Tamil Genocide

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Tamil Genocide
Part of Sri Lankan Civil War
May 15, 2009 handout photo provided by Sri Lankan army shows the massacre in no-fire zone in Mullivaikkal, Sri Lanka.
LocationSri Lanka
Date1948[1]-present[2][3][4][5][6][7]
TargetEelam Tamils
Attack type
Genocide, ethnic cleansing, mass murder, mass shooting, hate crime
Deaths
  • 1956-2001: 79,155 Tamil civilians killed: 54,044 killed + 25,266 disappeared forever (TCHR, 2004) [8]
  • 2002-2007: 3,810 Tamil civilians killed: 2,925 killed + 885 disappeared forever (NESHOR, 2007) [9][10]
  • 2009 Jan-May: 169,796 Tamil civilians killed (ITJP, 2021) [11]
  • 2009 Jan-May Tamil civilians unaccounted & killed: 70,000 (UN, 2012)[12][13] to 146,000 (Bishop Joseph, 2011)[14][12]
Injured1956-2004: 61,132 Tamil civilians[8]
Victims1956-2004: Tamil civilians[8]
  • Raped: 12,437 women
  • Arrest/Torture: 112,246
  • Displaced: 2,390,809
Perpetrators
Sri Lankan government, Sri Lanka Police, Sinhalese mobs, Muslim Home Guards,[15][16] Sri Lankan Muslim mobs [17][18][19]
MotiveAnti-Tamil sentiment, Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism, Sinhalisation

Tamil Genocide, also known as the Sri Lankan Tamil Genocide, or Eelam Tamil Genocide are terms that encapsulate a series of devastating events suffered by the Sri Lankan Tamil also known as Eelam Tamil people leading to, during, and following the Sri Lankan Civil War. Acts of genocide against the Eelam Tamils started in 1948, as soon as Sri Lanka gained its independence, and were perpetrated through Sinhala-Buddhist centric government policies, pogroms, land grabs and ethnic cleansing.[20][21] It spanned several decades with an intense phase from 1981[22][23][24] to 2009 and thereafter until to date with colonization,[5] land grabbing[3] and arrests[2] are a manifestation of the on-going genocide against Tamil people.[25][26][4][27]

The term "genocide" in this context is used to describe the systematic and widespread targeting of Tamil civilians, combatants, and political figures by the Sinhalese dominated [28] Sri Lankan government forces, committing atrocities including mass killings, enforced disappearances, land grabbing, colonization and sexual violence. The conflict and its brutal end have sparked international debate and led to calls for accountability and justice.[1]

History

Land Grabbing and Colonization

The State-sponsored colonization is the Sri Lankan government program of settling mostly Sinhalese farmers from the densely populated wet zone into the sparsely populated areas of the dry zone. This has taken place since the 1950s near

reservoirs being built in major irrigation and hydro-power programs such as the Mahaweli project.[29] The forced Sinhala colonization began in 1952 in Gal Oya[30][31] Sinhala Buddhist nationalists within the Sri Lankan government, Buddhist clergy and Mahaweli department have deliberately targeted the Tamil majority northeast for state sponsored Sinhala colonisation, with the explicit intention to take the land into "Sinhala hands" away from the Tamils,[32] and to disrupt the Tamil-speaking continuity between the north and east.[33] This resulted in a significant demographic shift, with the resettled farmers contributing to an increase in the Sinhalese population in the northeast dry zone, thus promoting Sinhala-Buddhist hegemony in the area.[34] Sinhalese settlers were provided with preferential access to land by the state in these regions, whilst the local Tamil speaking people were excluded from this privilege,[35] making them minorities in their own lands.[36]

Demographic Changes

Massacres and killings

Forced Disappearances

Premediated Pogroms

Gang rapes and sexual violence