View source for Sri Lanka and state terrorism

{{Short description|None}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2020}}

{{terrorism}}
[[File:Ceylan-map.png|thumb|right|Main cities in Sri Lanka.]]
The [[Sri Lanka]]n state has been accused of [[state terrorism]] against the [[Sri Lankan Tamils|Tamil]] minority as well as the [[Sinhalese people|Sinhalese]] majority, during the two Marxist–Leninist insurrections.<ref name=Bandarage>{{cite book|last1=Bandarage|first1=Asoka|title=The Separatist Conflict in Sri Lanka: Terrorism, Ethnicity, Political Economy|date=2009|publisher=[[Routledge]]|isbn=978-0-415-77678-3|page=17|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TOuSAgAAQBAJ}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Hughes|first1=Dhana|title=Violence, Torture and Memory in Sri Lanka: Life After Terror|publisher=[[Routledge]]|isbn=978-1135038151|page=109|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=taU3AAAAQBAJ|date=2013-07-31}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Mukarji|first1=Apratim|title=Sri Lanka: A Dangerous Interlude|date=2005|publisher=New Dawn Press|isbn=978-1845575304|page=71|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rdigpcqWgdYC}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Grant|first1=Trevor|title=Sri Lanka's Secrets: How the Rajapaksa Regime Gets Away with Murder|date=2014|publisher=[[Monash University Publishing]]|isbn=978-1922235534|page=191|title-link=Sri Lanka's Secrets: How the Rajapaksa Regime Gets Away with Murder}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Gunaratna |first1=R. |title=Sri Lanka, a Lost Revolution?: The Inside Story of the JVP |date=1990 |publisher=Institute of fundamental studies}}</ref> The [[Sri Lankan government]] and the [[Sri Lankan Armed Forces]] have been charged with [[List of civilian massacres attributed to Sri Lankan government forces|massacres]], indiscriminate shelling and bombing, [[extrajudicial killing]]s, [[war rape|rape]], [[torture]], [[Enforced disappearances in Sri Lanka|disappearance]], [[arbitrary detention]], forced displacement and economic blockade.<ref name=Bandarage/><ref name=Danieli>{{cite book|last1=Somasundaram|first1=Daya|editor1-last=Danieli|editor1-first=Yael|editor2-last=Brom|editor2-first=Danny|editor3-last=Sills|editor3-first=Joe|title=The Trauma of Terrorism: Sharing Knowledge and Shared Care, An International Handbook|date=2012|publisher=[[Routledge]]|isbn=978-1136747045|page=216|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tLXHfYKMQ_gC|chapter=Short and Long Term Effects on the Victims of Terror in Sri Lanka}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Kleinfeld|first1=Margo|editor1-last=Brunn|editor1-first=Stanley D.|title=11 September and Its Aftermath: The Geopolitics of Terror|date=2004|publisher=[[Routledge]]|isbn=978-1135756024|page=106|chapter=Strategic Trooping in Sri Lanka: September Eleventh and the Consolidation of Political Position|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OoyRAgAAQBAJ}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Dwivedi|first1=Manan|title=South Asia Security|date=2009|publisher=Kalpaz Publications|isbn=978-81-7835-759-1|page=170|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UCeQWz3y570C}}</ref> According to [[Amnesty International]], state terror was institutionalized into Sri Lanka's laws, government and society.<ref name=Danieli/>

==History==

===20th century===
{{See also|Sri Lankan riots of 1958|Burning of Jaffna library|Black July}}
Sri Lanka gained independence from Britain in 1948 as the [[Dominion of Ceylon]], although the British Royal Navy retained a base there until 1956. In 1972, the country became a republic, adopting the name [[Sri Lanka]]. Since this time, the country has experienced several armed conflicts&ndash; a [[Sri Lankan civil war|civil war]], two Marxist uprisings, and other terrorist incidents.

====Marxist-Leninist insurrections====
{{See also|1971 JVP insurrection|1987–1989 JVP insurrection|Sooriyakanda mass grave}}

From 1985 to 1989, Sri Lanka responded to violent insurrection with equal violence against the Sinhalese majority as part of the [[counterinsurgency]] measures against the uprising by the [[Marxist]] [[Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna]] (JVP) party.<ref>Gananath Obeyesekere, ''Narratives of the self: Chevalier Peter Dillon's Fijian cannibal adventures'', in Barbara Creed, Jeanette Hoorn, ''Body Taade: captivity, cannibalism and colonialism in the Pacific'', Routledge, 2001, p. 100. {{ISBN|0-415-93884-8}}. "The 'time of dread' was roughly 1985-89, when ethnic Sinhala youth took over vast areas of the country and practiced enormous atrocities; they were only eliminated by equally dreadful state terrorism." [[Gananath Obeyesekere]]</ref> In order to subdue support of the JVP uprising, several acts of cruelty committed by the state were recorded, including the torture and mass murder of school children.<ref name="IshA" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ndpsl.org/political_analysis/JVP-LessonsfortheLeft,2003.DOC |title=JVP: Lessons for the Genuine Left |access-date=2008-01-17 |work=Imayavaramban |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013154029/http://www.ndpsl.org/political_analysis/JVP-LessonsfortheLeft,2003.DOC |archive-date=2007-10-13 }}</ref> This repression peaked amongst the Sinhalese population between 1989&ndash;90. Approximately 90,000 casualties occurred during between 1971 and 1990, most of whom were [[Sinhalese people|Sinhalese]] male youths.<ref>{{cite book  | last = Handelman  | first =         Don  | title = The Manchester School: Practice and Ethnographic Praxis in Anthropology  | publisher = Berghahn Books  | year = 2006  |page = 142 }}</ref>

====Civil war====
The [[Sri Lankan civil war|Sri Lankan Civil War]] lasted from 1983 to 2009. In 1986, an American-Tamil social anthropologist at [[Harvard University]] stated that acts of terrorism had been committed by all sides during the war, but although all parties in the conflict had resorted to the use of these tactics, in terms of scale, duration, and sheer numbers of victims, the Sri Lankan state was particularly culpable.<ref>Tambiah, ''Sri Lanka: Ethnic Fratricide and the Dismantling of Democracy'',  p 116. [[Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah]]</ref><ref name=H/><ref>Danieli, Yael, Brom, D and Sills, Joe. ''The trauma of terrorism: sharing knowledge and shared care'', p 216</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url= http://www.bmj.com/cgi/reprint/324/7348/1268.pdf|title= Child soldiers: Understanding the context |access-date=2008-01-17 |journal= Daya Somasundaram|year= 2002 |pmid= 12028985 |last1= Somasundaram |first1= D. |volume= 324 |issue= 7348 |pages= 1268–1271 |doi= 10.1136/bmj.324.7348.1268 |pmc= 1123221 }}</ref> This was echoed by the Secretary of the [[Movement for Development and Democratic Rights]], a [[non-governmental organisation]], which further claimed that the Sri Lankan state viewed killing as an essential political tool.<ref name=SLDCPS>ACHR, ''Sri Lanka: Disappearances and the Collapse of the Police System'',ACHR, pp 34&ndash;42</ref>  This had originally prompted the demand for a separate state for minority Tamils called [[Tamil Eelam]] in the north of the country,<ref name=H>Hattotuwa, ''From violence to peace: Terrorism and Human Rights in Sri Lanka'', pp 11&ndash;13</ref><ref name=KumR>[[Kumar Rupesinghe]], ''  Ethnic Conflict in South Asia: The Case of Sri Lanka and the Indian Peace-Keeping Force (IPKF)'', pp.337</ref><ref>{{cite journal  | title = Sri Lanka: testimony to state terror
|journal = Race & Class | volume = 26 | issue = 4  | pages = 71–84  | publisher = Institute of Race Relations  | year = 1985  | doi = 10.1177/030639688502600405 |s2cid = 220917010 }}</ref> an idea first articulated by [[S.J.V. Chelvanayagam]] in 1976.<ref>{{cite news |title= S.J.V.Chelvanayagam Q.C|url=http://www.tamilnation.org/hundredtamils/chelva.htm
|work=Tamil Nation |publisher=Tamil Nation |date=2006-11-15 |access-date=2008-01-18}} {{Dead link|date=October 2010|bot=H3llBot}}</ref>

Assaults on Tamils for ethnic reasons have been alleged, and the experience of state terrorism by the people of [[Jaffna]] has been alleged to have been instrumental in persuading the [[United National Party]] to increase their hostilities there.<ref name=IshA>Ishtiaq Ahmed, ''State, Nation, and Ethnicity in Contemporary South Asia'', Continuum International Publishing Group, 1996, p. 55. {{ISBN|1-85567-578-1}}.</ref><ref name=Wiswa>W. A. Wiswa Warnapala, L. Dias Hewagama, ''Recent Politics in Sri Lanka: The Presidential Election and the Referendum'', Navrang (Original from the University of Michigan), 1983, p. 29. ASIN: B000II886W.</ref>

[[Chandrika Kumaratunga]] was the President of Sri Lanka from 1994 to 2005. In an interview with the British television presenter and news critic [[David Frost]], she stated that at the time that her husband [[Vijaya Kumaranatunga]] was assassinated, "Sri Lanka had a [[killing field]]s, there was a lot of terror perpetrated by the government itself, state terrorism."<ref>{{cite web|url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/breakfast_with_frost/1624615.stm 
|title= BBC Breakfast with Frost Interview: President Chandrika Kumaratunga of Sri Lanka |access-date=2008-01-17 |work= David Frost | date=2001-10-28}}</ref> This statement has been supported by a report released by the [[Asian Legal Resource Centre]] (ALRC), a non-governmental organization based in [[Hong Kong]] and associated with the [[United Nations]], which has also claimed that there was widespread terrorism committed by the state during this period.<ref name=ZNET>{{cite web |url=http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=2618 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041115091448/http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=2618 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2004-11-15 |title=Tell the truth or you will be killed |access-date=2007-08-11 }}</ref>

===21st century===
Following the collapse of peace talks in 2006, human rights agencies such as the [[Asian Center of Human Rights]] (ACHR), the [[University Teachers for Human Rights]] (UTHR), and pro-[[LTTE]] political parties such as the [[Tamil National Alliance]] claimed that the government of Sri Lanka had unleashed state terrorism as part of its counterinsurgency measures against the rebel LTTE movement.<ref name=ACHR1>{{cite web |url=http://www.achrweb.org/Review/2006/141-06.htm |title=Sri Lanka: Terror Vs State Terror |access-date=2007-08-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080721201110/http://www.achrweb.org/Review/2006/141-06.htm |archive-date=2008-07-21 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=UTHR1>[http://www.uthr.org/bulletins/bul40.htm#_Toc138040843 University Teachers for Human Rights ] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170813075049/http://www.uthr.org/bulletins/bul40.htm#_Toc138040843 |date=13 August 2017 }}, ''[[UTHR]]'', 28 October 2001.</ref><ref name=RW>{{cite web |url=http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/EKOI-6PQ85Q?OpenDocument |title= Claims of state terror and genocide by LTTE attempts at justifying terrorism |access-date=2007-08-11 }}</ref> The Sri Lankan government responded by claiming that these allegations by the LTTE were an attempt by the LTTE to justify their own acts of terrorism.<ref name=SLG>{{cite web |url=http://www.priu.gov.lk/news_update/Current_Affairs/ca200605/20060511claims_terror_genocide_by_ltte.htm |title=Claims of state terror and genocide by LTTE attempts at justifying terrorism |access-date=2007-08-11 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070814100222/http://www.priu.gov.lk/news_update/Current_Affairs/ca200605/20060511claims_terror_genocide_by_ltte.htm |archive-date=2007-08-14 }}</ref>

The ACHR has also stated that following the collapse of the Geneva talks of February 2006, the government of Sri Lanka perpetrated a campaign of state terrorism by targeting alleged LTTE sympathizers and Tamil civilians.<ref name="Sri Lanka: Terror Vs State Terror">{{cite news |title=Sri Lanka: Terror Vs State Terror |url=http://www.achrweb.org/Review/2006/141-06.htm |work=ACHR Weekly Review |publisher=[[Asian Human Rights Commission]] |date=2006-11-15 |access-date=2007-07-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080721201110/http://www.achrweb.org/Review/2006/141-06.htm |archive-date=2008-07-21 |url-status=dead }}</ref> A spokesman for [[Human Rights Watch]] was of the opinion that "the Sri Lankan government has apparently given its security forces a green light to use [[dirty war]] tactics."<ref>{{cite web|url= http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/08/03/slanka16573.htm|title= Sri Lanka: Government Abuses Intensify|access-date= 2008-01-18|work= Human Rights Watch|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20081109175838/http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/08/03/slanka16573.htm|archive-date= 2008-11-09|url-status= dead}} Quotation by Brad Adams, Asia Director.</ref> International intervention in Sri Lanka was requested by Tamil sources to protect civilians from state terrorism.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2007/10/071003_mano_jvp.shtml
|title= Tamils 'entitled to' international help |access-date=2008-01-16 |work= BBC}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.boloji.com/analysis2/0281.htm |title= Sri Lanka Trauma: International Community Revisits its Response |access-date= 2008-01-17 |work= V S Subramaniam |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20101213093447/http://boloji.com/analysis2/0281.htm |archive-date= 2010-12-13 |url-status= dead }}</ref>

==State terrorist groups==
The Sri Lankan government has been accused of the usage [[State-sponsored terrorism|state-sponsored paramilitaries]] to commit war crimes. Many of these groups were created at the height of the second JVP uprising. During the civil war, one of the major state-sponsored paramilitaries was the [[Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal]], led by [[Karuna Amman]].

===Anti-separatist paramilitaries===
*[[Eelam People's Democratic Party]] – Led by former leader of the [[Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front]], [[Douglas Devananda]]
*[[Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal]] – A highly controversial organization which defected from the LTTE in 2004, led by [[Karuna Amman]], former LTTE commander of the [[Eastern Province, Sri Lanka|Eastern Province]].

===Anti-communist paramilitaries===
*[[Eagles of the Central Hills]] – Formerly active in [[Kandy]]. Responsible for the [[1989 Kandy massacre|massacre]] of suspected JVP rebels in 1989. Also responsible for killings of workers at [[Peradeniya University]].
*[[Black Cat group]] – Responsible for attacks on politicians and civilians. The group would threaten members of the [[Communist Party of Sri Lanka]] throughout the late 1980s.<ref>CartoonistsRights. ''[http://www.cartoonistsrights.org/cartoonists_rights_free_speech.php?id=40 Sri Lanka] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120919195217/http://www.cartoonistsrights.org/cartoonists_rights_free_speech.php?id=40 |date=September 19, 2012 }}''</ref>

==See also==
*[[State sponsored terrorism]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
*{{cite book | last=Alagappa | first=Muthiah | title=Asian Security Order: Instrumental and Normative Features | publisher=Stanford University Press | year=2003  |isbn=978-0-8047-4629-8 | page = 238 }}
*{{cite book | last1=Danieli | first1=Yael | last2 = Brom |first2=D |last3=Sills |first3=Joe
|title= The Trauma Of Terrorism: Sharing Knowledge and Shared Care| publisher=University of Hawaii Press | year=1989 | isbn= 978-0-8248-1211-9 }}
*{{cite journal  | last = Hattotuwa  | first = Sanjana  | title = From violence to peace: Terrorism and Human Rights in Sri Lanka | journal = The Online Journal of Peace and Conflict Resolution  | volume = 5 | issue = 1  | pages = 14  | year = 2003  | id =  1522-211X}}
*{{cite book | last=Hayner | first=Priscill | title=The Unspeakable Truths: Confronting State Terror and Atrocity | publisher=Routledge | year=2009 | isbn=978-0-415-92477-1 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/explorationsinaf00teod }}
*{{cite book  | last =  Lutz  | first =  James M  |author2=Brenda J Lutz   | title = Global Terrorism    | publisher = Routledge | year = 2004  | isbn = 978-0-415-70050-4}}
*{{cite book  | last = Ponnambalam  | first =  Satchi  |  title = The National Question and the Tamil Liberation Struggle | publisher = Zed Books Ltd | year = 1983  | isbn = 978-0-86232-198-7|author-link=Satchi Ponnambalam}}
*{{cite journal  | last = Rupesinghe  | first = Kumar  | author-link = Kumar Rupesinghe | title = Ethnic Conflict in South Asia: The Case of Sri Lanka and the Indian Peace-Keeping Force (IPKF)     | journal = Journal of Peace Research  | volume = 25  | issue = 4  | pages = 337–350  | year = 1988  | doi =10.1177/002234338802500402   | s2cid = 110681740 }}
*{{cite book  | last = Tambiah  | first =  Stanley James  |  title = Sri Lanka: Ethnic Fratricide and the Dismantling of Democracy   | publisher = Chicago University Press | year = 1991  | isbn = 978-0-226-78952-1  | page = 205 }}
*{{cite book  | last = Asian Center for Human Rights  |  title = Sri Lanka: Disappearances and the Collapse of the Police System
  | publisher = [[Asian Centre for Human Rights|ACHR]] | year = 1991  | isbn = 978-0-226-78952-1  | page = 205 }}
*{{cite journal  | title = World Marxist Review | publisher = Central Books | year = 2007 |orig-year=original issues 1958-1990| issn = 0512-3305| title-link = Problems of Peace and Socialism| journal = World Marxist Review: Problems of Peace and Socialism }}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book  | last = Gunasingam  | first = Murugar  | title = Sri Lankan Tamil nationalism  | publisher = MV  |year=1999  | location = [[Sydney]]  | isbn = 978-0-646-38106-0  | page = 238 }}
* {{cite book | last=Myrdal | first=Gunnar | author-link=Gunnar Myrdal | title=Asian Drama: an Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations | url=https://archive.org/details/asiandramainquir02myrd | url-access=registration | publisher=Pantheon | year=1968 | id=ASIN B000E80DGO }}
* {{cite book | last=Wilson | first=A. Jeyaratnam | title=The Break up of Sri Lanka: the Sinhalese-Tamil conflict | publisher=University of Hawaii Press | year=1989 | isbn=978-0-8248-1211-9 }}

== External links ==
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dtrfpVJJWg|Sri Lanka's Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished]

{{Sri Lankan Civil War}}
{{Terrorism topics}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sri Lanka And State Terrorism}}
[[Category:Political repression]]
[[Category:Violence against Sri Lankan Tamils]]
[[Category:Sri Lanka and state terrorism| ]]
[[Category:Sri Lankan civil war]]
[[Category:Causes of the Aragalaya]]
[[Category:Ethnic cleansing in Asia]]
[[Category:Politicides]]
[[Category:Anti-communism]]
[[Category:Terrorism in Sri Lanka]]
[[Category:State terrorism]]