Origins of the Sri Lankan civil war

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The origins of the Sri Lankan Civil War lie in the continuous political rancor between the majority Sinhalese and the minority Sri Lankan Tamils. The war has been described by social anthropologist Jonathan Spencer as 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.[1][2]

## Colonial period

[edit]

The roots of the conflict have been traced back to Sri Lanka's colonial era. Some observers claim that British colonial rule used "divide and rule" strategy and its policies exacerbated ethnic tensions. Tamils were overrepresented in the civil service jobs due to the advantage of English language educational resources being allegedly disproportionately allocated to them.[3][4] However, English language schools were established in the Tamil-majority Jaffna by American missionaries since the British wanted to prevent conflict with the English missions in the south.[5] Since Jaffna soil was economically unproductive unlike the south, Tamils there invested more heavily in education to secure government jobs. A small section of the Jaffna society benefited from this while most of the Tamil areas remained backward.[6] The British selected their candidates for the civil service on a merit basis through civil service examination without an ethnic quota.[7][8] Therefore, historian E. F. C. Ludowyk explained the Tamil overrepresentation in civil service in terms of "their greater industry and thrift".[9] S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, the fourth Prime Minister of the Dominion of Ceylon, stated that the Tamils gained a "dominant position in the public services" due to their hard work and merit in passing the qualifying examinations.[10] Upon independence, the ruling Sinhalese elite would vilify Tamils as having been favoured by the British to justify discriminatory policies against them.[6] Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism sparked by the grievances of the majority against the domination of a Westernized elite would lead to ethnic polarization.[11]

## Lead up to armed struggle

[edit]

A primary contributor to the development of political awareness amongst Tamils during the European colonial rule was the advent of Protestant missionaries on a large scale from 1814. Missionary activities by missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Methodists and Anglican churches led to a revival amongst Hindu Tamils who built their own schools, temples, societies and published literature to counter the missionary activities. The success of this effort led the Tamils to think confidently of themselves as a community and prepared the way for self-consciousness as a cultural, religious and linguistic community in the mid-19th century.[12][13]

Great Britain, which had come to control the whole of the island in 1815, instituted a legislative council in 1833 with three Europeans and one each for Sinhalese, Sri Lankan Tamils and Burghers. This council's primary requirement was to play an advisory role to the Governor. These positions eventually came to be elected. From the introduction of the advisory council to the Donoughmore Commission in 1931 until the Soulbury Commission in 1947, the main dispute between the Sinhalese and Tamils elites was over the question of representation and not on the structure of the government. The issue of power sharing was used by the nationalists of both communities to create an escalating inter-ethnic rivalry which has continually gained momentum ever since.[14]

There was initially little tension amongst Sri Lanka's two largest ethnic groups, the Sinhalese and the Tamils, when Ponnambalam Arunachalam, a Tamil, was appointed representative of the Sinhalese as well the Tamils in the national legislative council. However, the British Governor William Manning actively encouraged the concept of "communal representation" and created the Colombo seat which alternated between the Tamils and the Sinhalese.[15]

Subsequently, the Donoughmore Commission strongly rejected communal representation, and brought in universal franchise. The decision was strongly opposed by the Tamil political leadership, who realized that they would be reduced to a minority in parliament, according to the proportion of the population they make up. G. G. Ponnambalam, a leader of the Tamil community, proposed to the Soulbury Commission that there should be 50–50 representation (50% for the Sinhalese, 50% for all other ethnic groups, including Tamils) in the proposed independent Ceylon – a proposal that was rejected.[16] In 1936, a Pan-Sinhala Board of Ministers was created which excluded non-Sinhala members, and further divided the Sinhala and Tamil elites.[17] The Second World War served as an interregnum where the adroit politics of D. S. Senanayake successfully balancing the polarising tendencies of the Sinhalese as well as Tamil nationalists.[citation needed] Following independence in 1948, G. G. Ponnambalam and the party he founded, the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (Tamil Congress), joined D. S. Senanayake's moderate,[citation needed] Western-oriented, United National Party Government. This Government pass the Ceylon Citizenship Act of 1948, which denied citizenship to Sri Lankans of Indian origin and resulted in Sri Lanka becoming a majoritanian state. Sri Lanka's government represented only the majority community, the Sinhalese community,[citation needed] and had marginalized the minorities, causing a "severe degree of alienation" among the minority communities.[18] When this Act was passed, the Tamil Congress was strongly criticized by the opposition Marxist groups and the newly formed Sri Lankan Tamil nationalist Federal Party (FP). S. J. V. Chelvanayakam, the leader of this new party, contested the citizenship act before the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka, and then in the Privy council in England, on grounds of discrimination towards minorities, but he did not prevail in overturning it. The FP took two seats in the 1952 election, against the Tamil Congress' four, but in the 1956 election it became the dominant party in the Tamil districts and remained so for two decades. The FP's came to be known for its uncompromising stand on Tamil rights.[19] In response to the parliamentary act that made Sinhala the sole official language in 1956, Federal MPs staged a non violent sit in (satyagraha) protest, but it was broken up by a nationalist mob. The police and other state authorities present at the location failed to take action to stop the violence. The FP was cast as scapegoats and were briefly banned after the 1958 riots in which many were killed and thousands of Tamils forced to flee their homes.

Another point of conflict between the communities was state sponsored colonization schemes that had the effect of changing the demographic balance in the Eastern province in favor of majority Sinhalese that the Tamil nationalists considered to be their traditional homeland. It has been perhaps the most immediate cause of inter-communal violence.[20]

In the 1970s importing Tamil-language films, books, magazines, journals, etc. from the cultural hub of Tamil Nadu, India was banned. Sri Lanka also banned local groups affiliated with groups such as the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the Tamil Youth League. Foreign exchange for the long established practice of Tamil students going to India for university education was stopped. Equally, examinations for external degrees from the University of London were abolished. This had the effect of culturally cutting off the links between Tamil Sri Lankans and Tamils from India. The then government insisted that these measures were part of a general program of economic self-sufficiency as part of its socialist agenda and not targeted against the Tamil minority.[citation needed]

The policy of standardization was a policy implemented by the Sri Lankan government in 1971[21] to curtail the number of Tamil students selected for certain faculties in the universities.[22][23][24]

In 1973, the Federal Party decided to demand for a separate state. To further their nationalistic cause they merged with the other Tamil political parties to become the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) in 1975. On 1976, after the first National convention of the Tamil United Liberation Front, the Ceylon Tamils moved towards a morphed nationalism which meant that they were now unwilling to live within a confined single island entity.[25] Chelvanayakam and the Federal Party had always campaigned for a united country and thought that partitioning of the country would be “suicidal” up until 1973. However policies by the various governments that was considered to be discriminatory by Tamil leadership[20] modified the stand to Tamil independence.

## Rise of militancy

[edit]

Main articles: Sri Lankan Tamil militant groups and List of Sri Lankan Tamil militant groups

See also: Human rights in Sri Lanka and Allegations of State terrorism by Sri Lanka

Tamil rebels in a truck in Killinochchi in 2004

Since 1948 when Sri Lanka became independent, successive governments have adopted policies that had the effect of net preference to the majority Sinhalese at the expense of the minority Sri Lankan Tamils.[26] The governments adopted these policies in order to assist the Sinhalese community in such areas as education and public employment. But these policies severely curtailed the middle class Tamil youth, who found it more difficult during the 1970s and 1980s to enter a university or secure employment. These individuals belonging to this younger generation, often referred to by other Tamils as "the boys" formed many militant organizations.[26] The most important contributor to the strength of the militant groups was the Black July pogrom which was perceived have been an organized event in which over 1000 Sri Lankan Tamil civilians were killed prompting many youth to prefer the armed path of resistance.[26][27]

By the end of 1987, they had fought not only the Sri Lankan security forces but also the Indian Peace Keeping Force. They also fought among each other, as well, with equal if not greater brutality. The main group: Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a rebel group, decimated most of the others. They represented intergenerational tensions as well as caste and ideological differences. Except the LTTE, many of the remaining organizations have morphed into minor political parties within the Tamil National Alliance or as standalone political parties. Some also function as paramilitary groups within the Sri Lankan military.[26]

## Denial of citizenship to Indian Tamils

[edit]

Main article: Ceylon Citizenship Act

There is a sizable population of Tamils in the Central Province, plantation laborers brought down from India by the British colonial authorities in the 19th and 20th centuries. These Indian Tamils (or Estate Tamils), as they are called, still work mainly in Sri Lanka's tea plantations. They have been locked in poverty for generations and continue to experience poor living conditions.[28] Although they speak dialects of the same language, they are usually considered a separate community from the Sri Lankan Tamils of the North and East.

The government of D.S. Senanayake passed legislation stripping the estate Tamils of their citizenship in 1949, leaving them stateless.

The effect was to tilt the island's political balance away from the Tamils. In 1948, at independence, the Tamils had 33% of the voting power in Parliament.[citation needed]. Upon the disenfranchisement of the estate Tamils, however, this proportion dropped to 20%. The Sinhalese could and did obtain more than a 2/3 majority in Parliament, making it impossible for Tamils to exercise an effective opposition to Sinhalese policies affecting them. The main reason for the imbalance was that several multi-member constituencies elected a Tamil member of Parliament in a majority Sinhalese electorate. The idea in having multi-member constituencies was to prevent domination of minorities by a future nationalist government.

Not content with stripping their citizenship, successive governments tried to remove the estate Tamils from the country entirely. In 1964, Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike signed an agreement with Indian Prime Minister L.B. Shastri. A second agreement was signed three years later with Indira Gandhi. These provided that 600,000 of the estate Tamils would be expelled and sent to India over a 15-year period, and 375,000 would be restored their Sri Lankan citizenship. Not all of the former group actually returned to India, and remained in Sri Lanka without the ability to vote, travel abroad, or participate fully in Sri Lankan life. It was not until 2003 that full citizenship rights were restored to the remaining Tamils in the hill country.

## Language policy

[edit]

Main article: Sinhala Official Language Act

The detailed reports of the Kandyan Peasantry commission (1947), the Buddhist commission (1956), as well as statistics of preponderant admissions of Tamil speaking students to the university provided a basis for these Sinhalese activists who ensured S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike won a landslide victory in 1956, campaigning on a strong Sinhalese nationalist platform.

Ethnic conflict was aggravated by the Sinhala Official Language Act of 1956. General consensus existed that English should be replaced as the country's official language. In the Act, the Sri Lankan government replaced English with Sinhala which deprived the Tamils of their right to deal with government institutions in their language as well as limited their opportunity to join government service. By 1956 approximately 75% of the population maintained fluency in the Sinhala language, approximately 15% were proficient in Tamil and the remaining ethnic groups spoke mainly English including the Burghers and Muslims. Multi-linguism was not common-spread, although many Sri Lankans had knowledge of at least two of the three main languages.

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) government led by Solomon Bandaranaike was sworn into office on a platform that of helping the growing population of unemployed youth who were disenfranchised by the Sinhala Official Language policy. A majority of civil servants under colonial rule were Tamil whose positions benefited from free English-medium missionary schools in the north and east of the island. The Tamil Federal Party led a group of Tamil volunteers and staged a sit-down satyagraha (peaceful protest).

The Sinhala Official Language policy was gradually weakened by all subsequent governments and in 1987 Tamil was made an official language of Sri Lanka,[29] alongside Sinhala. English has remained the de facto language of governance; government activity continues to be carried out in English, including the drafting of legislation.

## 1958 riots

[edit]

Main article: Sri Lankan riots of 1958

In the 1958 riots, 150–200 people were killed, primarily Tamils and thousands more were assaulted and Tamil property looted. Over 25,000 Tamil refugees were relocated to the North. Similarly, a large number of Sinhalese were killed or expelled from the North and East of country and were relocated in the South.

## 1970 – Banning of Tamil media and literature importation

[edit]

Importing Tamil-language films, books, magazines, journals, etc. from the cultural hub of Tamil Nadu, India was banned in 1970. This was perceived by some minority Sri Lankan Tamil politicians as directed against their cultural survival. Sri Lanka also banned groups such as the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Tamil Youth League. Culturally, Tamil Sri Lankans were cut off from Tamil Nadu. But some argue that it led to native Sri Lankan Tamil literature and media to thrive without competition from India.

Foreign exchange for the long established practice of Tamil students going to India for university education was stopped. Equally, examinations for external degrees from the University of London were abolished. The government insisted this was a part of a general program of economic self-sufficiency, part of its socialist agenda, however most of the Tamil population did not accept nor believe this.

## 1971 – Universities Act

[edit]

Main article: Policy of standardisation

During the 1970s university admissions were standardized. The Policy of standardisation was a policy implemented by the Sri Lankan government in 1971[21] to curtail the number of Tamil students selected for certain faculties in the universities.[30][31][32]

Under the British, English was the state language and consequently greatly benefited English speakers. However, the majority of the Sri Lankan populace lived outside urban areas and did not belong to the social elite, and therefore did not enjoy the benefits of English-medium education. The issue was compounded further by the fact that in the Jaffna district, where a largely Tamil speaking populace resided, students had access to English-medium education through missionary schools. This created a situation where a large proportion of university students enrolled in professional courses such as medicine and engineering were English speaking Tamils.

## Rise of separatism

[edit]

At first, Tamil politicians pushed for a federal system through the Federal Party. This was met with suspicion and resistance from many Sinhalese. In the 1960s, the government of Sirimavo Bandaranaike proceeded to nationalize most missionary schools in the country, secularizing them and changing the language of instruction from English to Sinhala only. After this, it became rare for Sinhalese and Tamil children to attend school together. Unable to speak Sinhalese, it became increasingly difficult for Tamil youth to gain access to civil service jobs or attend universities, and unemployment rose.

The name of the country was changed from Ceylon to Sri Lanka in 1970, a name of Sanskrit origin that angered and alienated many Tamils.

### Vaddukoddai Resolution

[edit]

The concept of a separate nation, Tamil Eelam, was proposed by the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) in the Vaddukoddai Resolution in 1976. TULF was a coalition of parties who went on to campaign in the 1977 elections for an independent state for Tamils in Sri Lanka. They won most of the Tamil seats, but the government later banned them from Parliament for advocating an independent state.Tamil Separatists led by LTTE took over leadership of the Tamils during the course of the Sri Lankan Civil War.[33]

## 1981 – Destruction of the Jaffna Public Library

[edit]

Main article: Burning of Jaffna library

A Sinhalese mob went on a rampage on the nights of May 31 to June 2 burning the market area of Jaffna, the office of the Tamil Newspaper, the home of the member of Parliament for Jaffna, the Jaffna Public Library and killing four people.[34] The destruction of the Jaffna Public Library was the incident which appeared to cause the most distress to the people of Jaffna. The 95,000 volumes of the Public Library destroyed by the fire included numerous culturally important and irreplaceable manuscripts. Witnesses reported the presence of uniformed police officers in the mob[35] and their involvement in the deaths of four individuals.

## Outbreak of war

[edit]

Main articles: Black July and Sri Lankan Civil War

This section is an excerpt from Black July.[edit]

Anti-Tamil pogroms
in Sri Lanka

Gal Oya (1956)
1958 pogrom
1977 pogrom
1981 pogrom
Black July (1983)

* v
* t
* e

Black July (Tamil: கறுப்பு யூலை, romanized: Kaṟuppu Yūlai; Sinhala: කළු ජූලිය, romanized: Kalu Juliya) was an anti-Tamil pogrom[36] that occurred in Sri Lanka during July 1983.[37][38] The pogrom was premeditated,[39][40][41][42][note 1] 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.[44] Although initially orchestrated by members of the ruling UNP, the pogrom soon escalated into mass violence with significant public participation.[45]

On the night of 24 July 1983, anti-Tamil rioting started in the capital city of Colombo and then spread to other parts of the country. Over seven days, mainly Sinhalese mobs attacked, burned, looted, and killed Tamil civilians. The looting, arson and killings later spread to include all Indians, with the Indian High Commission being attacked and the Indian Overseas Bank being completely destroyed.[46] Estimates of the death toll range between 400 and 3,000,[47] and 150,000 people became homeless.[48][49] According to Tamil Centre for Human Rights (TCHR), the total number of Tamils killed in the Black July pogrom was 5,638.[50]

Around 18,000 homes and 5,000 shops were destroyed.[51] The economic cost of the riots was estimated to be $300 million.[48] The pogrom was organised to destroy the economic base of the Tamils, with every Tamil owned shop and establishment being plundered and set alight.[46] The NGO International Commission of Jurists described the violence of the pogrom as having "amounted to acts of genocide" in a report published in December 1983.[52]

The pogrom spurred thousands of Tamil youth to spontaneously join militant groups, which prior to the pogrom had only 20-30 members.[47][53] Black July is generally seen as the start of the Sri Lankan Civil War between the Tamil militants and the government of Sri Lanka.[49][54] Sri Lankan Tamils fled to other countries in the ensuing years, with July becoming a period of remembrance for the diaspora around the world.[55] To date no one has been held accountable for any of the crimes committed during the pogrom.[56]

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ George Immerwahr, a United Nations civil servant and U.S. citizen, recounted the following regarding the riots: “the most shattering report came from a [Sinhalese] friend who was a civil servant; he told me that he had himself helped plan the riots at the orders of his superiors. When I heard him say this, I was so shocked I told him I simply couldn't believe him, but he insisted he was telling the truth, and in fact he justified the government's decision to stage the riots. When I heard this, I telephoned an official in our own State Department, and while he declined to discuss the matter, I got the impression that he already knew from our Embassy in Colombo what I was telling him.” [43]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Spencer, J, Sri Lankan history and roots of conflict, p. 23
2. ^ "Sri Lanka Summary". Jonathan Spencer. Archived from the original on 2008-06-11. Retrieved 2008-05-08.
3. ^ "Sri Lanka: The ethnic divide". BBC News. 16 May 2000.
4. ^ Imtiyaz, A.R.M.; Bandarage, Asoka (2009). "The Separatist Conflict in Sri Lanka: Understanding the Conflict Beyond the Iron Law of Terrorism". Asia Policy (8): 170. ISSN 1559-0968. JSTOR 24904958.
5. ^ Russell, Jane (1982). Communal Politics Under the Donoughmore Constitution, 1931-1947. Tisara Prakasakayo. p. 21.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
6. ^ a b Hoole, M.R.R. "The Tamil Secessionist Movement in Sri Lanka (Ceylon): A Case of Secession by Default?". UTHR(J).
7. ^ Ceylon: Report of the Commission on Constitutional Reform (PDF) (Report). H.M. Stationery Office. 1945. pp. 48–50.48-50&rft.pub=H.M.+Stationery+Office&rft.date=1945&rft_id=https://ia600703.us.archive.org/24/items/CeylonConstitution-1945/CeylonConstitution.pdf&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Origins+of+the+Sri+Lankan+civil+war" class="Z3988">
8. ^ Andradi, Wijeratne Mudiyanselage Don Dayananda (1967). English Educated Ceylonese in the Official Life of Ceylon From 1865 to 1883 (PDF) (phd thesis). SOAS University of London. p. 240\. doi:10.25501/soas.00034090.
9. ^ Ludowyk, Evelyn Frederick Charles (1966). Modern History of Ceylon. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. p. 246\. ISBN 978-0-297-16596-5.
10. ^ S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, Prime Minister (4 June 1958). Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Dominion of Ceylon: House of Representatives. p.930
11. ^ Kearney, Robert N. (1964). "Sinhalese Nationalism and Social Conflict in Ceylon". Pacific Affairs. 37 (2): 125–136\. doi:10.2307/2753947. ISSN 0030-851X. JSTOR 2753947.125-136&rft.date=1964&rft.issn=0030-851X&rft_id=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2753947#id-name=JSTOR&rft_id=info:doi/10.2307/2753947&rft.aulast=Kearney&rft.aufirst=Robert+N.&rft_id=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2753947&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Origins+of+the+Sri+Lankan+civil+war" class="Z3988">
12. ^ Gunasingam, Sri Lankan Tamil nationalism, p. 108
13. ^ Gunasingam, Sri Lankan Tamil nationalism, p. 201
14. ^ Gunasingam, Sri Lankan Tamil nationalism, p. 76
15. ^ K. M. de Sila, History of Sri Lanka, Penguin 1995
16. ^ November 1948 Archived 2009-01-19 at the Wayback Machine, Peace and Conflict Timeline
17. ^ Suren Raghavan, Defending Buddhism by Fighting Federalism Ethnoreligious Nationalism of the Sinhala Sangha and Peacemaking in Sri Lanka: 1995-2010, PhD thesis, 2013, p.20
18. ^ R. Cheran (March 2009) Roots of Sri Lankan conflict at The Real News
19. ^ "Tamil Politics". Russell R. Ross. Retrieved 2008-05-08.
20. ^ a b "Tamil Alienation". Russell R. Ross. Retrieved 2008-05-08.
21. ^ a b The Root Causes of the Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka
22. ^ Chelvadurai Manogaran, Ethnic conflict and reconciliation in Sri Lanka, University of Hawaii press, 1987, p116
23. ^ A. Jeyaratnam Wilson, The Break-up of Sri Lanka The Sinhalese-Tamil Conflict, Hurst Publishers, 1988, p131
24. ^ C.R. Da Silva, The impact of Nationalism on Education: The school Take-over 1961 and the University Admissions Crisis 1970-1975, Collective Identities, Nationalism, and Protests in Modern Sri Lanka, pp.486
25. ^ Wilson, A.J. Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism: Its Origins and Development in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, pp. 101–110
26. ^ a b c d "Tamil Militant Groups". Russell R. Ross. Retrieved 2008-05-08.
27. ^ Marschall, Wolfgang (2003). "Social Change Among Sri Lankan Tamil Refugees in Switzerland". Archived from the original on 2007-12-05. Retrieved 2007-12-22.
28. ^ "BBCSinhala.com". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
29. ^ "U.S.ENGLISH Foundation Official Language Research - Sri Lanka: Language issues". Archived from the original on 2008-02-09. Retrieved 2007-11-02.
30. ^ Chelvadurai Manogaran, Ethnic conflict and reconciliation in Sri Lanka, University of Hawaii press, 1987, p116
31. ^ A. Jeyaratnam Wilson, The Break-up of Sri Lanka The Sinhalese-Tamil Conflict, Hurst Publishers, 1988, p131
32. ^ C.R. Da Silva, The impact of Nationalism on Education: The school Take-over 1961 and the University Admissions Crisis 1970-1975, Collective Identities, Nationalism, and Protests in Modern Sri Lanka, pp.486
33. ^ A. J. Wilson (1 January 2000). Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism: Its Origins and Development in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century. UBC Press. pp. 114–. ISBN 978-0-7748-0759-3. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
34. ^ "Unesco Quarterly Bulletin, Volume 14, Issue 1". UNESCO. June–September 2004. Archived from the original on 2004-12-23. Retrieved 2006-08-07.
35. ^ "Two decades after the burning down of the Jaffna library in Sri Lanka". World Socialist Web Site. 30 May 2001. Retrieved 2006-08-07.
36. ^ Community, Gender and Violence, edited by Partha Chatterjee, Pradeep Jeganathan
37. ^ Rajan Hoole, Black July: Further Evidence Of Advance Planning https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/black-july-further-evidence-of-advance-planning/
38. ^ Rajan Hoole, Sri Lanka’s Black July: Borella, 24th Evening https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/sri-lankas-black-july-borella-24th-evening/
39. ^ T. Sabaratnam, Pirapaharan, Volume 2, Chapter 2 – The Jaffna Massacre (2003)
40. ^ T. Sabaratnam, Pirapaharan, Volume 2, Chapter 3 – The Final Solution (2003)
41. ^ T. Sabaratnam, Pirapaharan, Volume 2, Chapter 4 – Massacre of Prisoners (2003)
42. ^ T. Sabaratnam, Pirapaharan, Volume 2, Chapter 5 – The Second Massacre (2003)
43. ^ A. Jeyaratnam Wilson, The Break-up of Sri Lanka: The Sinhalese-Tamil Conflict. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1988. p.173
44. ^ Nidheesh, MK (2 September 2016). "Book review: The Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi by Neena Gopal". Live Mint. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
45. ^ E.M. Thornton & Niththyananthan, R. – Sri Lanka, Island of Terror – An Indictment, (ISBN 0 9510073 0 0), 1984, Appendix A
46. ^ a b Pratap, Anita (August 1983). "A drop of blood in the Indian Ocean". Sunday, Vol. 11, No. 4. India. pp.34-39
47. ^ a b Harrison, Frances (23 July 2003). "Twenty years on – riots that led to war". BBC News.
48. ^ a b Aspinall, Jeffrey & Regan 2013, p. 104.
49. ^ a b Buerk, Roland (23 July 2008). "Sri Lankan families count cost of war". BBC News.
50. ^ "Recorded figures of Arrests, Killings, Disappearances".
51. ^ "Peace and Conflict Timeline: 24 July 1983". Centre for Poverty Analysis. Archived from the original on 29 July 2013. Retrieved 22 July 2013.
52. ^ "ICJ Review no. 31 (December 1983)" (PDF). p. 24\. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 March 2014.
53. ^ Sivakumar, Chitra (2001). Transformation in the Sri Lankan Tamil Militant Discourse. Madras: University of Madras. p.323
54. ^ Tambiah, Stanley Jeyaraja (1986). Sri Lanka: Ethnic Fratricide and the Dismantling of Democracy. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-78952-7.
55. ^ "Black July '83". Blackjuly83.com. Retrieved 2022-05-30.
56. ^ "Ghosts of Black July still haunt Sri Lanka". Daily FT. Colombo. 26 July 2022. Retrieved 15 May 2024.

## Bibliography

[edit]

* Aspinall, Edward; Jeffrey, Robin; Regan, Anthony, eds. (2013). Diminishing Conflict in Asia and the Pacific. Routledge. ISBN 978-1136251139.

* v
* t
* e

Sri Lankan civil war (1983–2009)

Origins|

* Sri Lankan Tamil nationalism
* Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism
* Sinhala Only Act
* 1956
* 1958
* Vaddukoddai Resolution
* 1977
* 1981
* Burning of Jaffna Library
* Black July

Combatants|

|  Sri Lanka|

* Army (LRRP)
* Navy
* Air Force
* Police
* Special Task Force
* Home Guards
* Attacks on civilians
* Assassinations

|

LTTE|

* Divisions
* Air Tigers
* Sea Tigers
* Black Tigers
* Attacks
* in the 1970s
* 1980s
* 1990s
* 2000s
* Assassinations
* Suicide bombings

Other militants (list)|

* ENDLF
* ENLF
* EPRLF
* EROS
* PLOTE
* TELO

India|

* Indian Peace Keeping Force

Paramilitary groups|

* EPDP
* TMVP

Phases|

* Eelam War I
* Indian intervention
* Eelam War II
* III
* IV
* Eastern / Northern theatres

Major battles|

* Kokkilai
* Vadamarachchi
* Poomalai
* Pawan
* Jaffna University Helidrop
* Balavegaya
* 1st Elephant Pass
* Pooneryn
* Riviresa
* 1st Mullaitivu
* Weli Oya
* Sath Jaya
* Vavunathivu
* Jayasikurui
* Thandikulam–Omanthai
* 1st Kilinochchi
* Oddusuddan
* A-9 highway
* 2nd Elephant Pass
* Bandaranaike Airport attack
* Point Pedro
* Jaffna
* Thoppigala
* Vidattaltivu
* 2nd Kilinochchi
* 2nd Mullaitivu
* Puthukkudiyirippu

Major events|

* Air Lanka Flight 512
* Indo-Sri Lanka Accord
* Expulsions from Northern province
* Assassination of Lalith Athulathmudali
* Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi
* Assassination of Ranasinghe Premadasa
* Temple of the Tooth attack
* Lionair Flight 602
* Bandaranaike Airport attack
* Expulsions from Colombo
* 2009 suicide air raid on Colombo

Leaders|

| Sri Lanka|

| Military|

| Army|

* Tissa Weeratunga
* Nalin Seneviratne
* Hamilton Wanasinghe
* Cecil Waidyaratne
* G. H. De Silva
* Rohan Daluwatte
* Srilal Weerasooriya
* L. P. Balagalle
* Shantha Kottegoda
* Sarath Fonseka

|

Navy|

* Asoka de Silva
* H. A. Silva
* Clancy Fernando
* D. A. M. R. Samarasekara
* H. C. A. C. Thisera
* Daya Sandagiri
* Wasantha Karannagoda

Air Force|

* Dick Perera
* Andibuduge Fernando
* Makalandage Gunawardena
* Oliver Ranasinghe
* Jayalath Weerakkody
* Donald Perera
* Roshan Goonetileke

Civilian|

* J. R. Jayewardene
* Ranasinghe Premadasa
* Dingiri Banda Wijetunga
* Chandrika Kumaratunga
* Mahinda Rajapaksa

LTTE|

| Militant|

* Velupillai Prabhakaran
* Pottu Amman
* Soosai
* Karuna Amman

|

Political|

* Selvarasa Pathmanathan
* Anton Balasingham
* S. P. Thamilselvan

India|

| Military|

* Harkirat Singh
* Ashok K. Mehta
* Kulwant Singh
* Depinder Singh
* Dalvir Singh
* Krishnaswamy Sundarji

|

Civilian|

* R. Venkataraman
* Rajiv Gandhi
* V. P. Singh
* Jyotindra Nath Dixit
* J. Jayalalithaa
* M. Karunanidhi
* Vaiko

Aftermath|

* Genocide
* Films
* NPC resolution
* LLRC
* Reactions (Protests)
* Remembrance Day
* UN Panel on Accountability
* War crimes
* Chemical weapons

Related topics|

* Casualties
* Assassinations
* Massacres
* Child soldiers
* Disappearances
* Office on Missing Persons
* Human rights
* Popular culture
* Terrorism
* Non-state
* State
* PTA
* Sexual violence
* Sixth Amendment
* Thirteenth Amendment
* Women
* 1988 Maldives coup attempt
* 1987–1989 JVP insurrection

* Sri Lankan civil war at Wiktionary
* Source texts at Wikisource
* Textbooks at Wikibooks
* Images and media at the Commons
* Quotations at Wikiquote
* News stories at Wikinews

* v
* t
* e

Military historiography

* Military history
* List of military museums

Pre-18th century
conflicts|

* Albigensian Crusade
* Catharism debate
* Crusades
* Islamic views
* Eighty Years' War
* Origins
* Fall of Babylon
* Gallic Wars
* Late Bronze Age collapse
* Dorian invasion
* Sea Peoples
* Peloponnesian War

18th and 19th
century conflicts|

| Coalition Wars
(1792–1815)|

* French Revolution
* Pre-revolution [fr]
* Causes
* New Russian School [ru]
* War in the Vendée
* Napoleonic era
* Invasion of Russia
* Waterloo

|

* American Civil War
* Origins
* Turning point
* Franco-Prussian War
* Causes
* Paris Commune
* Great Game
* Indian Rebellion of 1857
* Causes
* Paraguayan War
* War of 1812
* Origins
* War of the Pacific
* Causes
* Myth of English aid [es]

World War I|

* Causes (Color books / Fischer thesis)
* Late Ottoman genocides (Causes of the Armenian genocide)
* Patriotic consent [fr]
* Persian famine of 1917–1919
* Powder keg of Europe
* Schlieffen Plan
* Spirit of 1914 / 1917
* Treaty of Brest-Litovsk [ru]

| Treaty of
Versailles|

* Reparations
* War guilt question
* Article 231
* Reichstag inquiry

|

Interwar period|

* Burning of Smyrna
* Polish–Soviet War
* Causes
* Spanish Civil War
* Background

World War II|

* Causes
* "Blitzkrieg" concept
* Broad vs. narrow front
* German resistance to Nazism
* Nazi foreign policy debate

| Eastern Front|

* Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
* Soviet offensive plans
* Soviets and the Warsaw Uprising
* Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia
* Winter War
* Background
* Spirit

|

The Holocaust|

* Auschwitz bombing debate
* Awareness in Nazi Germany and German-occupied Europe
* Functionalism–intentionalism debate
* In relation to the Armenian genocide / Nakba
* Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust
* Pius Wars
* "Polish death camp"
* Responsibility
* Slovakia
* Uniqueness

Pacific War|

* Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
* "Battle for Australia"
* Bengal famine
* Second Sino-Japanese War
* Nanjing Massacre

Western Front|

* Battle of France
* Guilty Men
* Résistancialisme
* Vichy France [fr]

Cold War|

* Origins
* 1948 Palestine war
* Palestinian expulsion and flight / Ongoing Nakba
* Zionism as settler colonialism
* New Historians
* Malayan Emergency
* Causes
* Algerian War
* Six-Day War
* Origins
* Iranian revolution
* Causes
* Iran–Iraq War
* Falklands War
* Sovereignty dispute
* Sri Lankan civil war
* Origins

Post-Cold War|

* Russo-Georgian War
* Background
* Responsibility
* Syrian revolution
* Causes

Related|

* Conflict thesis
* Gunpowder and gun transmission
* Torsion mangonel myth
* War and genocide

* Category

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