Black July – Setting The Record Straight
Usha S Sri-Skanda-Rajah
Black July – Was It a Spontaneous Reaction to the Ambush killing of Thirteen Soldiers by the LTTE or A Sri Lankan Government Sponsored, Pre-meditated and Targeted Campaign of State Terror Unleashed on the Tamil People amounting to Genocide?
– Where Was I on Black July? What Caused the Hardening of Resolve for a Free Tamil Eelam?
As we mark the 33rd anniversary of Black July – the 1983 pogrom against the Tamil people orchestrated, as evidence will show, by the Sri Lankan government of J R Jayewardene, as part of a continuing Genocide, lasting 10 days, leaving more than 3000 Tamils killed, 18,000 Tamil homes and numerous businesses burned down and personal possessions lost/looted with 150,000 Tamils made homeless, resulting in an unknown number of internally displaced Tamil people and in a mass exodus of Tamil refugees fleeing the island, now part of a formidable Tamil Diaspora, my thoughts go back to where I was on Black July, what hardened my resolve for a free Tamil Eelam and more importantly the need for setting the record straight on who was responsible for Black July, whether it was a spontaneous response to the ambush killing of thirteen Sri Lankan soldiers allegedly by the LTTE or was pre-meditated?
Hence the need to write…
Additionally, it would be remiss not to forget at this time what Tamil people at the time of Black July could not foresee or ever imagine would happen in their life time – that the worst was yet to come, that there was on the horizon a much worse, far more brutal, hitherto unspeakable, horrendous mass atrocity against the same people – the Tamil people in the island of Sri Lanka, once known as Ceylon – this time at Mullivaikkal. One that happened in 2009 intended actually to finish off, on a mass scale, the Tamil race in the island.
Where Was I on Black July? What Caused the Hardening of Resolve for a Free Eelam?
Before examining whether the Sri Lankan government’s claim was true that Black July was a reaction to ambush killing of the soldiers, I want to look back and recall those fateful days and weeks in July 1983, remembering where I was and ponder on certain defining moments in my life, those that hardened my resolve for a free Tamil Eelam, which I can’t seem to shake, when nothing substantive is being offered in the form of reconciliation and a political solution. We were living in Manila in the Philippines in the late 70s and 80s until the late 90s. In the month of July 1983 we decided to go back home and also visit London. The first leg of our journey was Colombo. Once we arrived, rumours were circulating amongst the Tamil community of an impending pogrom against Tamils. We were asked not to travel around too much and hence our plans to go to Jaffna, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Kathirkamam were put off indefinitely, very much to our disappointment and dismay. With much concern for the safety of the Tamil people very much in the forefront of our minds, we proceeded on the second leg of our journey to London to visit with my sister-in-law and her husband who was then the High Commissioner for Sri Lanka in the UK – with plans afoot to return home to Colombo and Tamil Eelam on our way back to Manila. We were so sure of returning that we even left half our luggage with relatives in Colombo.
But it was not to be.
On the 23rd of July our worst fears came true. Another pogrom – a Sri Lankan government sponsored, premeditated and targeted campaign of violence was unleashed on the Tamil people – on their person and on their properties – yet again.
A dire warning was received by the Sri Lankan High Commissioner in London as a fire bomb was thrown at the front door of his office, although swiftly extinguished, it was troubling to my sister-in-law!
