Confronting the Complexity of Loss

Second, the LTTE carried out attacks on civilians throughout the period of the war. It
perpetrated several civilian massacres, beginning in November 1984 with the Kent and
Dollar Farm massacres in Mullaitivu. Two of the most shocking civilian massacres to
take place during this period were the Anuradhapura massacre of 14 May 1985, where
146 civilians were gunned down by the LTTE, 55 and the Kattankudy massacre of 3
August 1990, where the LTTE is suspected to have killed over a hundred Muslims in four
mosques. 56 Another egregious incident took place on 11 June 1990, when the LTTE
executed between 600 and 774 unarmed police officers based in the Eastern Province
who had surrendered to the LTTE. 57 The LTTE also detonated bombs in various central
and populated locations in the country, often using suicide bombers as a means of
executing the planned operations. The first major attack of this nature took place on 21
April 1987, when a bomb blast at the Central Bus Station in Colombo killed over a 100
civilians. 58 Other major attacks include the Central Bank bombing of January 1996,
which killed 91 persons, 59 and the Kebithigollewa claymore mine attack of June 2006,
which killed over 60 persons. 60
Third, mass civilian evictions were perpetrated or instigated as a result of the conflict.
The mass exodus of Tamils from the island in the early 1980s was directly attributed to
the July 1983 pogrom. The exodus continued throughout the 1980s as an indirect result of
the conflict and the loss of economic opportunities, and eventually resulted in the
establishment of the Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora—nearly a million in number. 61 The
LTTE perpetrated more direct forms of expulsion. In 1990, approximately 75,000
Muslims from the Northern Province were expelled by the LTTE. The event resulted in
the long-term displacement of these Muslims, who now reside in other parts of the
country including Puttalam and Colombo.
Fourth, tremendous loss to life and property was suffered as a direct result of military
operations during the war. The exact death toll is still unknown, although some reports
claim that the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(UNOCHA) estimated between 80,000 and 100,000 casualties in total during the entirety
of the war. 62 Combatants, including the armed forces and the militants, were amongst the
dead. Additionally, a significant number of civilian lives were lost during the final stages
55 See ‘Timeline of the Tamil conflict’, The BBC, 4 September 2000, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia
/51435.stm
56 See University Teachers For Human Rights (Jaffna), ‘The War of June 1990’, Report No. 4 (August
1990); ‘Tamils Kill 110 Muslims at 2 Sri Lankan Mosques’, The New York Times, 5 August 1990, at
http://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/05/world/tamils-kill-110-muslims-at-2-sri-lankan-mosques.html
57 University Teachers For Human Rights (Jaffna), ‘The War and its Consequences in the Amparai
District’, Special Report No. 3 (October 1990); ‘There are 600 plus (murdered) Police officers inside the
one you see today’, Daily News, 11 June 2011, at http://archives.dailynews.lk/2011/06/11/fea02.asp.
58 See ‘Timeline of the Tamil conflict’, BBC.com, 4 September 2000, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia
/51435.stm.
59 Ibid.
60 See ‘Military 'killed Lanka aid staff'’, The BBC, 30 August 2006 at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south
_asia/5298470.stm.
61 Institute of Policy Studies, Migration Profile: Sri Lanka (2013), at 29.
62
‘Up to 100,000 killed in Sri Lanka's civil war: UN’, ABC news, 20 May 2009, at
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-05-20/up-to-100000-killed-in-sri-lankas-civil-war-un/1689524.
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