Sri Lanka’s Black July: The Question Of Numbers
By Rajan Hoole -August 10, 2013
Rajan Hoole
Sri Lanka’s Black July – Part 11 -
Before we leave this chapter, we look at the question how many Tamils were killed during the July 1983 violence? Almost
every figure aroused controversy. Sarath Muttetuwegama pointed out that according to the censor 36 persons had been killed in Colombo on the 25th – the first day of violence – including 35 prisoners at Welikade! T.D.S.A. Dissanayaka gives a total of 471 Tamils killed including 227 in the Colombo District. Dr. M.S.L. Salgado, JMO Colombo, recalls that during that week about 283 bodies came to him for post mortem examination. Under the prevailing anarchy, we may take it that nearly all of them were victims of communal attacks.
Amirthalingam in speaking to the Tamil diaspora in New York just after July violence placed the number of Tamils killed at about 2000. After he became leader of the Opposition, Amirthalingam was generally painstakingly detailed and accurate. But in the South itself the attention of many shifted from the atrocious nature of the violence itself to a defensive cry that the Tamils (including Amirthalingam) were exaggerating and that Sri Lanka was being unfairly vilified. Take for example Dissanayaka’s remark: “Political opinion in Tamil Nadu ranging from the sublime to the ludicrous and the mass media was orchestrated against Sri Lanka. A hartal (stoppage of work) was observed on August 2nd.” It was as though such concern, which alone kept the local Tamils in hope then, was attempt to make Buddhism the key element in the Sinhalese identity while playing down caste. Today the most strident of Sinhalese publicists and scholars who move towards demonising the Tamils while eloquently holding out against political accommodation with them, come mainly from the service castes.
Part four - Sri Lanka’s Black July: The Cover Up
Part five - 30th July 1983: The Second Naxalite Plot
Part seven - Black July: Thondaman & Muttetuwegama
Part nine - Tamil Merchants In The Pettah – Post July 1983
*From Chapter 9 of Rajan Hoole‘s “Sri Lanka: Arrogance of Power - Myth, Decadence and Murder”. Thanks to Rajan for giving us permission to republish. To be continued..
