| 1987 Eastern Province massacres | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Location | Eastern Province, Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka |
| Coordinates | 8°35′N 81°13′E / 8.583°N 81.217°E |
| Date | 29 September 1987– 8 October 1987 |
| Target | Primarily Sinhalese civilians |
Attack type | Pogrom, mass murder |
| Deaths | 200+ |
| Perpetrators | Tamil mobs, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, other Tamil nationalist militant groups, Indian Peacekeeping Force (to a degree) |
The 1987 Eastern Province massacres were a series of massacres of the Sinhalese population in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka by Tamil mobs and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during the Sri Lankan Civil War. Though they began spontaneously, they became more organized, with the LTTE leading the violence. Over 200 Sinhalese were killed by mob and militant violence, and over 20,000 fled the Eastern Province. The violence has been described as having had the appearance of a pogrom,[1] with the objective of removing Sinhalese from the Eastern Province.[2][3][4]
- ^ Rubin, Barnett (1987). Cycles of Violence: Human Rights in Sri Lanka Since the Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement. Human Rights Watch. ISBN 9780938579434. Retrieved 8 December 2018.
- ^ de Silva, K. M. Regional Powers and Small State Security: India and Sri Lanka, 1977-1990. Woodrow Wilson Center Press. p. 259.
- ^ "It's War Again". The Economist: 29, 32. October 10, 1987.
- ^ Bandarage, Asoka. The Separatist Conflict in Sri Lanka: Terrorism, ethnicity, political economy. Routledge. p. 194.