1977 anti-Tamil pogrom

1977 anti-Tamil pogrom in Sri Lanka
Location of Sri Lanka
LocationSri Lanka
Date12 to 20 August 1977 (+05.30 GMT)
TargetPrimarily Tamils, also Sinhalese
Attack type
Decapitation, Burning, Stabbing, Shooting, Raping
WeaponsKnives, Sticks, Fire, Guns
Deaths125 (official) - 300+
Injured1000+
PerpetratorsMostly Sinhalese mobs, UNP led Sri Lankan government, also Tamil mobs; Sinhalese police officers and military personnel to a lesser degree

The 1977 anti-Tamil pogrom in Sri Lanka[1][2][3] followed the 1977 general elections in Sri Lanka where the Sri Lankan Tamil nationalistic Tamil United Liberation Front won a plurality of minority Sri Lankan Tamil votes. In the elections, the party stood for secession. An official government estimate put the death toll at 125,[4] whereas other sources estimate that around 300 Tamils were killed by Sinhalese mobs.[5][6][7] Human rights groups, such as the UTHR-J, accused the newly elected UNP-led government of orchestrating the violence.[8]

The pogrom began with policemen threatening and assaulting Tamils at a carnival in Jaffna, which led to a clash between the two groups. This led to further police violence against Tamils in Jaffna, followed by Tamil violence against Sinhalese in the city. Following the Jaffna incidents, violence between Sinhalese and Tamils flared throughout the country. While the large majority of victims were Tamils, Sinhalese were also attacked in Tamil majority areas.[9][10][11]

  1. ^ Samarakkody, Edmund (7 October 1977). "Behind the Anti-Tamil Terror: The National Question in Sri Lanka". Workers Vanguard.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference vy was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "ORGANISED POGROM AGAINST TAMILS - 1977". TamilNation.
  4. ^ Bandarage, Asoka (19 November 2008). The Separatist Conflict in Sri Lanka: Terrorism, Ethnicity, Political Economy. Routledge. p. 76. ISBN 9781440135705. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
  5. ^ Kearney, R.N. (1985). "Ethnic Conflict and the Tamil Separatist Movement in Sri Lanka". Asian Survey. 25 (9): 898–917. doi:10.2307/2644418. JSTOR 2644418.
  6. ^ M.R. Narayan Swamy, Inside an elusive mind: Prabhakaran, Konark Publishers PVT limited, 2003, p.40
  7. ^ Sivanayagam, S. Sri Lanka: Witness to History - A Journalist's Memoirs (1930-2004). 2005.
  8. ^ "Welcome to UTHR, Sri Lanka".
  9. ^ Report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the Incidents Which Took Place Between 13th August and 15th September. 1977 (Report). Government Publications Bureau. 1980. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
  10. ^ "Welcome to UTHR, Sri Lanka".
  11. ^ Schwarz, Walter (1983). The Tamils of Sri Lanka. London: Minority Rights Group. p. 14. ISBN 978-0-946690-04-6.