Monday, February 13, 2012

The Truth about 40,000 Dead Tamils in Last Stages of the War



The 40,000 figure is cited by many with half knowledge as the number of civilians killed during the final stages of the war. Nothing can be further from the truth. There is conclusive evidence to show it is a mere number with no relevance to civilians and in fact most of the dead are LTTE armed cadres who tried to ‘defend’ LTTE control in Vanni.

This is a pro-LTTE claim made on February 17, 2009; three months before the war ended.

LTTE invented the number well in advance

‘40,000 people prepared to die in battle if no ceasefire called (Tuesday, February 17, 2009)’


“Our reports from the Vanni indicate that tens of thousands of civilian defense force members have been mobilized to defend the Tamil people from the genocidal Sinhalese invasion currently underway. India is quickly looking for a way to diffuse the stand off, not having expected the Tamil civilians to take up arms against the Sri Lankan army. If there is a battle in which 40,000 Tamil civilians die defending their people, the Indian government will be held responsible by the citizens of Tamil Nadu.”


It is crystal clear LTTE terrorists fabricated the 40,000 number well before the end of the war.

The above newspaper clearly indicated that this 40,000, irrespective of the veracity of the number, to be armed LTTE terrorists fighting in plain clothing. It shows the extent of using human shields by the LTTE. 

And it was over three months before the war ended!

Annihilated LTTE terrorist regiments account for the dead

The following LTTE brigades were totally annihilated in battles in the last phase of the war


  Malathi Brigade – annihilated

      Sothiya Brigade – annihilated

      Charles Anthony Regiment – annihilated

      Imran Pandian Regiment – annihilated

      Jeyanthan Brigade – annihilated

      Sea Tigers – annihilated

      Suicide Bomber Brigade – annihilated

      Victor Artillery Brigade – annihilated

      Kutti Sri Motar Brigade – annihilated

      Ellalan Force – annihilated

      Air Tigers and other ancillary brigades – annihilated   


    If each brigade was made up of 1,000 to 3,500 cadres, the eleven (11) brigades of the LTTE would have had 11,000 to 38,500 cadres who died fighting. However, more likely the real number of all dead during the last stages of the war is closer to the lower end and almost all of them were LTTE armed cadres.

Damn lies of UN staff

“At the end of February 2009, the United Nations Country Team informed the Government that, in its view, there were 267,618 civilians present in the LTTE controlled area, basing the estimate, in part, on UNOSAT Quickbind and Worldview satellite images, used to count the number of IDP shelters. At the end of April, United Nations estimates were that 127,177 civilians still remained trapped, whereas the Government said there were only 10,000 persons left at the time. The number of IDPs who eventually emerged from the area and were housed at Menik Farm and in other camps was approximately 290,000. The discrepancy in these figures has not been adequately explained by the Government.”


Before February, only a very few civilians escaped LTTE jackboot and ran for safety in government controlled areas. Then the UN accused the LTTE for trapping civilians. Large movement of civilians occurred after this event.


The total number of people who got into SL government control after the war was 282,380, according to UN update as of 10 July 2009.”


Incredibly, five months later, UN reported the total number of people who came from LTTE controlled areas was 282,380 which is 14,762 higher!

Who are they trying to mislead?

Of course the earlier number (on February 2009) was an estimate. But it has come very close to the real number. UN was involved in many humanitarian operations in LTTE controlled areas and they could have known the number of humans in LTTE controlled areas with reasonable accuracy.

At the very least, almost the total number of humans in LTTE controlled areas in February 2009 made it safely to government controlled areas. 40,000 is too big a number for the estimate to differ from the actual (which was higher than the estimate!).