Quotations

“With the exception of the ICRC [the International Committee of the Red Cross], other aid workers must to leave the Wanni by 29 September,” Mahinda Samarasinghe, Minister for Disaster Management.

“We hope that [our departure] is temporary so that we can reach the people. What we do know is that it is too dangerous for us to operate at the moment and our operations are being asphyxiated by the conflict,” Gordon Weiss, U.N. spokesman.

“It’s a short-term measure. Very soon they can go back. … We are focusing on war. We can crush them. Why can’t we? They are in the jungle and our forces are also [there now],” President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Press Conference, 16 September 2008.

Sources
Last U.N. staff safely leave Sri Lanka war zone, Reuters, 16 September 2008; UN pulls out of Sri Lanka war zone, rebels deny plane downed, AFP, 9 September 2008; UN says pleading crowds halt Sri Lanka pull-out, AFP, 13 September 2008.

Sources
Thousands of Muslims flee fierce fighting in Sri Lanka, The Independent, 5 August 2006; Soldiers seize town captured by LTTE, Times of India, 6 August 2007; Sri Lanka says Tigers killed 100 civilians as fighting subsides, AFP, 5 August 2006.

Quotations

“We still have no access to the area and therefore we can’t say anything about these reports [of the massacre and other civilian casualties],” Sukumar Rockwood, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

“Many walked for miles through minefields and jungle to escape the fighting, abandoning their homes to the fighting between government forces and the Tamil Tiger rebels. They had to brave rockets and mortar fire while carrying their children and a few possessions with them. At least five were killed when they were hit by artillery fire, according to a local political party,” The Independent, 5 August 2006.

“Sri Lankan soldiers on Saturday said they re-established control over a northeastern town that had been the scene of fierce clashes in recent days, and urged the thousands of civilians displaced by the fighting to return. The rebels, however, did not admit defeat, claiming instead that they withdrew from Muttur – a government-controlled town under the terms of a 2002 cease-fire – after accomplishing their objectives,” Times of India,  6 August 2007.

Related events
6 November 2006

Source
Peace Confidence Indicator (PCI), Centre for Policy Alternatives, 11-20 May 2002.

Source
Human Rights Watch World Report: Sri Lanka, 1999.

Source
Human Rights Watch World Report: Sri Lanka, 1999.

Source
Human Rights Watch World Report: Sri Lanka, 1998.

Quotation

“On May 13, Sri Lankan armed forces launched the largest military operation of the year in northern Sri Lanka. In a massive offensive which continued through October, some 20,000 troops backed up by artillery, armored vehicles, and air support were deployed to recover rebel-held territory and reopen a supply route to the Jaffna peninsula across the LTTE-controlled Vanni region. At the outset, an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 civilians fled the offensive, adding to the hundreds of thousands already displaced in the area. There were reports of civilian casualties, and many suffered from periodic shortages as restrictions were placed on the movement of food and supplies. In August, Tamil politicians charged that indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas not under government control had resulted in civilian deaths and injuries and had damaged homes, schools and places of worship.” Extracts from HUman Rights Watch World Report for Sri Lanka, 1998.

Sources
The Politics Of Destruction & The Human Tragedy, Report No. 6, 4 February 1991: The Expulsion And Expropriation Of Muslims In The North, UTHR (J); Muslim Refugees: The Forgotten People in Sri Lanka’s Ethnic Conflict, S. H. Hasbullah (2001); Sri Lanka’s Muslims: Out in the Cold, The Hindu, 31 July 2007; A Timely and Prudent Step by the LTTE, Frontline, Volume 19 – Issue 12, June 8-21, 200.

Extracts from UTHR (J) report
“But in every way Muslims and Tamils in the North had been traditionally totally integrated into local life as interdependent communities. There were Muslim traders, tailors, iron mongers, labourers and scholars. More recently, several of them took to farming in the Killinochchi area. As part of the arena of culture and scholarship, Muslims formed an important component of the University of Jaffna. There was no conflict at all.

“By the end of September, the Muslims in Chavakacheri were warned that they should be prepared for an expulsion order. Following the end of the first week in October, a very senior LTTE leader visited Vakarai in the Batticaloa district in the East where anti-Muslim feeling was rife following recent incidents. This strongly suggests that the LTTE regarded some major action against Muslims as a means of regaining its tattered credibility in the East. On 15th October, Muslims in Chavakacheri were asked to leave the peninsula. They were forced out without being able to carry hard earned valuable items such as fridges and fans. The following report was given by sources from that area:

“The Muslims’ houses were looted and ransacked and they were treated in the most brutal manner. In effect, the liberators behaved like an invading army on the binge. The LTTE cadre pocketed whatever article, such as scent bottles, that they could pocket. In one house, the koorai (bridal attire) of a young lady, married on 30th June, was removed. The owners had been asked to vacate their houses, leaving the woman of the house in charge when the LTTE came to take the inventory. One man had taken his wife leaving a 60 year old lady behind. When asked, he replied, ‘Since they are behaving like an invading army, like the IPKF and the Sri Lankan army, there is no guarantee that my wife would be safe’. …

“On the 24th at 4.00 p.m, the LTTE made a public announcement by loud-speaker: “All Muslims living in Mannar island should leave by 28th October. Before leaving, they must seek permission and clearance at the LTTE Office. The LTTE will decide their exit route.”

“Most Tamils were utterly disturbed by this. A meeting of local citizens was arranged for the 25th morning. The Bishop who was at Madhu could not come. Those who met included Roman Catholic clergy, officials from Save the Children Fund, Christian laymen and other leading citizens. Following the meeting, a delegation went to see the local LTTE leader Suresh (former student, University of Jaffna) and asked for the order to be rescinded. …

“Each Muslim family was allowed to take one sovereign of gold, Rs.2,000/- cash and five travel bags per family. Printed forms were given for clearance.

“The Muslims from Puthukudiruppu, Tharapuram, Uppukulam and Erukkalampiddy were taken to the beach at a place near Erukkalampiddy known as `Five Coconut Trees’, and were left there until they could find boats. They had to spend nights in the open in rainy weather with no conveniences and no boutique to obtain food and water. On the 28th the MARR (Mannar Association for Refugee Rehabilitation) purchased all the bread baked in Mannar and obtained the LTTE’s permission to take bread and water to the Muslims. Over three days, the Muslims made their exit to Kalpitiya, 60 miles South, by sea. Boats owned by Muslim fishermen in Mannar and Kalpitiya were used. The journey was often hazardous in crowded boats. There was at least one case of a parent numbed by cold, dropping a child into the sea and not knowing it for some time. To the old and the sickly, who had not known any place in the world, but Mannar island, the emotional and physical strain of the removal may prove fatal.”

Quotations
“I made an apology to the Muslim people that what has happened in the past has to be forgotten, that we are willing to talk to them and resolve their problems. [The Tamil territory in the North and East] belongs to the Muslim people also,” LTTE’s political adviser Anton Balasingham, Press Conference, 10 April 2002.

“The rapprochement between the LTTE and the SLMC has certain significant elements which are very progressive. They have realised the inevitable need to engage the SLMC in order to resolve their problems. That is somewhat comforting, although we have not made an emotional response to the statement they have made of late. We have told them unequivocally that we are prepared to forgive and not forget the past in the hope that they will be sincere in their attitude towards Muslims. We have bitter memories of the past. But it is time we contended with the ground realities. That would mean that the LTTE also has to look at Muslims and their separate political identity as something that has become quite pronounced over a period of time,” Rauff Hakeem, Leader of SLMM, 23 May 2003.

Related events
LTTE mosque attack in Batticoloa leaves 116 people dead
LTTE attacks Muttur, displacing thousands of Muslims

Other features
Feature: Historical roots of conflict in Sri Lanka
Feature: Assassination of an activist
Feature: “Black July”, 1983

The first evictions were conducted allegedly through harassment by newly settled convicts who were backed by the military forces. The final order was broadcast to the villages by the armed forces using loudspeakers on Christmas Eve, 1984. The people were given 24 hours to vacate. Nearly 2,700 Tamil families were forcibly evicted. The first Sinhalese settlers brought in were prisoners from Open Prison Camp who established themselves in the Kent and Dollar farms. The attempt to solve the issue under terms of the Indo-Lanka Accord, which provided for the return of displaced persons, was not successful owing to the outbreak of war between the LTTE and the IPKF.

Source
Padaviya-Wli Oya: Bearing the burden of ideology, University Teachers For Human Rights (Jaffna) Information Bulletin No.4, 13 February 1995.

Related events
Tigers carry out ‘Kent and Dollar Farm massacres’
Tamils attacked in Padaviya

Source
Appendix 2 of Sri Lanka: Ethnic Fratricide and the Dismantling of Democracy, Stanley Jeyaraja, 1956, University of Chicago Press.

Extract from Witness to History: A Journalist’s Memoirs (1930 – 2004)
“On May 26 the rioting spread to Colombo and the city suburbs. Tamils were beaten, robbed and in some instances stripped naked on the streets, while Tamil-owned houses and shops were looted or set on fire. The evidence of planned, organised rioting was particularly evident in Colombo. The rioting in each area was carried out by hooligans from other parts of the city, in order to hide identification. They were transported to and from from the scene in lorries, with gang leaders flitting about in cars overseeing the operations. Tamil-owned buildings had been carefully marked out in chalk beforehand.” S. Sivanayagam, 2005.

Extract from Emergency ’58: The Horror spreads
“In the Colombo area the number of atrocities swiftly piled up. The atmosphere was thick with hate and fear. The thugs ran amok burning houses and shops, beating-up pedestrians, holding-up vehicles and terrorizing the entire city and the suburbs. …

“Another Tamil officer working in the same Government de­partment was not so fortunate. The thugs stormed into his house and assaulted his wife and grown-up daughter in the presence of his little child. His mind cracked under the shock. In the French liner Laos which took the family away to safety in Jaffna he insisted on reciting large chunks of the Bhagavad Gita to the captain of the ship. All his formal education—he is a Cambridge scholar—had proved useless to him in the face of disaster. His broken mind reached out for the only solace a man has when his own ingenuity and ability have proved futile.

“At Wellawatte Junction, near the plantain kiosk, a pregnant woman and her husband were set upon. They clubbed him and left him on the pavement. Then they kicked the woman repeatedly as she hurried along at a grotesque sprint, carrying her swollen belly.

“A great deal of property was destroyed in the wave of arson which hit Mount Lavinia and Ratmalana on May 27. Mr R. R. Selvadurai, a former Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Justice, was one of those who lost his house. He had at first been reluctant to accept warnings of impending trouble, and had in any case no wish to leave until he had made contact with his sons, who were out.”

For a full account of the events leading up to and following the 1958 communal riots, we recommend Tarzie Vittachi’s award winning Emergency ’58: The Story of the Ceylon Race Riots, 1959 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts.

Related events
‘Anti-Sri’ campaign launched
Campaign in response to the ‘anti Sri’ campaign
‘Banda-Chelva pact’ revoked
State of emergency declared
Widespread anti-Tamil communal riots, remembered as ‘Black July’

UN and human rights organisations reported substantial civilian casualties and large-scale displacement, describing the situation as an “unfolding humanitarian catastrophe”. Sri Lanka also came under severe criticism for not allowing international media to report from the conflict zone.
 
Quotations
“Today we finished the work handed to us by the president to liberate the country from the LTTE,” General Sarath Fonseka, state television broadcast, 18 May 2009.

“This battle has reached its bitter end. We have decided to silence our guns,”  Selvarasa Pathmanathan, LTTE spokesman, 17 May, 2009.

“Our forces have recorded another historic victory. That is the complete dislodging of the Tigers from Elephant Pass and the security forces establishing their authority there. … I need not explain to you that the A-9 route is symbolic of the unity that exists between the north and the south of our country. The LTTE obtained several million rupees from the fraudulent taxes they imposed,” President Rajapakse.

“The fundamental problem is these people have to be allowed to leave. It’s very important that the continuation of the fighting not be allowed to cause an escalation of the suffering for the Tamil people of that region,” Richard Boucher, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State.

“Certain actions being undertaken by the Sri Lankan military and by the [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam] may constitute violations of international human rights and humanitarian law,” Navi Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Sources of humanitarian and human rights situation
A Profile of Human Rights and Humanitarian Issues in the Vanni and Vavuniya, Centre for Policy Alternatives, 20 March 2009; ’500 killed’ due to medicine shortage, BBC Sinhala, 17 March 2009; Sri Lanka: Urgently Evacuate Civilians, Human Rights Watch, 4 March 2009; Grim scenes at Sri Lankan camps, Channel 4, 5 May 2009.

Sources
Army ‘takes key Sri Lanka pass’, BBC, 9 January 2009; Lankan forces capture strategic Elephant pass from LTTE, The Hindu, 9 January 2009; Sri Lankan troops seize key Elephant Pass, Reuters, 9 January 2009; Lankan army capture key junction town near Kilinochchi, The Times of India, 12 December 2008; Many dead in Sri Lanka, says UN, BBC, 6 March 2009.

Related events
Capture of Thoppigala
First elections in East for 14 years
Killinochchi recaptured
Prabhakaran and other Tiger leaders killed
Sri Lanka succeeds in Human Rights Council resolution

Related feature
Feature: Historical roots of conflict in Sri Lanka