| October 1995 Eastern Sri Lanka massacres | |
|---|---|
| Location | Eastern Province, Sri Lanka |
| Date | October 1995 (+8 GMT) |
| Target | Sinhalese civilians |
Attack type | Mass murder |
| Deaths | 120[1] |
| Injured | Unknown |
| Perpetrators | Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam |
The October 1995 Eastern Sri Lanka massacres were a series of massacres of the Sinhalese population in the Eastern Province carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during the Sri Lankan Civil War.
These massacres occurred at small villages in the Eastern Province.[2] According to Sri Lankan academic Asoka Bandarage, the reason behind the massacres was alleged to be the ethnic cleansing of Sinhalese in the region.[3] The Sri Lankan Army claimed that the massacres were designed to divert the Army's attention away from its offensive in Jaffna.[4]
- ^ Newman, Edward. Understanding Civil Wars: Continuity and change in intrastate conflict. Routledge. p. 183.
- ^ "1995 Human Rights Report: SRI LANKA". Archived from the original on 2005-03-20. Retrieved 2007-02-01.
- ^ Bandarage, Asoka. The Separatist Conflict in Sri Lanka: Terrorism, Ethnicity, Political Economy. Routledge. p. 164.
- ^ Jayasinghe, Amal (27 October 1995). "Sri Lanka now in virtual state of war". The Guardian.