Black July – Haunting Memories
Karikalan S. Navaratnam
“I am not worried about the opinion of the Jaffna people… now we cannot think of them, not about their lives or their opinion… the more you put pressure in the north, the happier the Sinhala people will be here… Really if I starve the Tamils out, the Sinhala people will be happy.” – President J.R. Jayewardene, Daily Telegraph (London) , 11 July 1983
Another July has just come and gone – 35th Anniversary of “Black July”. President J.R. made the egregious statement (cited above) in an interview to the “Daily Telegraph “ (which was reproduced in the Colombo “Sunday Observer” of 17 July 1983), just a few days before the July 1983 pogrom erupted. Not only that it foreshadowed the impending carnage and calamity, it had also been a contributory factor engendering the pogrom.
Racial antipathy against ethnic Tamils was palpably evolving into an explosive situation. The political predator President J.R. had wilfully accelerated the process.
The die is cast
Alea iacta est (“The die is cast”) is a phrase attributed to Julius Caesar as he led his legion across the Rubicon river in 49 B.C. while he set out to take over Rome and became embroiled in a civil war. In crossing the Rubicon, Caesar had made a major military commitment. “The die is cast“- the metaphorical phrase suggesting that an irrevocable choice had been made and the process was past the point of return. Anti-Tamil pogrom in July 1983 was an organized effort, as were the series of massacres routinely carried out against Tamils in a medieval milieu. In 1983, it was organized on a larger scale. Spiritual and temporal forces – sections of the clergy, state security agencies, the police, bigoted press and ‘patriotic’ politicians – had ganged up with the like-minded rabid rabble to wage war on the Tamil people. President J.R.’s bellicose rhetoric was a call to arms addressed to this bloodlusted nationalist fascist forces. With his clarion call, the die was cast and the ensuing ethnic war was inevitable.
Orgy of violence
The pogrom claimed the lives of several thousands of innocent Tamils. And the orgy of killing was complemented by a host of other acts of atrocity – maiming, rape, arson, looting and what not. Haunting memories of the horrors of Black July 1983 continue to cast a shadow over ethnic relations in Sri Lanka and tend to define the Tamils’ political agenda.
Likewise, the genocidal killings of 2009 and the post-Mullivaikal experiences have drastically changed our mindscape and pursuits..
Aide Memoires
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” (George Santayana, Philosopher/Poet). Lest we may forget, a brief review of the horrific events of July 1983, as recounted by discerning commentators/ observers may serve as a sort of aide memoires: “Acts of Genocide” – ICJ:
The crimes of July 1983 were a watershed for our country | pic by Chandraguptha Amarasingha – A Tamil boy stripped naked and later beaten to death by Sinhala youth in Boralla gustation – 1983 July
“The evidence points clearly to the conclusion that the violence of the Sinhala rioters on the Tamils amounted to Acts of Genocide.” (The Review, International Commission of Jurists, December 1983)
“Mobs of Sinhala youth rampaged through the streets, ransacking homes, shops and offices, looting them and setting them ablaze, as they sought out members of the Tamil ethnic minority.”
“… a mob attacked a Tamil cyclist riding near Colombo’s eye hospital ………..The cyclist was hauled from his bike, drenched with petrol and set alight. As he ran screaming down the street, the mob set on him and hacked him down with jungle knives…”
“Motorists were dragged from their cars to be stoned and beaten with sticks… Others were cut down with knives and axes.” (London Daily Telegraph, 26 July 1983)
”All over the city by mid-morning lorries jammed with young men shouting anti Tamil slogans, were moving into Tamil areas and into shopping centres picking out Tamil shops… Petrol was siphoned from cars into buckets and plastic bowls to speed the work of arson.. By noon Colombo resembled a city after a bombing raid. Smoke obscured the sun, Main roads were blocked by burnt out vehicles.. The rioting surged into the heart of the city. In area after area Sinhalese rioters systematically picked out Tamil homes and shops, whether occupied or empty, and looted and destroyed them...” (Guardian, 26 July 1983)
“The rioters seeking out Tamil homes and burning them had a particularly detailed knowledge of who lived where and who owned
