Eelam War III Eelam War III is the name given to the third phase of armed conflict between Sri Lankan military and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam . After the period of 100 days cease - fire the hostilities broke out on the 19th of April 1995 . The LTTE - Sea Tigers planted explosives in two gun boats known as SLNS ' Sooraya ' and ' Ranasuru ' , and blew them up . Also , a new weapon " Stinger " , a shoulder launched anti - aircraft missile was used in this conflict by the LTTE . This was used to take down two Sri Lankan Air Force AVRO aircraft flying over the Jaffna peninsula . Civilian killings . Kallarawa massacre . The Kallarawa massacre is an incident on May 25 , 1995 during which LTTE cadres massacred 42 Sinhalese men , women and children in Kallarawa . All the remaining civilian survivors fled the village after this incident leading to its depopulation . However survivors from the Sinhalese , Tamil and Muslim communities have returned to Kallarawa under the protection of the Sri Lankan Army . Gonagala massacre . The Gongala Massacre was a massacre that occurred on September 18 , 1999 , in the small village of Gonagala , located in the Ampara District of Sri Lanka . According to reports , over 50 men , women and children were hacked to death in the middle of the night . The massacre is attributed to the LTTE , which is banned as a terrorist organization by a number of countries including the United States , the United Kingdom , India and the European Union . The Gonagala massacre is one of several such attacks believed to have been carried out by the LTTE . However these murders gained notoriety because , unlike previous attacks , most of the LTTE cadres who took part in it were women . According to survivors , there was a significant presence of female cadres among the 75 LTTE cadres who took part in the killings Controversy over the Army ' s handling of its casualties and their families . In August 2001 , S . P . Thamilselvan , the leader of the political wing of the Tamil Tigers , accused the Sri Lankan Army of intentionally abandoning the bodies of nearly a thousand soldiers on the battlefields since May , despite the Tamils ’ request that the Red Cross act as an intermediate . He told visiting relatives of missing servicemen that the military had only accepted 55 bodies to return to their families , while burying the rest with full military honors on the spot . Thamilselvan did not offer a reason for the army ’ s refusal , but did note that several hundred decomposing bodies remained in a minefield due to the danger of extracting them . A Sri Lankan military spokesman , Brigadier Sanath Karunaratne , acknowledged that the army cannot always retrieve a body because it might cost more lives , but denied the Tamil accusations , saying they were propaganda aimed at demoralizing the parents of the missing soldiers . However , this was not the first time issues had arisen over reclamation of soldiers ’ remains and the Army ’ s responsiveness to the requests of families of missing soldiers for information regarding their fate . In April 2003 , a group of parents of some of the 619 soldiers reported missing from a battle fought 27 September 1998 obtained permission from the LTTE to travel to the battle site . The families ’ previous inquiries at the Defense Ministry , the Sri Lankan Army , and the International Committee of the Red Cross for information on their sons ’ fates had been fruitless . At the battlefield they learned that some 500 bodies had been piled together , doused with kerosene , and burnt on the spot by the Sri Lankan Army . Upon their return , a lawsuit was filed on the families ’ behalf requesting a mass funeral and DNA testing so Buddhist , Muslim and Christian families could collect their sons ’ remains and give them proper burials . The Ministry of Defence organized funeral in 2006 , but declined to perform the requested DNA testing .