Talk:Role of the Sri Lankan Home Guards in the Sri Lankan Civil War: Difference between revisions

This article was reviewed by member(s) of WikiProject Articles for creation. The project works to allow users to contribute quality articles and media files to the encyclopedia and track their progress as they are developed. To participate, please visit the project page for more information.Articles for creationWikipedia:WikiProject Articles for creationTemplate:WikiProject Articles for creationAfC This article was accepted from this draft on 7 December 2025 by reviewer Monkeysmashingkeyboards (talk · contribs). This article is within the scope of WikiProject History, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the subject of History on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.HistoryWikipedia:WikiProject HistoryTemplate:WikiProject Historyhistory Low This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project’s importance scale. This article is within the scope of WikiProject Human rights, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Human rights on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Human rightsWikipedia:WikiProject Human rightsTemplate:WikiProject Human rightsHuman rights Low This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project’s importance scale. This article is within the scope of the Military history WikiProject. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks. To use this banner, please see the full instructions.Military historyWikipedia:WikiProject Military historyTemplate:WikiProject Military historymilitary history This article is within the scope of WikiProject Politics, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of politics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.PoliticsWikipedia:WikiProject PoliticsTemplate:WikiProject Politicspolitics Low This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project’s importance scale. This article is within the scope of WikiProject Sri Lanka Reconciliation, a project which is currently considered to be defunct.Sri Lanka ReconciliationWikipedia:WikiProject Sri Lanka ReconciliationTemplate:WikiProject Sri Lanka ReconciliationSri Lanka Reconciliation This article is within the scope of WikiProject Tamil Eelam, a project which is currently considered to be inactive.Tamil EelamWikipedia:WikiProject Tamil EelamTemplate:WikiProject Tamil EelamTamil Eelam

I have provided the following clarifications and justifications regarding the draft:

• Historical Significance: The topic holds clear historical significance. Applying overly restrictive criteria may inadvertently limit public access to important and underrepresented aspects of history.

• Source Quality: While testimony excerpts have been shortened, their inclusion remains crucial. These first-hand accounts from survivors and eyewitnesses provide direct historical insight and serve as valuable primary sources that enrich the documented narrative.

• Citation Density: The article demonstrates strong sourcing, with a high number of citations relative to its length. This reflects a clear effort toward verifiability and compliance with sourcing guidelines. Similar historical entries with fewer citations and less depth have been accepted, indicating an established precedent for inclusion when source quality is high.

• Neutral Intent: The article is not written to promote a particular viewpoint but to present verifiable, well-sourced information in line with Wikipedia’s mission to make knowledge freely available. The content contributes to broader historical understanding and supports the platform’s role as a public educational resource.

• Community Collaboration: Endorsing the article would allow for ongoing community engagement and refinement. Rejecting it at this point would prematurely halt the collaborative process and limit opportunities for constructive improvement.

RajaRajaC (talk) 13:21, 28 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Since the last review: I’ve gone through the whole article a few times. I added more background info and shortened all of the quotes as much as I can, but kept the important parts since the survivor and eyewitness accounts give useful historical insight. I also added a table showing the attacks in order, and included a section on what happened to the Home Guard Service after the Sri Lankan Civil War. There’s now some explanation of which massacres were carried out as revenge for the Kattankudy attack. I added images to help with context, improved the formatting, split the content into sections, and used a variety of reliable sources. RajaRajaC (talk) 13:17, 28 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, I wrote this article in relation to the Sri Lankan Civil War. I think I did a good job but I’d like to request your expertise and knowledge on this particular subject. I’d appreciate it, if you could proof-read the article and share your feedback on it. Also, if you spot anything I might’ve missed, then please feel free to fix it. RajaRajaC ^Talk 11:27, 27 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Old Title: Muslim Homeguard Attacks on Tamil Civilians in Sri Lanka

New Title: Role of the Sri Lankan Home Guards in the Sri Lankan Civil War

This new title reflects a more comprehensive and neutral framing of the subject. The new title allows for a wider examination of the Home Guards’ formation, deployment, and actions. Moreover, it ensures better preservation of the article. RajaRajaC (talk) 11:34, 14 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Logically, the next iteration of this title would be: Sri Lankan Home Guards in the Sri Lankan Civil War? RajaRajaC (talk) 06:50, 15 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Prior content in this draft duplicated one or more previously published sources. The material was copied from: tamilguardian.com/content/thiraikerny-marks-35-years-1990-massacre-calls-exhume-mass-grave. Copied or closely paraphrased material has been rewritten or removed and must not be restored, unless it is duly released under a compatible license. (For more information, please see “using copyrighted works from others” if you are not the copyright holder of this material, or “donating copyrighted materials” if you are.)

For legal reasons, we cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from other web sites or published material; such additions will be deleted. Contributors may use copyrighted publications as a source of information, and, if allowed under fair use, may copy sentences and phrases, provided they are included in quotation marks and referenced properly. The material may also be rewritten, provided it does not infringe on the copyright of the original or plagiarize from that source. Therefore, such paraphrased portions must provide their source. Please see our guideline on non-free text for how to properly implement limited quotations of copyrighted text. Wikipedia takes copyright violations very seriously, and persistent violators will be blocked from editing. While we appreciate contributions, we must require all contributors to understand and comply with these policies. Thank you. —Seawolf35 ^T—C 19:01, 3 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

There’s been a misunderstanding of the situation. The survivor quotes in version 1312929228 are taken from Massacres of Tamils 1956–2008 (Published by NESoHR & Manitham, 2009), pages 148–153 for (Tiraikerny Massacre). The book is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, which should allow me to reuse excerpts from Survivors. The confusion likely happened because the opening line used the same one-liner as Tamil Guardian, but the quotes themselves are from the NESoHR book. I will adjust the introductions for each Survivor Testimonies if the version is restored back to 1312929228 with Tiraikerny Massacre Survivor Testimonies. RajaRajaC ^Talk 09:40, 4 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I plan to divide the table analysis into sub-sections, with each sub-heading covering every five-year period since the first recorded attack in 1984. Within each time-period section, I plan to cover:

• The effects on Tamil communities (social, demographic, humanitarian impact)
• Major shifts in Home Guard structure, recruitment, or deployment
• Key responses from local communities, NGOs, human rights groups, or international observers

• Others events in the broader civil war that may have influenced Home Guard activity (major battles, ceasefires, peace talks)
• Government policies or security decisions relevant to that period

1984-89; 1990-1995; 1996-1998? RajaRajaC ^Talk 13:58, 7 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I added a clean-up tag to this article that flags that this article does not have a lead section. See MOS:LEAD for purpose of the lead. It should provide an accessible overview to the whole article. Information in the lead should be summary of the information in the body of the article. See WP:LEADFOLLOWSBODY. – Cameron Dewe (talk) 06:41, 8 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Home Guards Troop Strength and Figures

Home Guard units, consisting of 25 armed civilians per district, were formally activated at government instruction in July 1984. (Source: United Press International (UPI), Date: 20 July 1984)

By 1987, an estimated 11,000 armed home guards were active in the Northern and Eastern provinces. (Source: Human Rights Watch (HRW) Report General, Date: April 1995)

The government claimed that by August 1987, 10,000 Home Guards in the Northern and Eastern provinces had surrendered their weapons after the arrival of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF), though the LTTE contested this claim. (Source: Ibid, p.43, IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Date: 14 May 1990)

By early 1991, Home Guards numbered 22,000, working under police supervision to protect villages. (Source: Xinhua General News Service, Date: 22 February 1991)

By 1994, at least 17,000 Home Guards were stationed at security points islandwide for peacekeeping and law-enforcement support. (Source: Xinhua News Agency, Date: 20 April 1994)

Over 20,000 Home Guards participated in 2002 election security operations. (Source: Xinhua General News Service, Date: 20 March 2002)

By 2009, an estimated 45,000 predominantly Sinhalese villagers had joined what was formally known as the Civil Defense Forces, the evolved version of the Home Guard system. (Source: The Washington Post, Date: February 22, 2009)

The Creation, Arming and Training of the Muslim Home Guards:

Press coverage from 1986 and 1991 further shows that Muslim Home Guards functioned as government-backed auxiliary forces, armed and deployed to assist in the protection of Muslim communities and to take part in counter-LTTE activities in the Eastern Province.

According to Human Rights Watch, the government established Muslim “home guards” in eastern villages as a response to escalating violence, a policy that soon drew accusations of retaliatory attacks against Tamil civilians in nearby areas. (Source: Human Rights Watch, Date: 1992)

Defense officials were quoted as saying that they planned to continue to deploy civilian home guards and members of “non-LTTE Tamil groups” to protect the districts of Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampara. (Source: Human Rights Watch, Date: 1992)

A June 15, 1986 Associated Press report describes these units as Muslim militiamen given guns by the Sri Lankan government to protect the predominantly Muslim town of Muttur. (Source: Associated Press, Date: June 15, 1996)

By August 9, 1991, The Times reported that Sri Lanka had formally set up a Muslim home guard force to combat the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the ethnically divided Eastern Province. (Source: The Times, August 9, 1991)

These so-called Home Guards are given a short training in the use of weapons. They function mostly under the authority of the local police, although in some areas they work alongside the army. […] The guards operate with local army and police units, going out on patrols against the LTTE and manning sentry points. (Source: TamilNet, 6 August 1997)

Participation in Massacres, Killings, and Other Human Rights Violations

“These home guards participated in a number of extrajudicial executions and massacres, sometimes acting independently, at other times operating in conjunction with military personnel.” (Source: Human Rights Watch (HRW) Report General, Date: April 1995)

In December 1984 the government decided to send approximately 200,000 people from the South into Tamil areas. Within this relocated population, selected individuals were “home guards” and supplied with shotguns and automatic weapons reportedly for purposes of local self-defence. This move contributed to heightened tensions between communities.(Source: Brian Senewiratne, Violations of Human Rights in Sri Lanka, Queensland, Australia, ca. 1986, pp. 15-16., IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Date: 14 May 1990)

RajaRajaC ^Talk 15:46, 8 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]