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HISTORY OF TAMIL STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM IN SRI LANKA
A PHOTO ALBUM

CULTURAL GENOCIDE

During this period hundreds of cultural centers, Temples, Schools, Commercial Centers, etc. were destroyed by the army stationed in the Tamil homelands. The one that left an indelible mark on the Tamil psyche was the wanton destruction of the Jaffna Public Library (housing 97,000 irreplaceable volumes) by the armed forces (now admitted by the present Sri Lanka Government)
'If any state could virtually declare war against a section of its own people, and do it unashamedly, it happened in Sri Lanka this year.

Imagine a rowdy band of reserve policemen being brought all the way from the south to the Tamil capital city of Jaffna, and in the unusual presence in the city of two Cabinet Ministers, setting fire to the biggest cultural possession of the Tamils - the Public Library housing 95,000 volumes, some of them rare manuscripts...'

- Prof. Virginia A Leary; Ethnic Conflict and Violence in Sri Lanka; Report of a Mission to Sri Lanka on behalf of the International Commission of Jurists (July-August 1981)


Burnt out Jaffna Public Library

 "With several high ranking Sinhalese security officers and two cabinet ministers, Cyril Mathew and Gamini Dissanayake (both self confessed Sinhala supremacists), present in the town (Jaffna), uniformed security men and plainclothes thugs carried out some well organized acts of destruction. They burned to the ground certain chosen targets - including the Jaffna Public Library, with its 95,000 volumes and priceless manuscripts, a Hindu temple, the office and machinery of the independent Tamil daily newspaper Eelanadu..."
- Nancy Maury, The state Against the Tamils in Sri Lanka - Racism and the Authoritarian State
Race & Class, Summer 1984


Jaffna Business District
Bombed Out by Sri Lankan Army

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Our Lady of Refuge Church Shelled
by Sri Lanka Army

 "A large group of police (estimated variously from 100-200) went on rampage on the nights of May 31- June 1 (1981) burning the market area of Jaffna, the office of the Tamil newspaper, home of the member of Parliament for Jaffna and the Jaffna Public Library..."
- Virginia Leary; Ethnic Conflict and Violence in Sri Lanka
Report of a Mission to Sri Lanka on behalf of the International Commission of Jurists; July/August 1981

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Another Church Bombed

One of hundreds of Hindu temples
bombed by Sri Lanka Army

Jaffna Hospital Bombed by Sri Lanka Army

 The Sri Lankan Air Force bombed the Jaffna hospital Friday two days after the Red Cross reopened it under a safety plan, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said. In a statement issued here, the ICRC charged that a single airforce aircraft dropped two bombs around 7.45 a.m. within 'the clearly defined security area'. One person was wounded inside the ICRC protected hospital compound, and four within the security area. According to the ICRC, the roofs of four of the hospital buildings were blown off by the explosion and the windows shattered... the hospital was clearly marked with red crosses for easy identification from the ground and air, officials said. The rules proscribe any military action from or against the safety area which was devoid of any military or political installation, the ICRC said...
-  AFP News Service
[10 November 1990]

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