Expulsion of Muslims from Jaffna

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Sri Lankan Conflict

Background

• Sri Lanka • History of Sri Lanka

Origins of the Civil War

• Origins of the Civil War
• Black July • Human Rights Issues • Riots and pogroms
• Attributed State terrorism
• Prison massacres
• Tamil militant groups

LTTE

• LTTE • Attributed Terrorist attacks • Child Soldiers
• Attributed assasinations
• Notable Attacks • Expulsion of Muslims from Jaffna

Major figures

• Mahinda Rajapakse
• Velupillai Prabhakaran
• Karuna Amman
• Sarath Fonseka

Indian Involvement

• Indian Peace Keeping Force
• Rajiv Gandhi • RAW

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The expulsion of the Muslims from Jaffna by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in October 1990 was a particularly unethical and controversial issue in the Sri Lankan civil war. Tensions between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan Muslim community had been building for years. Despite the fact that most are Tamil-speaking, the Muslims are regarded as a separate ethnic community from the Hindu and Christian Tamils, as they trace their ancestry to Arabs from the Middle East. Muslims have not been supportive of the idea of a separate state of Tamil Eelam, which is the LTTE's goal^[1]

In the mid-1980s there had been few Muslim cadres in the LTTE, but most had deserted and others had gone to the government's side. The government had also armed Muslim Home Guard units in the Eastern Province that attacked LTTE positions and isolated Tamil hamlets.^[1]

The LTTE evicted Muslims from the northern areas of Sri Lanka to reportedly avenge the alleged ethnic cleansing of Tamils from Weli Oya and the anti-Tamil disturbances in the East in the mid-1980s. The series of incidents are documented in several reports issued by the University Teachers of Human Rights (Jaffna). Although nearly all Tamil-Muslim violence had taken place in Eastern Province, it was Northern Province where this brutal act was taken^[1]

The first explusion was in Chavakacheri, of 150 people. After this, Muslims in Kilinochchi and Mannar were expelled. The turn of Jaffna came on October 30, when LTTE trucks drove through the streets ordering Muslim families to assemble at Osmania College. There, they were told to exit the city within two hours. They could take with them only the clothes they were wearing and no more than 150 rupees in cash. Their houses were subsequently looted by the LTTE^[1]

In total more than 28,000 Muslims were expelled.^[1]

Most of the Muslims were resettled in Puttalam district, though Jaffna Muslims refugees can be found in other parts of Sri Lanka as well. Stripped of their money and property, most descended into poverty.^[1]

The expulsion still carries bitter memories among Sri Lanka's Muslims. In 2002, LTTE's leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran had formally apologized for the expulsion of Muslims from the North. ^[2] In turn the LTTE had encouraged the Muslim population, housed in IDP camps to return to their homestead. Some Muslims returned to Jaffna after the LTTEs apology, but most have not returned.^[1]