black july
On the early morning of July 23rd 1983, LTTE launched an attack on a military truck at Thirunelvely in Jaffna district, where 23 Sri Lankan soldiers were killed.
This was considered as a major attack against the Sri Lankan government. The bodies of the 23 soldiers were brought to Colombo for burial/cremation. A very large crowd of government soldiers and Singhalese thugs gathered at the cemetery apart from the relatives and politicians. After the funeral ceremonies the very big crowd consisting of the soldiers and thugs started to loot and burn the shops and business establishments belonging to Tamils. The then President Mr J.R.Jeyawardene closed his eyes and did not initiate to take any action against those who were responsible for this cowardly act! This spree went on for days and spread all over the Island. The Singhalese mob became very violent and started to kill, loot and rape the Tamils. Their houses were looted and then burnt. This is still called as `Black July´ by the Tamils.
From this period onwards the remained little relations between Tamils and Singhalese deteriorated very badly. The two communities began to doubt each other. Various Tamil groups staged guerrilla attacks against the government. There was no law and order for a short period especially in Northern Province. A war was going on in Sri Lanka. An armed conflict between Tamils and Singhalese.
If you are a Singhalese watching this
pic: Imagine it might be a member of your family getting his body filled up with hot
metal on the other end of this battlefield.....who knows, maybe from behind????
Just kiddin' :)
indias part of the conflict
Finally LTTE emerged as a major armed force, engaged in the war against the government of Sri Lanka, to fight for the rights of Tamils living in Sri Lanka.
In 1987 Indian army came to the Northern Province of Sri Lanka as a peace keeping force to protect the interests of Tamils. Unfortunately, conflicts arose between LTTE and Indian peace keeping force and ended in a war. The Indian peace keeping force met with heavy casualties and thousands of Indian soldiers were injured. They had to accept their defeat and retreated back to India. The then Sri Lankan President Mr Premadasa was happy to watch the Indian army going back. Gradually the LTTE took over control of Jaffna peninsula and they controlled the administration too.
Prabhakaran
Veluppillai; known as lifesaver from Tamil peoples side, and feared for
his incredible guerrilla warfare by the government. BBC describes him as:
He has a reputation as a
fearless and ruthless guerrilla leader, and under his leadership, the LTTE,
or Tamil Tigers, have become a highly-disciplined and highly- motivated
guerrilla force.
His organisation shows no
sign of being defeated militarily by the Sri Lankan army, even though it
is vastly outnumbered.
Mr Prabhakaran is reputed
to wear a cyanide capsule around his neck, to be swallowed in the event of
his capture.
recapturing jaffna peninsula
In 1995 the Sri Lankan government made a very big successful offensive against it in Jaffna and drove them back to jungles. The Tigers rebuilt their forces once again and started their major offensives against the Sri Lankan forces during the latter part of 1999. It is believed that LTTE has small aero planes. If so, this is the only freedom-fighting organisation in the world to have all three forces, i.e. land, sea and air. On the 22nd of April 2000, a very big Sri Lankan strategic army camp at Elephantpass was overrun by the Tigers. The specialty of this camp is that it occupied an area of 240sq.km and it separated Jaffna peninsula from the rest of Sri Lanka. There were more than 20,000 troops stationed at the time of fall! LTTE made very big advancements and they were about to capture Jaffna. By this time there were and are about 40,000 troops stationed or rather trapped in Jaffna. The only airport at Palaly in Jaffna was under constant threat by Tigers and it was shelled/mortar bombed by them. The Sri Lankan government seek help and assistance from all over the world to save the 40,000 troops.
Due to some reasons, may be pressure from other countries, LTTE had to give up its offensives.
foreign peacekeeping interest
In the meantime, Mr Erick Solheim, a representative from Norway made great efforts to bring peace between Sri Lankan government and Tigers. As a goodwill, LTTE made a unilateral ceasefire on 24th of December 2000 for one month. The Sri Lankan government is still adamant in not extending a ceasefire. LTTE extended their ceasefire four times up to April 24th 2001. Immediately after the ceasefire the Sri Lankan government made a very big offensive against the them, to recapture the lost Elephantpass with air, sea and land. They could fight for three days only! More than 400 Sri Lankan soldiers were killed and more than 2000 soldiers were injured. LTTE lost about 104 of their cadres. The Sri Lankan soldiers are in their camps now.
The notable points in this war are Mr Prabakaran´s `Siruthai Ani´ and “Imran Pandian” groups did not participate in this attack. Furthermore Mr Prabakaran did not use cadres from Eastern province i.e. Jayanthan´s (male) group and Anbarasi(ladies) group.
Are the tigers going to attack Northern and Eastern Provinces simultaneously?
Once again Mr. Erick Solheim is flying to Sri Lanka, London and Norway to bring peace in Sri Lanka between Tamils and Singhalese.
