Tamils pay tribute to victims of the massacres earlier this year.
Following the discovery of another set of human remains in Sampur this week, just metres from where at least 57 Tamil civilians were murdered by Sri Lankan government forces in July 1990, we re-examine the massacres.
‘We will annihilate them’
The Tamil homeland was engulfed in war by 1990, amid a breakdown of a brief ceasefire between the Sri Lankan government and Tamil militants. The Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF), deployed in 1987, had withdrawn by March 1990. By the end of May, fresh contingents of Sri Lankan troops and additional police were moved to the Eastern districts to strengthen and fortify military bases and police stations. As hostilities flared, Ranjan Wijeratne, the Deputy Minister of Defence thundered in Parliament “Now I am going all out for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). We will annihilate them”.
In the following weeks and months, the Sri Lankan Army and allied paramilitaries carried out aggressive military offensives in Eastern Province.
The Tamil residents of Trincomalee District, especially in rural Tamil villages like Sampur, were caught in this violent escalation.
The Sampur massacres
On 7 July 1990, Sri Lankan Army soldiers descended upon Sampur, a coastal Tamil village in Trincomalee District, and unleashed a brutal assault on the civilian population. Around 2:00 p.m., troops suddenly opened fire indiscriminately into the village’s residential settlements. There was no warning; terrified villagers – many of them women, children, and the elderly – grabbed their families and fled for their lives. Desperate to escape the gunfire, hundreds of Tamil civilians ran into the nearby scrub jungles of Chakkaravattavan, carrying their children and what little they could. The soldiers pursued them relentlessly. According to survivor reports, those who hid in the jungle were hunted down by the troops. The Sri Lankan security forces showed horrific brutality – Tamil men were slashed with knives and bayonets, shot at point-blank range, and even burned alive amidst the foliage.
By the time the killing spree ended, the jungle floor was littered with bodies. As many as 57 Tamil civilians were killed that day alone in Sampur.
As the military’s offensive continued in the days that followed, more than 150 Tamils are thought to have been killed overall.
A remembrance event from 2017.
Still no accountability
The perpetrators of the Sampur massacre were Sri Lankan government forces, specifically units of the Army operating in Trincomalee District.
Despite the clear culpability of state forces, no member of the security forces has ever been held accountable for the Sampur massacre. To date, there has been no meaningful investigation or prosecution by Sri Lankan authorities into the events of July 7, 1990. The massacre was effectively covered up or ignored by the chain of command, which dismissed early reports of civilian death.
Crucially, successive Sri Lankan governments have failed to deliver justice for Sampur’s victims. In the late 1990s, President Chandrika Kumaratunga did establish Presidential Commissions of Inquiry into disappearances and massacres in the north-east, but those inquiries focused on a few high-profile cases (mostly in Batticaloa and Jaffna) and did not lead to any prosecutions for Sampur.
By contrast, similar massacres in the same year were at least formally investigated: for example, the Sathurukondan massacre of September 1990 in Batticaloa (where 185 Tamil villagers were slaughtered) was examined by a commission that identified three Sri Lankan Army captains as responsible, with a retired judge finding strong evidence of the crime.
However, even in that case, no further action was taken against the perpetrators.
International human rights organizations documented the widespread killings of civilians in Sri Lanka’s 1990 offensives and urged accountability. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (then Asia Watch) reported on massacres and “disappearances” in the East, and stressed that reprisals against civilians violated humanitarian law. However, these calls have had little effect.
The conflict continued with near-total impunity for state forces. No member of the Sri Lankan military was court-martialed or punished for the Sampur atrocity; indeed, many officers from that era went on to senior ranks in later years. The families of Sampur’s victims have repeatedly called for justice, only to be met with silence or denial from the authorities. Frustrated by the lack of progress, Tamil activists and survivors have increasingly demanded an international accountability process to investigate wartime massacres.
Another mass grave
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Sri Lankan police officers inspect the site of the suspected mass grave this week.
In July 2025 – 35 years after the massacre – a grim reminder of the crime emerged when human remains were unearthed near the former killing site in Sampur. Workers clearing landmines discovered skeletal fragments, including a human skull, just meters from where residents recall bodies had been hastily buried in 1990.
A local magistrate quickly ordered the area sealed off for forensic examination. This find has reignited demands for a thorough, independent investigation under international supervision.
Victims’ families and human rights groups are urging that modern forensic analysis be used to identify the remains and gather evidence of the massacre – steps Sri Lanka has so far been unwilling to undertake on its own. The Sri Lankan government’s response to the 2025 discovery will be a litmus test of its commitment to addressing historical injustices. As of now, however, no one has been held accountable for the Sampur massacre, and it remains an emblematic case of wartime atrocity with impunity.
Sampur today
The Sampur massacres devastated the local Tamil community, both immediately and in the long term. The events were but just one among many horrific massacres that ravaged the Eastern Province in 1990, a year of extraordinary bloodshed in the region.
In the immediate aftermath, survivors of the massacre fled the area en masse. Many of the roughly 57 victims were breadwinners or multiple members of the same family, leaving surviving relatives traumatized and destitute. Fearing further army reprisals, Tamil residents of Sampur and surrounding villages abandoned their homes for safer areas, some fled deeper into LTTE-held territory, while others sought refuge in makeshift displacement camps.
The conflict and Sri Lankan military continued to batter Sampur in later years. Notably, during the early 2000s ceasefire, some families began to return and rebuild. However, the resumption of war in 2006 led to Sampur becoming a strategic military target. In August–September 2006, Sri Lankan forces launched a major offensive to capture Sampur from the LTTE, which resulted in the expulsion of many of the Tamil residents. The military declared Sampur and adjoining areas a High Security Zone, barring civilians from resettling there. Thousands of Tamil villagers were displaced from Sampur’s coastal villages at this time.
Displaced Tamils visiting Trincomalee in 2017.
The Sri Lankan Navy subsequently established a large base camp (known as Camp Vidura) on the seized lands. According to villagers’ testimonies, the Navy occupied at least 176 acres of residential and agricultural land belonging to Tamils, as well as over 1,000 acres of coastal area traditionally used by local fishermen. This military encroachment had a severe socioeconomic impact: fishing families lost access to the bountiful coast, having to travel miles further to launch their boats, and farmers saw their paddy fields and water tanks fenced into navy property.
Families of the victims gather at a monument in Sampur to mark the 35th anniversary of the massacre (July 2025). Tamil survivors continue to mourn their dead and demand justice.
Despite these hardships, the survivors and descendants of Sampur’s people have strived to keep the memory of the massacre alive. In the years after the 2009 Mullivaikkal genocide, as some lands have slowly been released, a number of families have resettled in the area and erected a small memorial monument to honor those killed on 7 July 1990. Every year, commemoration ceremonies are held on the massacre’s anniversary. Tamil families gather at the monument to light oil lamps, lay flowers, and recite prayers for the dead.
These remembrance events are often organized by survivors’ groups, local civil society, and Tamil politicians. They serve not only as acts of mourning but also as moments of protest against the continued absence of accountability. Even 35 years later, the pain is palpable – elderly mothers weep for children lost, and survivors share stories of the day that changed their lives forever.