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Sri Lankan Civil War: A Visual History

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Visual history of a war

Twenty-six years of the Tamil Tigers against the Sinhalese-dominated state, pioneers of suicide bombing, ended in 2009 on a beach at Mullaitivu with tens of thousands of civilians dead.

Fought
1983 to 2009
Duration
26 years
Dates
23 July 1983 to 18 May 2009
Deaths
About 80,000 to 100,000, including up to 40,000 civilians in the final months (UN panel); 27,000 LTTE and 23,000 government troops
Government
Sri Lanka Army, Navy, Air Force; Indian Peace Keeping Force (1987-1990); Chinese, Pakistani, Indian and Israeli arms
LTTE
Velupillai Prabhakaran; Sea Tigers, Black Tigers, Air Tigers; Tamil diaspora funding
Result
Government victory; LTTE destroyed; unresolved Tamil grievances

The Sri Lankan Civil War (1983-2009) was fought between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who sought an independent Tamil state in the north and east. It began after the anti-Tamil pogrom of Black July 1983 following an LTTE ambush; the Tigers eliminated rival Tamil groups, fought an Indian peacekeeping force (1987-1990), assassinated Rajiv Gandhi (1991) and President Premadasa (1993), ran a de facto state from Kilinochchi with a navy and air wing, and perfected suicide bombing. A Norwegian-brokered ceasefire (2002-2006) collapsed; Mahinda Rajapaksa's government, with Chinese and Pakistani arms, drove the LTTE into a shrinking pocket where shelling of 'no-fire zones' killed up to 40,000 civilians; Prabhakaran was killed on 18 May 2009. About 100,000 died in all.

When it was fought: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Sri Lankan Civil War. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

14001500160017001800190020002100Sri Lankan Civil War (1983 to 2009)Open: First Portuguese EmpireFirst Portuguese Empire (1415 to 1663)Open: Danish colonial empireDanish colonial empire (1536 to 1953)Open: British EmpireBritish Empire (1583 to 1997)Open: Dutch EmpireDutch Empire (1602 to 1975)Open: Third Portuguese EmpireThird Portuguese Empire (1822 to 1999)Open: Cold WarCold War (1947 to 1991)Open: Myanmar conflictMyanmar conflict (1948 to present)Open: Indian annexation of Hyderabad (Operation Polo)Indian annexation of Hyderabad (Operation Polo) (1948)Open: Bangladesh Liberation WarBangladesh Liberation War (1971)

Estimated deaths in the Sri Lankan Civil War

010203040Civilians (whole war): 4040Civilians (whole war)Civilians, Jan-May 2009 (UN panel): 4040Civilians, Jan-May 2009 (UN panel)LTTE fighters: 2727LTTE fightersGovernment forces: 2323Government forcesIndian troops: 1.21.2Indian troopsthousands (approximate)

Timeline of the Sri Lankan Civil War

  1. 1983
    Black July; war begins
  2. 1987
    Indo-Lanka accord; IPKF arrives
  3. 1991
    Rajiv Gandhi assassinated
  4. 1995
    Jaffna retaken by the army
  5. 2002
    Ceasefire agreement
  6. 2004
    Karuna's defection; tsunami
  7. 2006
    War resumes
  8. 2009
    Kilinochchi falls; final offensive; Prabhakaran killedJanuary to May.

Black July and the rise of the Tigers

Sinhala-only language laws, university quotas and communal riots had alienated the Tamil minority since the 1950s; Tamil youth militancy grew in Jaffna in the 1970s. On 23 July 1983 an LTTE ambush killed 13 soldiers, and Sinhalese mobs, with lists and government complicity, killed up to 3,000 Tamils in Colombo and elsewhere; thousands fled to India, and the LTTE grew from a few dozen to thousands. Prabhakaran wiped out rival groups (TELO, 1986) and imposed total control; India armed and trained Tamil militants while pressing Colombo.

India, Eelam Wars II and III

The Indo-Lanka accord of 1987 sent an Indian Peace Keeping Force to disarm the Tigers, who fought it for three years at a cost of 1,200 Indian dead; India withdrew in 1990 and a Tiger suicide bomber killed Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. Eelam War II saw the LTTE take Jaffna and expel its Muslims; Premadasa was killed by a bomber in 1993; Chandrika Kumaratunga's army retook Jaffna in 1995 but lost the Mullaitivu and Elephant Pass bases; the Central Bank bombing (1996) killed 91 and a bomber wounded Kumaratunga herself in 1999. The Tigers ran ministries, courts, a bank and a fleet from the Vanni.

Ceasefire and destruction

Norway brokered a ceasefire in February 2002 and talks on federalism; the LTTE walked out in 2003, its eastern commander Karuna defected in 2004 with 6,000 fighters, and the tsunami of December 2004 killed 35,000. Rajapaksa, elected in 2005 with the LTTE enforcing a Tamil boycott, resumed war in 2006, cleared the east by 2007 and drove north with a rearmed military and mass conscription; Kilinochchi fell in January 2009 and 300,000 civilians were trapped with the retreating Tigers, shelled in government-declared safe zones and used as shields. Prabhakaran's body was shown on 19 May 2009. Post-war Sri Lanka has interned, disappeared and militarised, and no one has been held accountable.

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8 surprising things about the Sri Lankan Civil War

  1. The Tigers carried out more suicide bombings than any group before 9/11 and pioneered the suicide vest.
  2. LTTE cadres wore cyanide capsules round their necks to avoid capture.
  3. The Tigers had a navy (Sea Tigers), a light aircraft wing that bombed Colombo in 2007, and a shipping fleet.
  4. Rajiv Gandhi was killed by a woman suicide bomber garlanding him at an election rally in Tamil Nadu.
  5. The 2004 tsunami killed more Sri Lankans in a day than the war did in most years.
  6. The final months' shelling of hospitals and 'no-fire zones' was documented by Channel 4's Sri Lanka's Killing Fields and a UN panel.
  7. The Tamil diaspora, some 800,000 in the West, funded the LTTE for two decades and now leads accountability campaigns.
  8. Prabhakaran's 12-year-old son Balachandran was found shot dead in the last days; photographs of him alive in custody emerged later.

Sources

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