Tamil genocide
| Tamil genocide | |
|---|---|
| Part of Sri Lankan civil war | |
Clockwise from top:
Child victim by indiscriminate shelling, malnourished baby in camps, civilian dead bodies and damaged makeshift hospital in No-Fire Zone, Mullivaikkal, Tamil civilians being displaced in 2008, injured child by indiscriminate shelling. | |
| Location | Sri Lanka |
| Date | 1956–2009 |
| Target | Sri Lankan Tamils |
Attack type | Genocide, ethnic cleansing, genocidal rape, genocidal massacre, collective punishment, mass murder, mass arrest, forced displacement, bombardment, targeted killings, starvation, torture. |
| Deaths | 1956–2009: 154,022 to 253,818 Tamil civilians killed:
|
| Injured | 1956–2004: 61,132 Tamil civilians (Tamil Centre for Human Rights) |
| Victims | 1956–2004: Tamil civilians (Tamil Centre for Human Rights)
|
| Perpetrators | Government of Sri Lanka
|
| Motive | Anti-Tamil sentiment, Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism, racism, Sinhalisation |
The Tamil genocide refers to the framing of various systematic acts of physical violence and cultural destruction committed against the Tamil population in Sri Lanka during the Sinhala–Tamil ethnic conflict beginning in 1956, particularly during the Sri Lankan civil war as acts of genocide. Various commenters, including the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal, have accused the Sri Lankan government of responsibility for and complicity in a genocide of Tamils, and point to state-sponsored settler colonialism, state-backed pogroms, and mass killings, enforced disappearances and sexual violence by the security forces as examples of genocidal acts. The Sri Lankan government has rejected the charges of genocide.