Remembering the Kokkilai Massacre: LTTE’s Savage Attack on Civilians Marks a Dark Chapter in Sri Lanka’s History

In the annals of Sri Lanka’s brutal civil war, few events encapsulate the sheer barbarity of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as starkly as the Kokkilai massacre of December 1, 1984. This heinous act, where LTTE terrorists slaughtered 13 innocent civilians in the coastal village of Kokkilai in the Mullaitivu district, was not an isolated incident but part of a calculated campaign of ethnic terror aimed at driving ethnic Sinhalese from the self-declared “Tamil homeland”.

The attack, coming just a day after the group’s even deadlier massacres at the nearby Kent and Dollar Farms, exposed the LTTE’s ruthless disregard for human life and set the stage for decades of bloodshed.

The Kokkilai village, a quiet fishing community settled by ethnic Sinhala Catholic families, had long coexisted peacefully with neighboring ethnic Tamil communities despite earlier ethnic tensions in 1958 and 1977.

On that fateful morning, December 1, 1984, LTTE terrorists, armed with rifles, grenades, and explosives, arrived under the cover of darkness in a commandeered van. The driver, coerced into service, reportedly flashed the vehicle’s lights, whether as a warning or signal remains debated, but it did nothing to avert the carnage. The terrorists burst out, hurling explosives and opening fire indiscriminately on sleeping families. Among the victims were women and children; reports detail two women bound by their hair and executed at point blank range, while a child succumbed to injuries while fleeing on a boat.

Survivors, traumatized and destitute, fled to the sea, eventually becoming refugees in Negombo, where many abandoned their fishing livelihoods due to the psychological scars and unfamiliar conditions.

This atrocity was no mere skirmish; it was a deliberate terrorist strike on unarmed civilians, boasted about by the LTTE as the elimination of “Sinhalese ruffians.”

The group’s propaganda machine reveled in the killings, framing them as retaliation against perceived encroachments, but the reality was far more sinister: an attempt at ethnic cleansing to consolidate control over northern territories; self declared “Tamil homeland”. The LTTE, designated as a terrorist organization by over 30 countries including the United States, India, and the European Union, consistently targeted non-combatants throughout the war, employing tactics that included suicide bombings, child soldier recruitment, and assassinations.

Their actions in Kokkilai exemplified this pattern of cowardice and cruelty, preying on vulnerable families to instill fear and disrupt societal harmony.

Official Sri Lankan government records underscore the LTTE’s culpability and the scale of their savagery. In a parliamentary document titled “Massacres of Civilians,” presented by Deputy Minister for Defence Anuruddha Ratwatte on February 6, 1996, the Kokkilai massacre is explicitly listed as one of the first in a long series of LTTE atrocities against ethnic Sinhalese civilians from 1984 to 1996.

The report documents 11 civilians slaughtered in Kokkilai and nearby Nayaru, following the group’s massacre of 62 persons at Kent and Dollar Farms on November 30, 1984.

These farms, modest agricultural settlements in the Mullaitivu district, saw LTTE fighters storm in during the night, gunning down men, women, and children in their homes, 33 at Dollar Farm and 29 at Kent Farm, according to detailed accounts.

The government report classifies these as unprovoked attacks on innocent settlers, highlighting how the LTTE’s violence disrupted efforts to develop border regions and fostered cycles of fear.

National Security Minister Lalith Athulathmudali, speaking in Parliament in December 1984 shortly after the Kent and Dollar massacres, condemned the LTTE’s broad definition of “enemies,” rhetorically asking: “Who is a terrorist? Is he the person who uses a gun? Or is he also not a terrorist who accompanies a terrorist with a gun? Is he not also a terrorist who gives a house to a person who has a gun and who wants to kill?”

His words captured the government’s frustration with the LTTE’s ecosystem of terror, which extended beyond terrorists to enablers in civilian guise. The 1996 report, a comprehensive tally of over a dozen years of LTTE inflicted horrors, served as a stark indictment, listing only ethnic Sinhalese victims to emphasize the one-sided nature of the militants’ campaign against the majority community.

The immediate aftermath of Kokkilai was equally grim. The massacre triggered a wave of panic among the ethnic Sinhala population in the Weli Oya region, leading to an exodus and retaliatory mob violence against Tamils in Thennamarawadi.

In response, a government-commissioned report by S.L. Gunasekara and Davinda Senanayake urged the increased military presence in the area, a recommendation swiftly adopted to bolster defenses against further LTTE incursions.

Yet, the LTTE persisted in their assaults, undeterred by international condemnation or the mounting human cost. Over the ensuing decades, the group would orchestrate infamous attacks like the 1996 Central Bank bombing in Colombo, which killed 90 and injured 1,400, and the 1998 Temple of the Tooth bombing in Kandy, desecrating a sacred Buddhist site.

Their use of child soldiers and suicide tactics further cemented their status as one of the world’s most notorious terrorist outfits.

The Kokkilai massacre, though eclipsed by later horrors, remains a pivotal moment that galvanized Sri Lankan resolve against the LTTE. It exposed the group’s fascist ideology, rooted in separatism and violence, which ultimately led to their decisive defeat in 2009. Today, as Sri Lanka continues to heal from the war’s wounds, remembering events like Kokkilai serves as a reminder of the LTTE’s unmitigated evil, a terrorist scourge that targeted the innocent, sowed division, and brought nothing but suffering to all ethnic communities. The government’s 1996 documentation stands as an enduring testament to these truths, ensuring that the victims’ stories are not forgotten amid calls for reconciliation.