History of Tamil Persecution

Tamils, belonging to the Dravidian Race are the original inhabitants of India. They have been persecuted since ages. The first attack on Dravidians are done by the nomadic Aryans who were looking for an ideal country to settle in. This happened couple of thousands of years back.

There is a language called Brahui, which is spoken in parts of Balochistan Province in Pakistan. This language belongs to the Dravidian Family of languages. Some historians consider that Brahui might be a remnant of the language spoken in the Indus Valley Civilisation. This itself proves that Tamils are persecuted since hundreds of years.


As Aryans advanced, Tamils were pushed into what is called as the present day Tamilnadu in Southern part of India. The Britishers took Tamils to Srilanka and Malaysia to work in the Tea Gardens. Even for this day, Tamils in Malaysia are persecuted by the Muslim majority country through its "Bhumiputra" policy.

British policy of Divide and Rule placed the minority Tamils capturing most of the Government jobs in British Srilanka and once Independence was granted to Srilanka in 1948, the majority Sinhalese saw this domination of Tamils in Government jobs as a strategy to keep the majority sinhalese in Control and in 1956, they came out with a "Sinhala Only Language" (Official Language Act) making Sinhala as the only official language of Srilanka.


This enraged the Tamils and they protested through Satyagraha (Non Violence). Sinhalese mobs reacted through violence and killed more than 300 Tamils in what is called as the "58 Riots". Sinhalese gangs attacked Tamil labourers in Polonnaruwa farms. Tamils who tried to hide in sugar-cane fields were surrounded there and the fields set ablaze by the mobs. Those who fled were clubbed down or hit by machetes. In Hinguarkgoda, rioters ripped open the belly of an eight-month-pregnant woman, and left her to bleed to death.

Here is a list of Anti Tamil Riots in Srilanka:

* Gal Oya (1956)
* 1958 riots (1958)
* 1977 riots (1977)
* Jaffna library (1981)
* Black July (1983)
* Welikada (1983)
* Kalutara (1997)
* Bindunuwewa (2000)

All these riots let to the formation of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Background for Black July Riots:

The events dubbed Black July began after members of the terrorist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (the Tamil Tigers or the LTTE) organization ambushed a military convoy in the North of Sri Lanka on the evening of July 23, 1983 outside the town of Jaffna in the North of Sri Lanka.


In the July 23 massacre of 13 soldiers, initially, a road-side bomb was detonated beneath the jeep that was leading the convoy, injuring at least two soldiers on board. As soldiers traveling in a truck which was following the jeep dismounted to help their colleagues, they were ambushed by a group of Tamil Tiger fighters, who fired at them with automatic weapons and hurled grenades at them. In the ensuing clashes, one officer and 12 soldiers died immediately, while two more were fatally wounded, bringing the total death toll to 15 along with number of terrorists.Kittu, a regional commander of the LTTE later admitted to planning and carrying out the ambush.

This enraged the Sinhalese and in the following days, massacred 3000 Tamils.

Now, with LTTE wiped out of Srilanka, India should ensure that Tamils were given equal powers along with Sinhalese in the Government.

Srilankan Army Shooting Spree

Continuing my posts on Srilankan Tamil Issues, this is another interesting Article in Yahoo where it mentioned about the hardships of the Srilankan Tamils who are stuck up between a marauding Srilankan Army which is seeking to finish off the LTTE even though there is a huge collateral damage and the LTTE which is using poor Tamils as human shields.

The Sinhalese militants have gone to such an extent that they are assassinating anyone who is talking against the war or the atrocities of the Srilankan Army. They recently assassinated a very noted Newspaper person in Colombo.


The Srilankan Army is shelling even the Hospitals where hapless Tamil victims of war are getting treated located in the designated "safe areas". The Army is throwing every book on human rights into the dustbin with India looking the other side.

A mother and father lay on the floor, their two young children cradled between them. Floral pillows and other bedding were strewn about: They were apparently sleeping when an artillery shell hit their makeshift shelter in northern Sri Lanka, instantly killing them all.

This photo, taken Jan. 23, along with other pictures and video footage taken last week were given to The Associated Press by independent observers. They offer a rare glimpse of the growing toll the civil war has taken on the estimated 250,000 civilians trapped in the all-but-sealed conflict zone.


The images show that despite repeated government denials, civilians are being killed and maimed in the fighting.

Some of the victims were attacked inside a government-declared "safe zone" in rebel-held territory and the wounded were brought to the nearby Puthukkudiyiruppu hospital, which itself has come under attack.

The hospital, overflowing with wounded civilians, was shelled Monday for the fourth time in two days, killing two patients, said Kandasamy Tharmakulasingham, a government health official. A total of 11 people have been killed since the first attack on the hospital Sunday afternoon, he said.

One of the last working medical institutions in the region, the hospital lies outside the "safe zone" the government established Jan. 21 inside rebel territory as a refuge for civilians. The government pledged not to attack the safe area during its offensive against the rebels, but it has come under repeated artillery attack, according to local health officials and human rights groups.

Government troops have brought the Tamil Tiger rebels to the brink of defeat in recent months, forcing them out of much of the de facto state they once controlled in the north, capturing their administrative capital and shattering their dream of establishing a separate homeland for minority Tamils. The offensive has also raised growing concerns about the fate of civilians in the war zone.

Journalists and most aid groups have been barred from the area of the fighting, but independent observers shot video footage and photographs over the past week and provided them to The Associated Press. The observers provided the images on condition they not be identified because they feared government reprisal.

The photograph of the slain family was taken in the early morning of Jan. 23 in the village of Udayarkattu inside the "safe zone," according to the observer who took the picture. It showed the bloodied bodies of a woman, two young children and a man lying among brightly colored floral pillows, a green mat, striped sheets and other bedding. A bicycle, stacked blankets and other household items could be seen in the background.


An artillery shell struck between two makeshift shelters where people displaced by the fighting were staying and the family of four was killed instantly, the observer said. A second photo showed the body of a woman wearing a red-and-white checked dress lying face down under debris in another shelter nearby.

The video footage, taken last week, showed Puthukkudiyiruppu hospital packed with dozens of severely wounded people, including many young children. Many of the wounded were lying on mats underneath beds because of overcrowding.

The footage showed young boys and girls with amputated legs and arms, and an elderly woman missing her right leg writhing on a mat on the floor. A toddler, his head bandaged and left eye swollen closed, lay nearby, his gauze-covered hands useless as flies buzzed around his face.

"We were caught in shelling after I unloaded our goods. Both my sisters were killed," a teenage boy with no arms sobbed in despair in the footage.

Nearby, a middle-aged man lay on a bed with one leg amputated above the knee and the other amputated below it. "I was sleeping with my family when the shells fell," he said, gesturing helplessly. "My wife and two children, aged 7 and 10, were blown to pieces and I screamed."

Another man, his right arm missing below the elbow and his left hand bandage, recalled: "I got caught in a shell attack near my house. That's all I remember. When I woke up, my hand was cut off."

The footage showed young children, including a baby who appeared to be less than 1-year-old with both legs heavily bandaged.

Asked about the video and photographs, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara asserted: "No civilians have been killed."

"There may be civilians injured, but not due to shelling. They may be injured because they have been employed on the construction of (rebel) defenses. Civilians maybe have been injured due to crossfire," he said.

Dr. Thurairajah Varatharajah, the top health official in the war zone, estimated last week that more than 300 civilians had been killed in the recent fighting, something the government has denied. Varatharajah has not updated his estimate.

The government has accused the rebels, formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, of holding the civilians against their will as human shields, a charge the rebels deny.

A government spokesman insisted the civilians move en masse to the "safe zone" immediately. "The government cannot be responsible for the safety and security of civilians still living among LTTE terrorists," said spokesman Lakshman Hulugalle.

He did not say how the civilians could move if they were being held against their will.

The United Nations said the government could not absolve itself of responsibility for the safety of the civilian population. "You can't cherry pick from the laws of war. The warring parties remain responsible for civilians at all times," U.N. spokesman Gordon Weiss said.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa said Monday the military was on the verge of ending Asia's longest-running civil war.

"The strongholds of terror once believed to be invincible ... have fallen in rapid succession, bringing the final elimination of terror from our motherland and the dawn of true freedom to all our people well within our reach," he said in a message to mark Independence Day, which falls on Wednesday.

The rebels have been fighting since 1983 for a separate homeland for ethnic minority Tamils after decades of marginalization by governments controlled by the Sinhalese majority. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the civil war.