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The Kent and Dollar Farm massacres were the first massacres of Sinhalese civilians carried out by the LTTE during the Sri Lankan Civil War. The massacres took place on 30 November 1984, in two tiny farming villages in the Mullaitivu district in north-eastern Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan government labeled this as an attack on civilians by the LTTE.

Backdrop to the events

The Kent and Dollar farms were bought on a 99-year lease from the state in 1965. They were located near Manal Aru, a divisional Secretariat in the Tamil district of Mullaitivu. Manal Aru was of immense importance due to its central location in the Tamil-majority north and east of Sri Lanka.

The farms were donated by a wealthy Tamil landowner in 1978 for the resettlement of Indian Tamil refugees displaced by the 1977 anti-Tamil pogrom. The farms were prosperous and the Indian Tamil farmers were cultivating minor crops. However, realising its strategic importance and in a bid to quell the rising threat of Tamil separatism, an attempt was made by the state to colonize the area with Sinhalese people. By October 1983 the Superintendent of Police Arthur Herath saw the farms as being obstacles to the northward expansion of Sinhalese colonization in Padaviya and accused the farmers of being "terrorists" or of "harbouring terrorists". Journalist T. Sabaratnam claimed that Herath tried to convince local Jaffna and Vavuniya Tamils that the Indian Tamils were their economic competition.

In June 1984, the Vavuniya police led by Herath raided the farms and the Indian Tamil families were assaulted and taken to the hill country. In meetings following the evictions, National Security Minister Lalith Athulathmudali claimed that the forced relocation was for their own protection, to prevent them from being forcibly recruited by the "terrorists", although the families were content there and did not want to leave.

The government subsequently took over the farms, converted them into open prisons and settled 450 Sinhalese prisoners and their families as part of a program sponsored by Athulathmudali to solve the "Tamil problem". The settlement of prisoners was used to further harass Tamils into leaving the area. The Sinhalese settlers admitted that young Tamil women were abducted, brought there and gang-raped, first by the security forces, next by prison guards and finally by prisoners.

Massacre

About 50 LTTE cadres travelled in the night in two buses armed with rifles, machine guns and grenades. One of the buses went to Dollar Farm and the other to Kent Farm. The attacks was timed to start at about the same time in the early hours of the morning. The LTTE fighters shot and killed the guards, the women and children and most of the male members of the families. Some of the prisoners were thrust into a room in a building and blasted with explosives.

62 Sinhalese; including 3 jail-guards, 31 women and 21 children were killed. The second bus proceeded to the Kent Farm 8 kilometres away and killed 20 more home guards. The death toll of Sinhalese civilians killed by the LTTE attack numbered 65 Sinhalese villagers; including 3 jail-guards, 31 women and 21 children were killed. The second bus that proceeded to Kent Farm killed 20 more home guards. The LTTE had claimed that the victims were armed; however, Human Rights Watch reported that the violence was one-sided against the victims.

Aftermath

The next morning, the police and the troops conducted a cordon and search operation and the government claimed that the troops had killed 30 "terrorists", but Tamil sources stated that the victims were all civilians from the neighboring Tamil villages. The LTTE also stated their cadres had returned without suffering any loss. The same day, the LTTE massacred 11 Sinhalese at Kokkilai.

In the two days immediately after the massacre, Tamil civilians in the surrounding areas were subjected to killings, arrests and disappearances by the Sri Lankan security forces. According to an affidavit of a former detainee provided to the Amnesty International, over 100 Tamil men detained from these areas were brought to the Iratperiyakulam army camp in the northern Vavuniya District, shot dead and their bodies were burned by the Sri Lankan Army.

In response to the massacres of Sinhalese, S. L. Gunasekara and Davinda Senanayake issued a report that recommended the increased militarization of the colonies. The government implemented the recommendation by increasing army presence in Weli Oya, but the LTTE continued attacking the settlements. From 1988 to 1989 Sinhalese villages in Weli Oya was put on a war-footing. A total of 3,364 families, most of them landless peasants, were settled in Weli Oya. A further 35,000 persons comprising 5,925 families were also settled under the same scheme.

References

1. Rubin, Barnett R. (1987). Cycles of Violence: Human Rights in Sri Lanka Since the Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement. Human Rights Watch. p. 112.
2. ^ Sabaratnam, T (2004). "Pirapaharan: Vol.2, Chap.23 Manal Aru Becomes Weli Oya". sangam.org. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
3. Heynes, Stephen (24 May 2016). The Bleeding Island: Scars and Wounds. Partridge Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4828-7478-5.
4. ^ Playing the "communal Card": Communal Violence and Human Rights. Human Rights Watch. 1995. p. 90. ISBN 978-1-56432-152-7.
5. SPECIAL REPORT 5, FROM MANAL AARU TO WELI OYA AND THE SPIRIT OF JULY 1983 https://uthr.org/SpecialReports/spreport5.htm
6. University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) Sri Lanka, Information Bulletin No.4, 13 February 1995, Padaviya-Weli Oya: bearing the burden of ideology http://www.uthr.org/bulletins/bul4.htm
7. "LTTE genocide at Kent and Dollar Farms" (PDF). Daily News. Sri Lanka. 29 May 2009. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
8. "LTTE violated right to life" (PDF). Daily News. Sri Lanka. 29 May 2009. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
9. Rubin, Barnett (1987). Cycles of Violence: Human Rights in Sri Lanka Since the Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement. Human Rights Watch. ISBN 9780938579434.
10. Rubin, Barnett R. (1987). Cycles of Violence: Human Rights in Sri Lanka Since the Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement. Human Rights Watch. pp. 112–114. ISBN 978-0-938579-43-4.
11. "36 years gone, but, dark memories remain".

Further reading

• Gunaratna, Rohan. (1998). Sri Lanka's Ethnic Crisis and National Security, Colombo: South Asian Network on Conflict Research. ISBN 955-8093-00-9
• Gunaratna, Rohan. (1 October 1987). War and Peace in Sri Lanka: With a Post-Accord Report From Jaffna, Sri Lanka: Institute of Fundamental Studies. ISBN 955-8093-00-9
• Gunasekara, S.L. (4 November 2003). The Wages of Sin, ISBN 955-8552-01-1
• Suicide terrorism: a global threat, Security, Jane's, 20 October 2000
• Kent Farm and Dollar Farm massacre; Pictures of murdered civilians, Lanka Library, 11 June 2006
• LTTE Tamil Tiger Atrocities, 2002

v t e Sri Lankan civil war (1983–2009)
Origins	Sri Lankan Tamil nationalism Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism Sinhala Only Act 1956 1958 Vaddukoddai Resolution 1977 1981 Burning of Jaffna Library Black July
Combatants	Sri Lanka Army (LRRP) Navy Air Force Police Special Task Force Home Guards Attacks on civilians Assassinations LTTE Divisions Air Tigers Sea Tigers Black Tigers Attacks in the 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s Assassinations Suicide bombings Other militants (list) ENDLF ENLF EPRLF EROS PLOTE TELO  India Indian Peace Keeping Force Paramilitary groups EPDP TMVP
Phases	Eelam War I Indian intervention Eelam War II III IV Eastern / Northern theatres
Major battles	Kokkilai Vadamarachchi Poomalai Pawan Jaffna University Helidrop Balavegaya 1st Elephant Pass Pooneryn Riviresa 1st Mullaitivu Weli Oya Sath Jaya Vavunathivu Jayasikurui Thandikulam–Omanthai 1st Kilinochchi Oddusuddan A-9 highway 2nd Elephant Pass Bandaranaike Airport attack Point Pedro Jaffna Thoppigala Vidattaltivu 2nd Kilinochchi 2nd Mullaitivu Puthukkudiyirippu
Major events	Air Lanka Flight 512 Indo-Sri Lanka Accord Expulsions from Northern province Assassination of Lalith Athulathmudali Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi Assassination of Ranasinghe Premadasa Temple of the Tooth attack Lionair Flight 602 Bandaranaike Airport attack Expulsions from Colombo 2009 suicide air raid on Colombo
Leaders	Sri Lanka Military Army Tissa Weeratunga Nalin Seneviratne Hamilton Wanasinghe Cecil Waidyaratne G. H. De Silva Rohan Daluwatte Srilal Weerasooriya L. P. Balagalle Shantha Kottegoda Sarath Fonseka Navy Asoka de Silva H. A. Silva Clancy Fernando D. A. M. R. Samarasekara H. C. A. C. Thisera Daya Sandagiri Wasantha Karannagoda Air Force Dick Perera Andibuduge Fernando Makalandage Gunawardena Oliver Ranasinghe Jayalath Weerakkody Donald Perera Roshan Goonetileke Civilian J. R. Jayewardene Ranasinghe Premadasa Dingiri Banda Wijetunga Chandrika Kumaratunga Mahinda Rajapaksa LTTE Militant Velupillai Prabhakaran Pottu Amman Soosai Karuna Amman Political Selvarasa Pathmanathan Anton Balasingham S. P. Thamilselvan India Military Harkirat Singh Ashok K. Mehta Kulwant Singh Depinder Singh Dalvir Singh Krishnaswamy Sundarji Civilian R. Venkataraman Rajiv Gandhi V. P. Singh Jyotindra Nath Dixit J. Jayalalithaa M. Karunanidhi Vaiko
Aftermath	Genocide Films NPC resolution LLRC Reactions (Protests) Remembrance Day UN Panel on Accountability War crimes Chemical weapons
Related topics	Casualties Assassinations Massacres Child soldiers Disappearances Office on Missing Persons Human rights Popular culture Terrorism Non-state State PTA Sexual violence Sixth Amendment Thirteenth Amendment 1988 Maldives coup attempt 1987–1989 JVP insurrection
Sri Lankan civil war at Wiktionary    Source texts at Wikisource    Textbooks at Wikibooks   Images and media at the Commons    Quotations at Wikiquote    News stories at Wikinews

• 1984 crimes in Sri Lanka
• Massacres in 1984
• Attacks on civilians attributed to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
• 1980s massacres of the Sri Lankan civil war
• Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam attacks in Eelam War I
• Mass murder of Sinhalese
• Terrorist incidents in Sri Lanka in 1984
• November 1984 events in Asia