SUMMARY

JVP launched its first armed struggle against the government of Sri Lanka in 1971, but it was quickly defeated by the vastly superior army. One-sided violence existed in this previous conflict as well as in the second insurrection. In JVP's second struggle in the late 1980s and early 1990s to overthrow the Government of Sri Lanka, the organization did not only engage the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) in armed conflict, but also carried out attacks on the civilian population. In the efforts to revolutionize Sri Lankan society JVP during 1989 began a concerted and deliberate effort to attack civilian supporters of the government and other political leftist groups, and also the family and relatives of people employed by the army, security forces and police. People presumed to be government informers were also targeted. The violence was also related to the 1989 parliamentary elections, and JVP attempted to dissuade the people of Sri Lanka from voting through violence. In sum, the tactics employed by JVP were aimed at making the state ungovernable, both through armed clashes with security forces and the targeting of civilians deemed to be supportive of the regime in any capacity (including journalists, television personalities and businessmen). In general JVP's tactics did not target a specific ethnic group, but instead took place in the mainly Sinhalese south and was politically motivated. The killings of civilians were carried out by a wide variety of means, including mine attacks, shootings, stabbings, and people being burnt to death.

JVP first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 1989, when the one-sided violence resulted in over 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached in August that year when 12 civilians were killed.