as a terrorist organisation by a number of countries including the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union.

The Kebithigollewa massacre occurred on 15 June 2006 when 60 civilians were killed by an Claymore mine attack on a bus. The U.S and the SLMM claimed that LTTE was the perpetrator.

The Kallarawa massacre was carried out by the LTTE, an organisation which has been banned in 33 countries including the US, Australia, EU, India and Canada due to its terrorist activities.

The October 1995 massacres were carried out by the LTTE, an organization which has been banned in 33 countries including the US, Australia, EU, India and Canada due to its terrorist activities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eelam War II</span> Armed conflict between Sri Lankan military and LTTE

Eelam War II is the name given to the second phase of armed conflict between Sri Lankan military and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The war started after the failure of peace talks between the Premadasa government and the LTTE. This phase of the war was initiated by the LTTE who massacred almost 600 Sinhalese and Muslim police personnel after they were ordered by the Premadasa government to surrender to the LTTE. The truce was broken on June 10, 1990 when the LTTE in October expelled all the 28,000 Muslims residing in Jaffna.

The Kattankudy Mosque Massacre was the killing of over 147 Muslim men and boys on 3 August, 1990. Around 30 armed Tamil militants raided two mosques in Kattankudy where over 300 people were prostrating in Isha prayers. The Sri Lankan government, survivors, and observers accuse the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of committing the crime. The LTTE denied involvement and never retracted the denial.

The Indian intervention in the Sri Lankan Civil War was the deployment of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka intended to perform a peacekeeping role. The deployment followed the Indo-Sri Lankan Accord between India and Sri Lanka of 1987 which was intended to end the Sri Lankan Civil War between militant Sri Lankan Tamil nationalists, principally the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and the Sri Lankan military.

A mass murder of Sri Lankan Police officers took place on 11 June 1990. Members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a militant organization, are alleged to have killed over 600 unarmed Sri Lanka Police officers in Eastern Province, Sri Lanka. Some accounts have estimated the number killed as high as 774.

The following lists events that happened during 1986 in Sri Lanka.

The following lists events that happened during 1985 in Sri Lanka.

The following lists events that happened during 1990 in Sri Lanka.

The Murunkan massacre of Inspector Bastianpillai and his team of police officers was the mass murder of a team of CID officers of the Sri Lanka Police on 7 April 1978 in the jungles of Murunkan in the Vavuniya District. Four police officers including Inspector Bastianpillai were killed by LTTE members led by Uma Maheswaran.

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.

References

  1. 1 2 "SRI LANKA: THE UNTOLD STORY". Asia Times. Asia Times. 2001. Archived from the original on 22 July 2002. Retrieved 26 October 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  2. 1 2 3 "CHAPTER 2". UTHR . UTHR. 2001. Retrieved 26 October 2007.
  3. 1 2 3 "THE EAST : LOOKING BACK". UTHR . UTHR. 2001. Retrieved 26 October 2007.
  4. ↑ "Human rights and The Issues of War and Peace". UTHR . UTHR. 2001. Retrieved 26 October 2007.
  5. ↑ Sri Lanka: The Northeast: Human rights violations in a context of armed conflict Archived 2009-02-14 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ↑ "Welcome to UTHR, Sri Lanka: Briefing No. 1".

Further reading

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.