Global InformationSri Lankan Civil War information
| Sri Lankan Civil War ශ්රී ලාංකික සිවිල් යුද්ධය இலங்கை உள்நாட்டுப் போர் | |||||||||
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| Part of the Cold War, spillover into the 1987–1989 JVP insurrection | |||||||||
 [Red] The area of Sri Lanka claimed by the LTTE as Tamil Eelam, where almost all of the fighting took place | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Sri Lanka India (1987–1990)Military Support
Arms Supply
Intel and Arms supply
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Training
Arms supply
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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J. R. Jayewardene (1983–1989) Ranasinghe Premadasa † (1989–1993) D. B. Wijetunga (1993–1994) Chandrika Kumaratunga (1994–2005) Mahinda Rajapaksa (2005–2009) R. Venkataraman (1987–1989) Rajiv Gandhi † (1987–1989) V. P. Singh (1989–1990) |
 Eliyathamby Ratnasabapathy † (1982–2006) | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
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Indian Peace Keeping Force:100,000 (peak) |
 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(excluding Auxiliary forces): 6,000 (2001) 7,000 (2003) 18,000 (2004)[24][25] 11,000 (2005)[26] 8,000 (2006) 15,000 (2007)[24][27] (including Auxiliary forces): 25,000 (2006) 30,000 (2008)[28] | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
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27,000 killed[36][37][38][39] 11,644 prisoner of war[40] | ||||||||
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16 May 2009: Sri Lankan Government declared a military defeat of LTTE.[47] 17 May 2009: LTTE admit defeat by Sri Lankan Government.[48] 19 May 2009: President Mahinda Rajapaksa officially declares end of civil war in parliament. | |||||||||
The Sri Lankan Civil War (Sinhala: ශ්රී ලංකාවේ සිවිල් යුද්ධය, romanized: śrī laṁkāvē sivil yuddhaya; Tamil: இலங்கை உள்நாட்டுப் போர், romanized: Ilaṅkai uḷnāṭṭup pōr) 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 (LTTE, also known as the Tamil Tigers) 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.[49][50][51]
Violent persecution erupted in the form of the 1956, 1958, 1977, 1981 and 1983 anti-Tamil pogroms, as well as the 1981 burning of the Jaffna Public Library. These were carried out by the majority Sinhalese mobs often with state support, in the years following Sri Lanka's independence from the British Empire in 1948.[52] Shortly after gaining independence, Sinhalese was recognized as the sole official language of the nation.[53] After a 26-year military campaign, the Sri Lankan military defeated the Tamil Tigers in May 2009, bringing the civil war to an end.[23]
Up to 70,000 had been killed by 2007.[54][55][56] Immediately following the end of war, on 20 May 2009, the UN estimated a total of 80,000–100,000 deaths.[57][58][59] However, in 2011, referring to the final phase of the war in 2009, the Report of the Secretary-General's Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka stated, "A number of credible sources have estimated that there could have been as many as 40,000 civilian deaths."[60] The Sri Lankan government has repeatedly refused an independent, international investigation to ascertain the full impact of the war,[61][62] with some reports claiming that government forces were raping and torturing Tamils involved in collating deaths and disappearances.[63][64]
Since the end of the civil war, the Sri Lankan state has been subject to much global criticism for violating human rights as a result of committing war crimes through bombing civilian targets, usage of heavy weaponry, the abduction and massacres of Sri Lankan Tamils and sexual violence.[65][66][67] The LTTE gained notoriety for carrying out numerous attacks against civilians of all ethnicities, particularly those of Sinhalese and Sri Lankan Muslim ethnicity, using child soldiers, assassinations of politicians and dissenters, and the use of suicide bombings against military, political and civilian targets.[68]
- ^ "Israels War Crimes In Sri Lanka against Tamil Civilans". 27 June 2023. Retrieved 10 April 2024.
- ^ "How China Won Sri Lankas Civil War". 23 May 2009. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
- ^ "The Countries which funded Sri Lanka". 2020. Retrieved 10 April 2024.
- ^ "Britain's Private Army operating in Sri Lanka earning millions". 2020. Retrieved 10 April 2024.
- ^ "Ukrainian and Israeli Pilots operating war planes in Sri Lanka". 1997. Retrieved 10 April 2024.
- ^ "Sri Lanka's Faustian bargain with Pakistan: Exit LTTE, enter ISI". Business Today. 22 April 2019. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
- ^ "Pakistan played a key role in LTTE defeat".
- ^ "Pakistan airforce pilots played key role in Sri Lankan victory".
- ^ "Israels major role in Sri Lankas War". 2023. Retrieved 10 April 2024.
- ^ "Britain sold Arms during the final stages of the conflict". 2009. Retrieved 10 April 2024.
- ^ "Page 75 onwards lists the 10 EU countries which supplied weapons to Sri Lanka. Spain being the only country were the true details of how the money was spent is still a mystery". 2008. Retrieved 10 April 2024.
- ^ "Slovakia Sells Arms to Sri Lanka despite being in violation of EU Law". 2008. Retrieved 10 April 2024.
- ^ "Bulgaria stops selling arms to Sri Lanka after humanitarian crisis unfolds". 2008. Retrieved 10 April 2024.
- ^ "Have a personal rapport with the late Palestinian President, Yasser Arafat". 11 January 2005. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
- ^ "Mapping Militant Organisations EROS and the PLO". 7 August 2013. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
- ^ "We took Tea as a symbol for the Palestinians". 7 August 2002. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
- ^ "The Untold Story". 7 August 2002. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
- ^ "'China was the principal arms supplier to LTTE'". 16 May 2012.
- ^ "The story of a North Korea-backed rebellion in Sri Lanka". 10 October 2017.
- ^ "LTTE were set to get new aircraft". 23 September 2009.
- ^ "LTTE got most of its arms from Ukraine: Karuna". 6 November 2009.
- ^ "Sri Lankan president declares war 'victory'". CNN. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
- ^ a b "LTTE defeated; Sri Lanka liberated from terror". Ministry of Defence. 18 May 2009. Archived from the original on 21 May 2009. Retrieved 18 May 2009.
- ^ a b c International Institute for Strategic Studies, Armed Conflicts Database. Archived 11 May 2006 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "MMP: Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam".
- ^ "Armed Conflict Database". Archived from the original on 11 May 2006.
- ^ "Opposition leader rebutts [sic] Sri Lankan government claims". 26 December 2008. Archived from the original on 26 December 2008.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ "Humanitarian Operation – Factual Analysis, July 2006 – May 2009" (PDF). Ministry of Defence (Sri Lanka). 1 August 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016.
- ^ a b "Sri Lankan president showers praises on the military". 26 May 2018.
- ^ "Sri Lanka Database – Casualties of Terrorist violence in Sri Lanka". Channel NewsAsia. Archived from the original on 6 June 2009. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
- ^ Total Destruction of the Tamil Tigers: The Rare Victory of Sri Lanka's Long War. Pen and Sword. 19 March 2013. ISBN 9781783830749.
- ^ "TamilNet".
- ^ "Report on Sri Lanka's missing 'almost ready'". The Hindu. 31 August 2015.
- ^ "Economic Burden by Sending IPKF in Sri Lanka" (PDF). Press Information Bureau of India – Archive. 15 December 1999. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
- ^ Nakkawita, Wijitha (3 June 2009). "LTTE killing spree". Daily News. Archived from the original on 11 January 2013. Retrieved 29 April 2012.
- ^ "Eelam War IV: Imminent End". Archived from the original on 12 October 2017.
- ^ "Tamils mark 25-years of Tiger sacrifice" Tamilnet.
- ^ 4073 LTTE cadres killed in ongoing battle.
- ^ "LTTE leader pays homage on Heroes Day", Tamilnet
- ^ "Sri Lankan experience proves nothing is impossible". The Sunday Observer. 5 June 2011. Archived from the original on 8 June 2011. Retrieved 5 June 2011.
- ^ a b "Recorded figures of Arrests, Killings, Disappearances". www.tchr.net. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
- ^ https://tamilnation.org/tamileelam/nesohr/080105_2007_Annual_Report_on_Human_Rights.pdf
- ^ https://tamilnation.org/tamileelam/nesohr/070912HR_Report_for_August_2007.pdf
- ^ "Report of the Secretary-General's Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka". Refworld/United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. United Nations. 31 March 2011. p. 41. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
- ^ Death Toll In Sri Lanka's 2009 War https://itjpsl.com/assets/ITJP_death_toll_A4_v6.pdf
- ^ Hawdon, James; Ryan, John; Lucht, Marc (6 August 2014). The Causes and Consequences of Group Violence: From Bullies to Terrorists. Lexington Books. p. 98. ISBN 978-0-7391-8897-2.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
voaswas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
tonline1was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ T. Sabaratnam, Pirapaharan, Volume 1, Introduction (2003)
- ^ T. Sabaratnam, Pirapaharan, Volume 1, Chapter 1: Why didn't he hit back? (2003)
- ^ T. Sabaratnam, Pirapaharan, Volume 2, Chapter 3: The Final Solution (2004)
- ^ Thottam, Jyoti (19 May 2009). "Prabhakaran: The Life and Death of a Tiger". Time. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
- ^ Kearney, Robert N. (1 March 1986). "Tension and Conflict in Sri Lanka". ProQuest 1309776036.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ "UN, aid agencies appeal for civilian protection in Sri Lanka as over 100,000 flee". UN News. 12 March 2007.
- ^ "Defiant Tigers cling to last bastion". 16 July 2007 – via news.bbc.co.uk.
- ^ "Sri Lanka says 147 dead in recent fighting". Reuters. 15 October 2007.
- ^ Mahr, Krista (28 November 2013). "Sri Lanka to Start Tally of Civil-War Dead". Time.
- ^ "Up to 100,000 killed in Sri Lanka's civil war: UN". ABC Australia. 20 May 2009.
- ^ "Sri Lanka PM will protect military on UN rights action". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 27 May 2011. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
- ^ "Report of the Secretary-General's Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka" (PDF). United Nations. 31 March 2011. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
- ^ "Sri Lanka to refuse entry to UN investigators". www.telegraph.co.uk. 19 August 2014.
- ^ "Sri Lanka rejects growing calls for UN war crimes investigation". www.telegraph.co.uk. 30 January 2014.
- ^ "ITJP Press release" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 February 2021. Retrieved 20 May 2023.
- ^ International Crimes Evidence Project (ICEP) Sri Lanka, Island of impunity? Investigation into international crimes in the final stages of the Sri Lankan civil war. (2014) https://piac.asn.au/2014/02/12/island-of-impunity/ p175
- ^ "War on the Displaced". Human Rights Watch. 19 February 2009.
- ^ "The Sri Lankan Civil War and Its History, Revisited in 2020". Harvard International Review. 31 August 2020. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
- ^ "The Sri Lankan Conflict". Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
- ^ "Report of the Secretary-General's Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka" (PDF). United Nations. November 2012. p. 28. Retrieved 12 May 2021.