1984 Manal Aru massacres

Manal Aru massacres
LocationMullaitivu District, Northern Province & Trincomalee District, Eastern Province, Sri Lanka
DateNovember–December 1984 (+8 GMT)
TargetSri Lankan Tamil Civilians
DeathsUnconfirmed (Hundreds)
InjuredUnknown
Perpetrators Sri Lanka Army
MotiveEthnic cleansing

From 1 December 1984 to 15 December 1984, the Sri Lankan military executed a series of massacres of Sri Lankan Tamil civilians across numerous traditional Tamil villages in the Manal Aru region, which spans the Mullaitivu and Trincomalee districts. The motive for the three well-planned massacres, property destruction, and forced eviction of the local Tamil population from their villages was to replace them with thousands of Sinhala settlers. The Tamil people whom the military expelled remain permanently uprooted from their land, and a Sinhala colony called Weli Oya was formed in their place.