A sourced record of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam: how the organisation began, the attacks it carried out against Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim civilians, the propaganda that surrounded it, and how it ended.
How the Tamil New Tigers became the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam: founding, early killings, and the path to armed conflict.
Massacres of villagers, bombings of buses, trains and public places, assassinations, forced expulsions and the recruitment of children.
How the organisation shaped its image abroad, raised money through diaspora networks and extortion, and procured weapons.
The final phase of the war, the holding of civilians in the conflict zone, and the military defeat of the LTTE in May 2009.
For the villagers, commuters, worshippers, children and families whose lives were taken.
This archive exists so that what happened to them is recorded accurately, with evidence, and is not forgotten.
Before dawn on 18 September 1999, LTTE terrorists killed 50 to 54 Sinhalese villagers, including children, in Gonagala and two nearby hamlets in Ampara District.
How each record in the archive is built: structured incident details, casualty figures by source, inline citations, evidence labels and corrections.
Every record carries an evidence label and cites its sources beside the claims they support. Read the methodology.
Court records, official reports and contemporaneous reporting before commentary.
Disputed figures and unverified claims are labelled, never presented as fact.
Every material change is dated so readers can see how a record evolved.