| Conflict: | Eelam War III |
| Partof: | the Sri Lankan Civil War |
| Date: | 19 April 1995 – 22 February 2002 |
| Place: | Sri Lanka |
| Result: | Cease fire Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam tactical victory[1] |
| Combatant1: |  Sri Lanka
|
| Combatant2: | Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam |
| Commander1: | Chandrika Kumaratunga (1994–2005) |
| Commander2: | Velupillai Prabhakaran |
| Strength1: | 130,000 |
| Strength2: | 13,500 |
| Casualties1: | 10,838 |
| Casualties2: | 2,746 |
See main article: Sri Lankan Civil War.
Eelam War III is the name given to the third phase of armed conflict between the Sri Lankan military and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
After the period of 100 days cease-fire the hostilities broke out on 19 April 1995. The LTTE - Sea Tigers planted explosives in two gun boats known as SLNS 'Sooraya' and 'Ranasuru', and blew them up.
Also, a new weapon "Stinger", a shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missile was used in this conflict by the LTTE. This was used to take down two Sri Lankan Air Force AVRO aircraft flying over the Jaffna peninsula.
Eelam War III also marked the rising success of the LTTE, as they managed to capture key districts such as Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu, and took over the Elephant Pass base. With the path clear towards the Muhumalai and Nagarkovil FDLs, the LTTE launched Operation Unceasing Waves IV in efforts to capture the Jaffna peninsula.
By the end of Eelam War III, the LTTE had control of nearly 30% of the entire island.
See main article: Bombing of SLNS Sooraya and SLNS Ranasuru.
See main article: Battle of Mandaitivu.
See main article: Battle of Weli Oya (1995).
See main article: Operation Riviresa.
See main article: Battle of Mullaitivu (1996).
See main article: Kallarawa massacre. The Kallarawa massacre is an incident on May 25, 1995, during which LTTE cadres massacred 42 Sinhalese men, women and children in Kallarawa.[2] All the remaining civilian survivors fled the village after this incident leading to its depopulation.[3] However survivors from the Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim communities have returned to Kallarawa under the protection of the Sri Lankan Army.[3]
See main article: Navaly church bombing. On 9 July 1995, the Sri Lankan Air Force using the Pucará aircraft dropped 8 to 13 bombs around the St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church, the Sri Kathirkama Murugan Hindu Temple and in surrounding residential areas of Navaly in the Jaffna Peninsula. It is estimated that at least 147 Tamil civilians who had taken refuge from the war inside the church as instructed by the government died as a result of the bombings and many more were injured.[4] [5] [6]
See main article: Kumarapuram massacre. On February 11, 1996, the Sri Lankan Army soldiers massacred 26 Sri Lankan Tamil civilians in the village called Kumarapuram located in the Trincomalee district.[7] [8] According to several survivors interviewed by Amnesty International, 13 women and 7 children below the age of 12, were killed by soldiers from the 58th mile post and Dehiwatte army camps.[9] Among the victims was a 15-year-old girl who was gang-raped before being shot dead.[10] [9] Among the villagers who survived the massacre were 28 individuals who were severely injured and they stated that the soldiers had attacked them with axes. Children as young as 3 and 6 years of age had axe injuries on their face.[11]
See main article: Gonagala massacre. The Gonagala Massacre was a massacre that occurred on September 18, 1999, in the small village of Gonagala, located in the Ampara District of Sri Lanka. According to reports, over 50 men, women and children were hacked to death in the middle of the night. The massacre is attributed to the LTTE, which is banned as a terrorist organization by a number of countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, India and the European Union.
The Gonagala massacre is one of several such attacks believed to have been carried out by the LTTE. However these murders gained notoriety because, unlike previous attacks, most of the LTTE cadres who took part in it were women. According to survivors, there was a significant presence of female cadres among the 75 LTTE cadres who took part in the killings
In August 2001, S. P. Thamilselvan, the leader of the political wing of the Tamil Tigers, accused the Sri Lankan Army of intentionally abandoning the bodies of nearly a thousand soldiers on the battlefields since May, despite the Tamils’ request that the Red Cross act as an intermediate.[12] He told visiting relatives of missing servicemen that the military had only accepted 55 bodies to return to their families, while burying the rest with full military honors on the spot. Thamilselvan did not offer a reason for the army's refusal, but did note that several hundred decomposing bodies remained in a minefield due to the danger of extracting them. A Sri Lankan military spokesman, Brigadier Sanath Karunaratne, acknowledged that the army cannot always retrieve a body because it might cost more lives, but denied the Tamil accusations, saying they were propaganda aimed at demoralizing the parents of the missing soldiers.
However, this was not the first time issues had arisen over reclamation of soldiers’ remains and the Army's responsiveness to the requests of families of missing soldiers for information regarding their fate. In April 2003, a group of parents of some of the 619 soldiers reported missing from a battle fought 27 September 1998 obtained permission from the LTTE to travel to the battle site. The families’ previous inquiries at the Defense Ministry, the Sri Lankan Army, and the International Committee of the Red Cross for information on their sons’ fates had been fruitless. At the battlefield they learned that some 500 bodies had been piled together, doused with kerosene, and burnt on the spot by the Sri Lankan Army. Upon their return, a lawsuit was filed on the families’ behalf requesting a mass funeral and DNA testing so Buddhist, Muslim and Christian families could collect their sons’ remains and give them proper burials. The Ministry of Defence organized funeral in 2006, but declined to perform the requested DNA testing.[13]
Although it had stated that it abides by the Third Geneva Convention for the treatment of prisoners of war, it has been accused of mass execution and torture of captured soldiers in the Battle of Mullaitivu and in the Battle of Vavunathivu.[14] [15] [16]