After the convoy was blocked by the Sri Lanka Navy, India instead chose to airdrop supplies to the besieged city in a mission codenamed Operation Poomalai. After the request was snubbed by Sri Lanka, the Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi ordered a flotilla of ships be sent to relieve the LTTE. However, due to internal pressure, specifically concern about the 50 million Tamils living in India, the Indian government called for a halt to the offensive.
They proved fruitless and fighting soon resumed.īy 1987, the Sri Lankan military had cornered the LTTE in Jaffna, on the tip of the island and were confident of bringing an end to the conflict. This fighting continued until 1985, when peace talks were held between the two sides in Thimphu, Bhutan, in hopes of seeking a negotiated settlement. The attack, and the subsequent riots in the south (dubbed Black July), are generally considered as the start of the conflict. Although tensions between the government and Tamil militant groups had been brewing since the 1970s, full scale war did not break out until an attack by the LTTE on a Sri Lanka Army patrol in Jaffna, in the north of the country, on July 23, 1983, which killed 13 soldiers. Massacres Black July 1985 Valvettiturai Kumudini Akkaraipattu Prawn farm Eastern University 1990 Batticaloa 1991 Kokkadichcholai Jaffna lagoon Navaly Nagerkovil- Allaipiddy Vankalai Muttur Kent and Dollar Farm Anuradhapura Aranthalawa Kattankudi mosque Palliyagodella Kallarawa October 1995 Gonagala Kebithigollewa Jaffna Hospital 1989 ValvettituraiĮelam War I is the name given to the initial phase of the armed conflict between the government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE. Mass graves Chemmani Duraiappa Mirusuvil Sooriyakanda