19 March, 2024

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Sri Lanka’s Black July: Borella, 24th Evening

By Rajan Hoole

Rajan Hoole

Most people hate to see themselves as murderers. This influences the manner in which they perceive public and private tragedies, and memory often rejects the unpleasant and sanitises the true nature of the event. So it happened with Tamils in the way they sanitised and rationalised instances of Tamil violence against Sinhalese and Muslims. Several of these have been described in our reports over the years. The Sri Lankan State with its ideology is an institution, which most Sinhalese actively or passively empathised with. The fact that there was no investigation into the violence of July 1983, made it easy for Sinhalese in general to opt for versions that distanced their government and hence themselves from the holocaust. Likewise the Tamils, with the subsequent communal attacks by their militant groups.

Thus one often hears said about the 1983 violence that it began spontaneously on the evening of 24th July when the bodies of the slain soldiers were brought from Jaffna, after which the Government lost control of the situation – so that the ‘Tamil terrorists’ or simply ‘terrorists’ who ‘brutally’ killed the soldiers in a routine military incident were largely to blame. This pedestrian version, more or less, with the qualification that Tamil civilians too suffered brutal reprisals, has got into several respectable accounts. It is thus very much the official version of the country’s ruling interests. It distances the Government from blame.

A different version of events is held by many Sinhalese who are conscious of the interests of the Sinhalese people. They are keenly aware that the violence did irreparable harm to Sinhalese interests, subjected the Sinhalese people to worldwide obloquy and legitimised the division of the country. Many of them hold the violence to have begun spontaneously, but are clear that the Government which had soldiers on the streets of Colombo every few yards could have stopped the violence if it wanted to. Among this more discerning layer, there was also anger that the main parties, the UNP and the SLFP, which showed no leadership qualities then, had let the Sinhalese down badly. Many of them in the higher levels of society, such as lawyers, professionals and university lecturers, came to have an emotional leaning towards the JVP rebels who made a bid for power during 1988-89.

Black July 83 – A Tamil boy stripped naked and later beaten to death by Sinhala youth in Boralla bustation | Photo – Chandraguptha Amarasingha

The Southern Left which had a long tradition of opposing the State, had no difficulty, at least in private, in blaming the Government wholesale. However, by this time, 1983, they were politically marginalised and their trade union arms had been violently attacked. Moreover after the July violence, Jayewardene tried to pin the blame for it on the Left along with the JVP, and banned them. This being their position, what they said publicly was muted.

The book Sri Lanka: the Holocaust and After by L. Piyadasa (a pseudonym) had drawn widely from sources close to the Left. It accused the Government of preparation well before the killing of soldiers in Jaffna, and spoke of goon squads led by UNP local councillors armed with electoral lists systematically targetting Tamil houses in Colombo and suburbs. In Kelaniya the gangs were identified as those of Industries Minister Cyril Mathew. The General Secretary of the JSS (Jathika Sevaka Sangamaya) which was under Mathew’s patronage was seen at large in Colombo on the 25th of July. The following day, according to Piyadasa, many of these goons from Colombo were bussed to Kandy (72 miles from Colombo) which then erupted. Badulla followed on the 27th and later Passara and Nuwara Eliya.

Mr. Bradman Weerakoon who was a trusted advisor to President Jayewardene and later to Premadasa, whom also Jayewardene made commissioner general of essential services in the wake of July 1983, has a sophisticated understanding of the violence, which also minimises the agency of individuals. His answers to difficult questions were prompt and unhesitating. He was quick to concede that politicians are extremely devious and operate in a very different framework, and that there was no one in the cabinet who stood out against dealing extra-judicially with persons perceived as a threat to the Government. As for the violence itself, he said that it might be misleading to look for answers to questions like who was responsible for what. The atmosphere had by that time become so charged that things happened by themselves. Much of the instigation, he said, was done at a low level by policemen and soldiers, who felt that it was now the patriotic duty of the Sinhalese to get rid of the Tamils.

Weerakoon himself pointed to the violence engulfing Colombo on Monday, Kandy on Tuesday, Badulla on Wednesday and Passara on Thursday, the delay roughly corresponding with distance from Colombo, and offered his own explanation. He associated it with news passed on by travellers, say someone going from Kandy to Badulla and instigating others, “See what the Sinhalese in Kandy did to the Tamils, where is our patriotism, are we not going to do our bit for our race?” He named army personnel as being among the agents in instigation of this kind, and cited the experience of his brother who was a planter near Passara. This planter was in the bazaar where he observed a convoy of army trucks that were parked. Otherwise, everything was normal and peaceful. He left the town, his vehicle climbing a hill. When he was some distance away, he heard gunshots and noise. Passara had erupted. As to the Welikade prison massacres, Weerakoon believes that spontaneous low level incitement was the key factor. That is to say, rioting had begun in Borella, on Monday (25th) the area was on fire, and the news would have been conveyed to the prisoners who were a mere few hundred yards away, with a challenge to prove their patriotism to the Sinhalese cause.

Reports of the role of the Army in the violence came also from Kandy and Nuwara Eliya. During 1983, Frank de Silva who retired as IGP in 1995 was DIG Police, Kandy. From the time of the killing of soldiers in Jaffna, he had intensified police patrols; often going out personally himself. The situation was calm through Monday. On Tuesday, he saw crowds that merely gathered and faced the Police without doing anything threatening. He with ASP Bertus ordered the crowds to be dispersed. They melted away and reappeared elsewhere to be dispersed again. After several replays of this, de Silva felt that the Police were looking foolish and withdrew his men. He had also noticed that many in the crowd were young men with short haircuts, giving themselves away as soldiers from the Sinha Regiment battalion in Kandy, who had also been associated with the communal violence of 1977. He wondered what the officers were doing allowing their men out in this manner. But with no help or instructions, he found himself at a loss. That afternoon Kandy erupted. Frank de Silva recalls finding a badly mauled Hill Country Tamil from Wattegama near the railway crossing on Peradeniya Road, putting him in his car and taking him to Kandy hospital.

Nuwara Eliya, was closely guarded by the Army who were checking all vehicles and had forbidden passenger vehicles from carrying Tamils. Although the violence spread from Kandy to Gampola and Nawalapitiya, Hatton was spared through the exertions of ASP G. Ariyasena, described by his superiors as an excellent officer. Nuwara Eliya was temporarily spared. Further Mrs. Herath Ranasinghe, the MP in Nuwara Eliya, as a precautionary measure had ordered the Police to take preventive custody of the local ruffians. On Friday 29th Minister Gamini Dissanayake arrived in Nuwara Eliya and held a party meeting. According to Piyadasa’s book what followed was that the ruffians preventively detained were released, and then Nuwara Eliya erupted into violence with active help from the Army.

This version quoted from Piyadasa as an eyewitness account was published in the Broken Palmyra. In 1990 the late Mr. Gamini Dissanayake contacted a friend common to himself and the authors of the Broken Palmyra and protested strongly against the implications of this version. He also offered to send Tamil witnesses from Nuwara Eliya who had a different version of events. He also protested that the statement quoted from his speech to the LJEWU in the wake of July, that “If India invades this country, the Tamils will be killed within 24 hours”, had been taken out of context. However, he ought to have been sensitive to the effect of that remark on the Tamils.

Whatever the validity of Dissanayake’s objection, it brings out the difficulty of recording events in this country. Where the State wants to suppress the truth in a climate of violence, legality is on its side. Under the circumstances, there were no legal records of what happened in July 1983 and no commission of inquiry. Information collected was smuggled out and published abroad. But activists who stand by Piyadasa’s version of events in Nuwara Eliya have to this day collected no affidavits. That is how things are in Sri Lanka!

A number of senior police officers who compared notes on developments particularly outside Colombo came to the conclusion that the ‘nucleus’ of the organised violence was provided by the Army. Cyril Herath who was IGP from 1985-88 was the DIG at Kurunegala in charge of the North Western Province. He held the peace, kept his fingers crossed and actively ‘resisted’ Army reinforcements being sent into his area. It remained an area notably free of violence in July although there had been some incidents in June.

The question now naturally arises, what went wrong with the Army? What was supposed to be an organised force with officers trained in the prestigious academies of Sandhurst and Dehra Dun had almost collapsed into an undisciplined mob. Several officers who held senior and responsible positions in the Army blame a combination of poor leadership and political interference. We will deal with this question in a later chapter. But now we move onto the responsibility of the Government and its leading figures.

Specifically, did the Government through rhetoric and posturing create conditions for communal violence where it found itself cornered or did its responsibility go much further? Was it an active agent in fomenting violence? Most Tamils saw the Government as an active agent, while the opposite is true of most Sinhalese. Indeed, if one looks only at one aspect of Jayewardene’s behaviour, what he did and what he told those close to him, one could make a strong case that he was cornered, and we are all in a sense prisoners of our past actions. But the Tamils as the victims were much more alive to other nuances, such as what he failed to do and the orders he did not issue. These tell a different story.

But before we proceed, a note of caution from Bradman Weerakoon: “One needs to be very careful before one accuses the Government of having organised the July 1983 violence and the Welikade prison massacres. I know it was terrible. From my house I could hear sounds of agony and blows falling on flesh. I had Tamils in my house whom I took to a refugee camp when I received a threatening call and subsequently brought back home because they were so miserable there. You know, there were several factors at work. A general election which would have released steam had not been held. There was commercial jealousy because several Tamil entrepreneurs had done well under the open economy. Then there were opposition groups wanting to create trouble for the Government. All these forces came into play. After all, we are so fragmented. How much do we know? It was the sort of eruption where the Government may have found itself unable to do much. A curfew often meant that the Tamils were in their homes while the assailants were free to pick them off.”

It is always true that in every society hatreds, rivalries and jealousies are simmering below the surface. But people are generally constrained from going to extremes unless there is a breakdown of social order giving free rein to the worst impulses of mankind. The question is whether that breakdown was caused by, or with the connivance of, the Government, or whether it was a spontaneous occurrence? Our partial answer in the past chapters has been that the Government had both consciously and unconsciously been building up towards a breakdown. In the preceding violence at Peradeniya University and in Trincomalee, there was active Government connivance. Weerakoon’s defence of Jayewardene’s failure to impose curfew in time has a flaw. If Jayewardene was thinking along Weerakoon’s lines, he would not have imposed curfew at all. But he did impose curfew on the 25th after the mobs ran amok for several hours. We will now examine the violence of July 1983 in greater detail.

The Government and the Violence of July 1983

About early July 1983, there was a dinner felicitating a doctor at Brown’s Beach Hotel, Negombo. Festus Perera, minister of fisheries, was holding forth at one table. He had evidently not noticed that a lady seated within hearing distance was Tamil, despite her wearing pottu and her thali. By that period the passenger traffic between Colombo and Jaffna had steadily increased to an all-time peak. The reasons were many, including the open economy with increasing foreign employment and travel. The subject of the Minister’s censure was the Tamils, who were travelling from Jaffna in ‘luxury’ coaches passing through Negambo and their acquisition of goods such as colour TV-sets. The minister added gravely, “Just wait a few weeks and they will be taught a lesson” From such hints, including Jayewardene’s Daily Telegraph interview, many Tamils sensed that there was something menacing in the air.

The closeness of Festus Perera to J.R. Jayewardene is reflected in an event during the split in the UNP which surfaced in January 1972, when the UNP was in the opposition. Dudley Senanayake was president of the party while Jayewardene was senior vice-president. In a statement published in the Press (Observer 23.1.72), Jayewardene professed his admiration for Prime Minister Mrs. Bandaranaike, her Marxist partners (LSSP & CP) and her government’s socialist policies!! He moreover proposed to take the UNP into a coalition with Mrs.Bandaranaike’s government. In preparation for the next party convention 90% of the UNP branches had dropped Jayewardene from nominations to the vice- president’s post.

It was mainly the branches along the Catholic belt between Chilaw and Beruwela, where Festus Perera had influence, that had nominated Jayewardene. In preparation for this same convention, it was Cyril Mathew, described as ‘Jayewardene’s trusted lieutenant’, of whom more will be said later, who, attended by ‘notorious criminals from Kosgoda’, went about trying to organise support for Jayewardene. Dudley Senanayake, subsequently reached an understanding with Jayewardene and postponed the convention. According to Buddhika Kurukularatne, then area organiser for Ambalangoda, Senanayake then wrote to him: “…please understand, I came to an understanding merely to prevent UNP people from killing UNP people. If we went ahead [with the convention] there would have been bloodshed!” (Sunday Island, 20 June 1999). That gives us something of the flavour of personalities behind the July 1983 violence.

The remarks such as those by Festus Perera were certainly not isolated. The late Mervyn de Silva (Men & Matters, Sunday Island, 2.2.92) referred to the unstated truth about July 1983 that ‘cries out to be heard’: “At least a week before that savage eruption, there was talk of ‘something about to happen’…. something nasty, of a ‘lesson’ to be taught.”

We had said earlier that a source of anxiety for the Government was its lack of legitimacy. Its fraudulent referendum had rendered the SLFP, the main opposition party, moribund. The brunt of opposition activity had moved outside Parliament to small Left-oriented groups whose natural turf was not the Parliament.

From what T.D.S.A. Dissanayaka says (The Agony of Sri Lanka), the Government was getting worried by routine speeches being made by groups like the NSSP and JVP. He also stretches things when he writes, “At another meeting Dr. Karunaratne protested on behalf of the NSSP on the arrest of Mr. S.A. David and Dr. S. Rajasundaram, the leaders of the Gandhiam Movement. Thus the NSSP became the first party in the Sinhalese speaking areas to show sympathy for the Tiger Movement”. Dissanayaka was here preparing the ground to justify the Government’s subsequent ban on the NSSP. There was hardly any known connection between the Gandhiyam and the LTTE. (See the charges against the Gandhiyam leaders in Chapter 8.) Dr. Vickramabahu Karunaratne after all did what any sensible democrat should have done.

The Government was again so nervous that any challenge to it had the potential to be carried off in unforeseen directions. In the nature of the anti-Tamil atmosphere built up by the Government, the easiest way for it to attack Left groups who were conciliatory on the Tamil issue, was to create anti-Tamil hysteria.

Borella, 24th Evening

Borella Junction is a shopping centre and a major bus terminus. About a third of a mile south of it along Baseline Road lies the Colombo General Cemetery at Kanatte, and about quarter of a mile west of it along Ward Place lay Braemar, the private residence of President Jayewardene. Before coming to his residence Ward Place intersects Kynsey Road, which comes from Kanatte, and beyond Braemar it intersects McCarthy Road and ends at Lipton Circus and the Colombo General Hospital, three quarters of a mile from Borella.

Travellers passing Kanatte in the evening, including the Communist MP Sarath Muttetuwegama, had little idea that a military funeral was going to take place. There were soldiers on guard around Kanatte and on Castle Street which leads to the new Parliament. Some thought that it was because President Ershad of Bangladesh who was in Colombo was visiting the Parliament. The Police had been given no instructions. About 4.00 PM a senior police officer told our scholar witness that the bodies of 13 soldiers killed in Jaffna were being brought to Colombo for burial with full military honours and that the funeral was to be at Kanatte. He added that it was still a top secret. A little later Prime Minister Premadasa and Minister Gamini Dissanayake among other top officials arrived at Jayewardene’s residence. Evidently, a top cabinet delegation was planning to attend the funeral.

There are several versions of what happened that evening, most of which speak of a spontaneous upsurge of communal violence. We have consulted several sources with a view to reconstructing the drama. Our witness went to Kanatte with the senior police officer.

The relatives of the dead soldiers had been brought there in buses. They were sad and depressed, but not angry. This was the first time the Army experienced anything like a dozen casualties in a single incident. There was an Army band and Buddhist monks to perform the last rites. The government-owned Lake House press and a crew from state television were there. Arc lights had been fixed around the burial site.

The bodies were to be brought from Jaffna for dressing at A.F. Raymond’s funeral parlour next to the cemetery. The funeral was scheduled for 5.00 PM, but owing to delays in decision making, the flight carrying the bodies touched down in Ratmalana airport very late. What then happened has been largely unreported. The times are important as will be seen later. The delay caused the crowd of curious onlookers to become large.

As it was getting dark, a group of young men wearing white T-shirts and shorts pushed through the crowd, and suddenly appeared at the burial site. They started covering the graves with their bare hands with angry expressions such as “Are you having them killed and buried like dogs!” They made a scene by kicking the brassware brought for the funeral ceremony. Their demand that the bodies of the dead should be given to the next- of-kin was bound to arouse sympathy.

The senior police officer suggested to our witness that the young men, who were about twenty in number, were deserters from the Rajarata Rifles who were sent out of the Army in early June. He thought they were now in the army camp a short distance from Kanatte on the Narahenpita Road. Then Assistant Superintendent Gaffoor went up to see what the matter was, and almost fell into the grave when the intruders stoned the Police. Another ASP from the President’s staff remarked that things were out of control as the crowd started getting restive. Our witness rushed off to warn a Tamil friend and his English wife, who were visiting in that area, to leave.

Another police officer on the scene was the Inspector General Mr. Rudra Rajasingham. He had been on circuit in Nuwara Eliya. On hearing about the funeral, anticipating trouble, he cut short his circuit and returned to Colombo. He was in Kanatte for the military funeral and was surprised to find that no army officer of rank was present to take charge. There were soldiers in uniform and other young men, whom he identified as off-duty soldiers. DIG (Metropolitan) Edward Gunawardene was also present. Then Deputy Defence Minister Werapitiya and Gen. Attygalle, Additional Secretary, Defence, came there and spoke to Rajasingham as the senior-most security official present. They left to report to Jayewardene after asking the IG to ‘hold the fort’.

A police officer attached to the CDB too identified a group of youths present there as off- duty army personnel from the nearby Narahenpita camp. Asked if they could have been university students, he was emphatic that he could tell the difference between army personnel and students. He noticed a little tension, which he described as a ‘drizzle’, and not a down-pour. He got into his patrol car and drove about as a plain-clothes officer. Through Tickell Road he reached Cotta Road and noticed a little stone throwing at a Tamil boutique, but nothing more.

We have mentioned the disruption caused by the young men. The crowd began demanding that there should be no funeral there, but that the bodies should be handed over to the next of kin. This was reportedly conveyed to the President by police intelligence men who taped what was going on. The President decided to cancel the funeral. This was followed by a commotion. The CDB officer felt that it was a mistake to have cancelled the funeral and that had it gone ahead, never mind the bit of an extremist speech by a Buddhist monk, things would have settled down.

There were both a variety of actors as well as observers at Kanatte that evening, who carried away with them different impressions about how the eruption took place. Some were quite sure that it was the spontaneous eruption at Kanatte that was the beginning of the holocaust. There were also those equally emphatic that the two were distinct events. Among the actors on the scene, there were Buddhist monks including Alle Gunawanse. There were off-duty army personnel.

Also present at Kanatte was Colonel Prasanna Dahanayake who had been sent out of the Army in 1966 on the charge that he had plotted a coup against the UNP Government of the day. He was subsequently detained along with other Leftist elements accused of plotting the July 1983 violence. Questioned in custody by ASP Chandra Jayawardena of the CID, the Sandhurst trained officer was totally evasive. Jayawardena threatened to send him to Jaffna prison. The Colonel flapped his arms and replied, “then I can fly”. He was known to be Left in his politics and anti-UNP. To a fellow detainee, he admitted having been at Kanatte to stir up trouble against the Government. A Left politician said of Colonel Dahanayake, “He was anti-UNP all right. But knowing him as well as I do, his anti-UNP politics is mediated through an anti-Tamil approach.”

Once the burial plans were cancelled, the Police riot squad rushed from the cemetery to seal off Ward Place at the Kynsey Road and McCarthy Road junctions, confirming that the Police perceived the crowd as posing a threat to Jayewardene. We do also know that a part of the crowd wanted to rush up Kynsey Road into Ward Place. T.D.S.A. Dissanayaka attributes to DIG Edward Gunawardene the decision to seal off Ward Place.

We also learn that Jayewardene was advised in the strongest terms that the situation was out of control. The words used by Police Superintendent Neil Weerasinghe who was in charge of his security were ‘The bubble has burst’! They understood that Jayewardene would declare curfew, and were surprised the following day when he had not.

All our sources are agreed that the initial mood of the crowd that left Kanatte was anti- government. According to some of them, about 10.00 P.M., fresh gangs were brought to Borella junction which raised the anti-Tamil cry. They are identified as government gangs. According to these reports when the crowd from Kanatte encountered the gangs freshly brought in, there was a hoot. Thereafter, the anti-government cry subsided and the anti-Tamil cry became dominant. This according to some sources, was the beginning of arson and the murder of Tamils who fell into the mob.

*From Chapter 9 of  Rajan Hoole‘s “Sri Lanka: Arrogance of Power  – Myth, Decadence and Murder” published in Jan. 2001. Thanks to Rajan for giving us permission to republish. To be continued tomorrow ..

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Latest comments

  • 6
    1

    Rajan in comparison with Ratnajeevan is a moderate.Systematic observation and data collection is his specialty. We see it here in this article. Hats off to you Sir.

    • 14
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      The Anti-JRJ sentiment directed against Jayawardene’s UNP govt which lacked legitimacy after an illegal referandum to extend Jayawardena’s term, was diverted against the Tamil Minority in July 1983.
      IGP Rudra Rajasingham went straight from Kannatta to JR’s house and asked for a curfew to be declared that night since the police had intelligence of planned attacks but JRJ refused.. and the rest is history.
      The UNP was responsible for the riots then and today the UNP with JRJ’s cursed nephew, Ranil Wickramasinghe, is responsible today for the coming installation of anti-minority military dictatorship in Lanka..
      The Jayawardena, Wickramasinghe and Rajapassa politicians all are corrupt, greedy and have blood on their hands. The curse of Kuveni is alive and well in Lanka where Buddhism is DEAD today.

      • 0
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        Merely to correct an error. The referendum was held to extend the term of parliament and not for JRs presidency. JR had an election for the Presidency and won it for his second term, though technically it was his first as a sitting President.

    • 8
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      TAMILS WORLD OVER WILL REMEMBER JULY 83 AS BLACK JULY FOR ANOTHER HUNDRED YEARS. A WELL PLANED SUCCESFULL OPERATION CARRIED BY THE UNP HEADED BY JR & CYRIL MATHEW.

    • 9
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      Those 3. Racist animals pictured on the clip may be now in their 50s or _Early 60s
      writing and spreading the Racists venoms still , either living in SL or Abroad like the kind of Nuwan Ruwan Sach and other Mad Dogs.

      In the name of Buddhism these animals were allowed to behave as they did by the Rulers of course.
      Either they were given wrong orders by the Authority or just the ANARCHY CAUSED BY THE RULERS ,THE SECURITY ( Army, Navy and the police) and the BUDDHISTS RACISTS. JUST LIKE THE ONES STANDING NEXT TO THE DYING NAKED TAMIL.

      There’s always karma to catch up with these vile animals.

  • 7
    1

    Tnx for the remembrance…….

    BUDHDA SIN-KELYAAS NEVER THOUGHT THAT AN TAMIL MILITARY WLL ARISE POWERFULLY AGAINST THEM WHEN THE BAUDHA BARBARIANS KILLED ,TORTURED , LOOTED AND SET FIRE PROPERTIES OF HINDUTAMILS ..

    Baudhda Kaavi Terrorists once try to make our lanka as July 83 by turning their venom filled neck towards peacefully living Muslims … NO BODY KKNOWS THE NEXT FATE OF LANKA……….

    • 3
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      It is up to us – Sinhalese, Tamils and others in the country – to work out a modality to live together, forgive the wounds of the past, in that peace and reconciliation where the Germans today lay wreaths in rememberance of those who were their “enemies” over 7 decades ago. The Marshall Plan went out to forgive and build “the enemy” of only a few years ago to make Germany the industrial and economic power that it is today. So the rise of post-WW2 Japan. That, to me, is culture and learning. If they can, why can’t we – after all they do not have the advantage of 2,500 years of “glorious history”

      Senguttuvan

      • 10
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        Senguttuvan, Glorious was the past, Terrible is the present, Gloomy shall be the future, forever and ever !!? For, Our leaders are corrupt and greedy. Politics is a money making venture run by thugs and illiterate.The past half century history of our ”glorious past” shall tell us , how dirty and indecent our politics and political leaders were !!? The other half century to come is never going to be different, rather it’s going to be the worst.

        We dream to see a Lanka as another Germany,Japan and Singapore but Our Leaders travel in the direction of Zimbabwe, Somalian and Ethiopia.

      • 4
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        Living together is the easiest thing to do. But when a group of people wants to kill together It becomes an impossibility. If you can’t live together at least allow others to live on their own happily. That is simple as it get. There are many political systems available to deliver that. You don’t have to invent one or we need any expertise or advice. Past history is useless for the present and the present behavior is not good for the future. But that is what the majority wants.

      • 0
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        Senguttuwan,

        Welcome back.

        Dr.RN

  • 9
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    July 1983 riots certainly was the turning point. So many innocent people got massacred and displaced. We were one of the many sinhala families who kept our friends at home. What a tragedy. Let this never never never happen again.

  • 2
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    This book is now out of print but it would be worth doing a reprint -wonderful writings that is unbiased !

  • 2
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    ‘ its all fiction and conspiracy agaisnt the majority inhabitants way of life” – that would be Leelas (Lee Potter) comments on this,the fellow is quiet for a few days must have gone for a de-brief with his handlers and might even comment under a new name now ;-)

  • 3
    0

    Excellent narrative by Rajan Hoole balanced and fair. As for me I felt it was a spontaneous eruption of violence which was fanned by government politicians. As Hoole says it was the army personnel who spread the violence. I was in Bandarawela when violence struck. Army trucks from Diyatalawa brought in the soldiers who commandeered fuel barrels from the depots and urged the people on to burn and loot. The violence could have been easily contained within Colombo and the outskirts. It is the politicians that made it spread to the provinces. At one point they seem to want to out do each other in the depth of violence.

    Ten years ago I felt consoled in believing that a recurrence was no longer possible, but now, with open instigation to racial( and religious ) violence by this government I am no longer sure.

    Despite JR’s authoritarian demeanour when it came to the crunch he failed to stand firm. He lacked courage when it was needed most. This is what happens when you always make political and not moral judgements. His delay in declaring a curfew, and worse, his delay in addressing the country were unforgivable.

    • 4
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      I do not think Black July was spontaneous because JR’s grandson was at a Christian Camp in the up country with his Christian classmates from Royal. JR called him back 3 or 4 of days before the riots suddenly sending a personal car just for him. The rest returned just in time. Also a politician’s wife and dear friends, came home suddenly and checked on us and our supplies the week of the riots before it all started and quickly left. A month before the event, a young bikhu and some weird boys with him came home in Colpetty with a list of about 25 names and got 25 rupees from us even though we had given money for vesak earlier. He was very gruff with us. Looking back, it is hard to believe that intoxicated mobs can organize themselves suddenly and attack systematically throughout the country using the same methods.
      Hopefully, things will change.

      • 2
        0

        Thanks. May be more people will recount their experiences for us to get a definite fix on this.

      • 2
        1

        LO THOPITHOPI!NO MY FRIEND. THING WILL NEVER CHANGE IN THIS BURG.IT IS THIS REALIZATION THAT WAS ONE OF THE CATALYSTS THAT BIRTHED THE DESIRE FOR SEPARATISM.IT IS THIS REALIZATION THAT MADE THE TIGERS HATE TAMIL MODERATES, LIKE NEELAN AND AT THAT TIME [PRE’83] EVEN TO AN EXTENT SIVA , AMIRTHALINGAM ALALASUNERAM ETC, ETC..ETC BECAUSE THEIR MODERATION WAS SEEN AS STUPIDITY THAT JEOPARDISED TIGER ASPIRATIONS.POST APRIL 2009 EVENTS WOULD SUGGEST THAT WH0 WAS RIGHT AND WRONG IS UP FOR CONJECTURE.WHERE DO THE TAMILS GO NOW ? LOOKING AT POLITICAL REALITY AND THE NAKED AND INDISCRIMINATELY LEWD PUBLIC DISPLAY OF STATE SPONSORED RELIGIOUS /RACIAL EXTREMISM, I’M AFRAID THAT THE IMMEDIATE PLAN IS TO TOTALLY “DISINTEGRATE” THE DEMOGRAPHY OF THE NORTH AND AFTER THAT, THE EAST. THE TAMIL WILL NOT BE LEFT WITH VERY MUCH IN TEN YEARS TIME WITH A HALF A MILLION OR MORE SINHALA SETTLERS SNUGLY ESTABLISHED IN AND SATURATING THE NORTH.ETHNIC THINNING AND DISPERSAL WILL WIPE OUT THE HISTORICAL CONTIGUITY OF THE EXCLUSIVE TAMIL “HOMELANDS”. THIS WILL BE ENSURED BY A VERY STRONG, STANDING ARMY [ IN OR OUT OF UNIFORM] TO DEAL WITH ANY STAND FOR ONE’S RIGHTS… AND THAT WILL BE IMPOSED ON THE ENTIRE COUNTRY, NOT THE NORTH ALONE.[ THIS IS SEEN IN MEDIA KILLINGS,THE WELIVERIYA KILLINGS, THE LAWYERS’ PROTEST AGAINST THE CJ’S EVICTION ISSUE, THE BRUTAL CRUSHING OF DEMONSTRATIONS DEMANDING THE RELEASE OF THE THEN INCARCERATED SARATH FONSEKA, THE UNP LED DEMONSTRATION NEAR THE WELIKADA PRISON,THE KILLING OF LASANTHA AND EKNELIGOA [IF HE WAS LIVING HE WOULD HAVE BEEN MAKING SOME MEDIA CONTRIBUTION EVEN FROM ABROAD, SO I SAY HE’S DEAD], YOU SEE, “13 PLUS” MEANS THAT WHAT THE GOVERNMENT GIVES THE TAMILS IN THE NORTH IT WILL GIVE MORE OF IT TO THE SINHALESE UNDER ITS SINHALA COLONISATION PROGRAMME. A TOTAL REVERSAL OF HISTORICAL SOCIO-POLITICAL REALITIES IN THE NORTH AND EAST, FROM THE MAJORITARIAN STANDPOINT, IS THE ONLY STRATEGIC HANDLING OF THIS ISSUE THAT THE GOVERNMENT WILL IMPOSE.HENCE THE 18TH AMENDMENT TO ENSURE IMPLEMENTATION AND CONTINUITY OF ITS STRATEGIES. THE CHINESE DEFENCE AGREEMENT WILL ENSURE THAT THERE WILL BE NO FOREIGN INTERVENTION IN THIS IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS WHICH INCLUDES BRUTAL CRUSHING BY THE ARMY OF ANY SEMBLANCE OF RESISTANCE. WHAT NAVI PILLAY AND BAN KI MOON SAW, HEAR AND KNOW ARE IMMATERIAL TO THIS HUMAN CRISIS OF IMMENSE MAGNITUDE. WHAT IS RELEVANT IS THE FACT THAT WHAT THEY FAILED TO DO WHEN ATROCITIES WERE AT THEIR HIGHEST EVEN WITH IMMENSE UN CLOUT, THEY ARE HARDLY LIKELY TO SUCCEED IN AT THIS LATE THOUGH STILL EVOLVING STAGE. INDIA AND THE US WILL MOT COUNT FOR MORE THAN A FEW NOISES MAE NOW AND THEN TO APPEASE RIGHTS GROUPS AND THE TIGER RUMP THAT HAS LOST MOST OF ITS STEAM TODAY. INDIA CAN STAND ON HER HEAD BUT THE FACT I THAT THE iNDO-LANKA ACCORD WAS NOT AN ACCORD BUT AN IMPOSITION AND THE ENTIRE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY KNOWS IT.THE EVIDENCE WAS RATHER COMPELLING FROM AN INTELLECTUAL POINT OF VIEW THAT THERE WAS SUFFICIENT STATE COMPLICITY, EVEN IF IT WAS PASSIVE,IN THE BLOODY MASSACRE OF TAMILS IN BLACK JULY.MARK THIS, THOSE FORCES THAT JR PERMITTED TO RAMPAGE ISLANDWIDE ARE STRONGER TODAY WITH OPEN STATE PATRONAGE AND SPONSORSHIP. I WALKED THE STREETS OF COLOMBO AT THE TIME WITH A VERY SENIOR FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT, SKIRTING BLOODIED AND PARTLY BURNED BODIES OF THE DEAD STILL SCATTERED ON THE STREETS.IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY THE TNA REMAINS RECALCITRANT, LOOK AT BLACK JULY., IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY THE TIGERS LET ALL HELL LOOSE ISLANDWIDE, LOOK AT BLACK JULY. IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY THE LTTE RUMP STILL PERSISTS ABROAD, ITS BECAUSE MOST OF THEM ARE SURVIVING VICTIMS OR RELATIONS OF TH VICTIMS OF BLACK JULY OR THOSE WHO ESCAPED THE IMMINENT DANGER OF BEING VICTIMS OF “DISAPPEARANCES” ISLANDWIDE, NOT IN THE NORTH ALONE.GIVEN KNOWN SOCIO-POLITICAL REALITIES, THE FEAR-DRIVEN PARANOIA OF SINHALA/BUDDHIST EXTREMISM NOW EXTENDS VICIOUSLY AGAINST THE MUSLIMS AND CHRISTIANS, A TRIGGER-HAPPY ARMY AND A GOVERNMENT THAT INTENDS CONTINUING ITS DICTATORSHIP AD INFINITUM, THE INTELLIGENT SECTIONS OF GLOBAL OPINION SYMPATHYSE DEEPLY WITH THE TAMILS.

        I SEE NO IMMEDIATE PROSPECTS FOR THE TAMILS BUT A SERVILE AND HUMILIATING SUBJUGATION TO WHAT APPEARS TO BE AN EXTREMELY BITTER DESTINY AND I SEE NO IMMEDIATE SIGNS OF AN ALTERNATIVE.

  • 9
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    Rajan.
    still you are supporting your masters

    evening of 24th July when the bodies of the slain soldiers were brought from Jaffna, after which the Government lost control of the situation

    where was the Military ? they were joined hand with the riots thugs.
    government didn’t loose control, JR made it that way

  • 5
    0

    I am a SL Muslim, my personal comments on national issue may hurt not only Sinhalese but Muslims too. When Europeans entered our Island there was no one country. Everybody agree this including Sinhalese, i.e.- Ruhunu-Pihiti-Maya. Before British leave the emerald island European rulers wanted to give some kind autonomy to main minorities but our Muslim leaders went out of the way to help respected Sinhalese brethren to lead one united country. But complete one united country opportunity came actually end of ealam war 2009. Now Muslim receiving for the blunder what they did in late 1940’s. After 1505 first most powerful king giving us real bash.
    Even during last stage of war when western block squeezing SL financially, I know some of my Muslim leaders went to Muslim countries with begging bowl. Now they cannot even open their mouth. We deserve it. I do not think southern Sinhalese leaders can help SL-Muslims, unless international community risen up.

    • 3
      8

      THE MUSLIMS MUST KNOW TO LIVE WITH THE SINHALESE BUDDHISTS THERE ARE OVER 20,000 MOSQUES IN SRI LANKA BUT NOT ONE IN ANY MUSLIM COUNTRIES. THE MUSLIMS SHOULD KNOW THAT SRI LANKA IS A PREDOMINENTLY SINHALA BUDDHIST COUNTRY.

      • 5
        1

        Sri Lankans are the majority of Sri Lanka. That is what is important. Predominantly Sinhalese Buddhist? Who cares. Being Sri Lankan has a higher priority. Worshipping an Indian should not get more priority.

  • 7
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    For Wickramasiri.
    The riots were not spontaneous. I was at my Sinhalese son-in-law’s house in Asoke Gns a week before the 23rd.My daughter and I were at the gate.Two young ladies walked by, speaking in Sinhala, pointing out the Tamil homes down the lane. They ignored us because they thought we were Sinhalese-the nameboard on the gate!- and still we didnt suspect! We were blind.
    However, I feel that moderate Sinhalese are more aware of the dangers our common society faces now.Hopefully they will act with courage if the need arises.

    • 1
      0

      Thank you.

  • 2
    26

    I was only 5 years old when riots erupted and happened to be in maharagama junction. It was pity I was too small, otherwise I would have joined the fellow countrymen to [Edited out]. Anyway feeling delighted because we won the war against Tamil terrorists. Most of the buggers commented here all talking about the misery the minorities have gone through. Nobody speaks about the majority of this country is going through…bloody minorities should realize that this is not their country. They can live peacefully only if treat us as the majority without intimidating us.[Edited out]

    • 4
      1

      CT, is such stuff in good taste?
      There are equally rotten ones by some others.
      I wish that you will be stricter with ethical norms.

  • 12
    2

    “ME SINHALE APAGE RATAI…DON’T LOOK UP AND SPIT. IT FALLS ON YOUR OWN FACE. SOME TAMILS FROM INDIA SETTLED IN THE NORTH AND RETAINED THEIR NATIONAL AND CULTURAL IDENTITY AND RELIGION. THE OTHER TAMILS FROM INDIA SETTLED IN THE SOUTH AND EVOLVED UNTO WHAT IS TODAY’S ” SINHALA’ RACE, ABANDONING THEIR IDENTITY, CULTURE [AND RELIGION TO AN EXTENT] . BUT THOUGH YOU ADOPTED BUDDHISM YOU WENT BACK TO YOUR HINDU GODS AND THEY ARE YOUR TRUE DEITIES TO THIS DAY ENJOYING SPECIAL PLACES OF HONOUR AND WORSHIP IN EVERY BUDDHIST TEMPLE, BUS, EATING HOUSE AND IN MANY OF YOUR HOMES.HISTORICAL FACTS ABOUT YOURSELF CAN NEVER BE WIPED OFF EVEN IF YOU WERE TO WIPE OUT THE ENTIRE REAL TAMIL/HINDU RACE.YOU CALL THEM “BUGGERS”. MIGHT HAVE BEEN A TRAUMATIC PERSONAL EXPERIENCE EH!WAS IT BEFORE 1983?

    \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

  • 6
    0

    On the 23 rd night while returning from Galleface I saw policemen talking to men in groups in several places along street I was, which is from Pettah to the clock tower in Kotehena . My guess is that the policemen were giving last minute instruction for them to kill and loot. Next in fort I saw the people breaking the shops and looting and the police was guarding the looters with guns in their hands and the navy jeeps were patrolling. I witnessed many more. and stayed at camps without food also travelled in the ship and no food was given. I lost almost 10 lb in 6 days.

  • 11
    0

    Everybody speaks of the 83 riots but the defining moment of Sri Lanka’s future was the 1977 riots. Schemed and plotted by J. R Jayawardene and executed by Gamini Dissanayake and Cyril Mathew. J. R’s own words in his radio address was “if the Tamils want war I will give them war , if they want peace, I will give them peace”. The LTTE was a creation of such speeches but this no justification whatsoever for the ruthless force they came to being. The LTTE had a beginning and it was by Politicians on both sides of the devide that created and stoked it to the heights it reached.

    Today MR, Wimal, Gota , The BBS and The Joint Opposition are trying to take the same route to SELF SERVE their own private interests. The country’s future IS NOT their focus. The minorities are not a threat to the future of this country but the MR clan is. If they are not managed they will push this country back into the dark days creating a cycle of blood shed where they will thrive and be seen as heros.

  • 3
    0

    It was a unp job to get Tamils killed.
    JR wanted to have a distraction.

  • 0
    3

    This violence will remain a black mark in the history of SL. The question in light of the lebonisation of the Middle East, the bosnian war where innocent muslims were massacred in broad day light which triggered the bosnian war and division of yugoslavia , the Bizzare attack on Dalits in India , the massacre of innocent Tamils in 83 have similar connotations. Was this a planned attack using the Mathew faction of the UNP and blaming the Sinhala Buddhists majority of whom had nothing to do with it. There are so many questions that are unanswered why did the Israelis train the Tigers and the army at the same time ? what was the Indian involvement? why have the west started this question of human rights Abuse when they are guilty of much worst., why did the west want to save prabahakaran. All these questions have never been questioned by the SL media nor the government.
    All these show one thing. Who ever is behind it wants division and destabilisation of SL and south Asia. similar to what is happening in the Middle East. The answer to all this is unity amongst all Sri Lankans and South Asians and that cannot be achieved unit we have good governance.

  • 5
    1

    It is time PM Ranil or even the President on behalf of the Nation,give
    an official apology to the Tamils for the tragedy happened 33 years back, due to govt.s inaction ,if they want to win the hearts and minds of the Tamils and Govt’s reconciliation efforts to become a reality. Brutal attack that took place was a planned attack to dislodge the strength, the Tamils had in Businesses,Education and high ranking positions held in Govt.services, of course, proportionately and most disgusting part was it happened under the very eyes of the govt. of JRJ, which slept for 48 hours without any action taken to stop the mayhem,until the foreign minister of India arrived on our soil and by then the damage was done and people have made up their minds to disown their motherland.

    The majority community as a whole did not express any remorse over the tragic incident and seems satisfied with the grab of power Tamils had by force and not by merits and hard work. Rajan Hoole should not have elaborated so much on the incident as it is only a repeat of what was said by many,over the years as far as the majority people are concerned
    but it would have been appropriate, on a day like this when helpless Tamils were slaughtered,if he thanked some of the Singhalese people like cricketer family Sangakkara for having taken the risk of their lives as against hooligans and no security personnel were maintaining law & order, and saved a number of Tamils who would have otherwise faced certain death without govt. protection. Rajan has rekindled the slow fire burning in the hearts of Tamils, to a flame by reminding the mayhem of black July’83. He comes from a good Christian religious family and he should have written some prayers for the dead, instead of trying to discuss pros & cons of the massacre, which is of no use.

  • 6
    0

    Uneducated, uncivilized goons murdered, raped, looted and celebrated for three days and the country has paid a price that it cannot afford for thirty three years and its still not done and I don’t think it ever will be done as the state that perpetrated this could not bring anyone to justice and until that is done you cannot expect those that suffered and their next generation to come to terms with what those families went through.
    The blame lies with the governments after 1983 and the Sinhalese as they have done nothing to address the grievances.

  • 9
    0

    I was only 10 then. On my way to school that morning I saw a burnt jeep by the BOC near the Police Park. People were still not sure what was going on. Then around mid-morning our school was closed and my dad picked me up from school. We had a tough time getting home, in a suburb, because of road closures. I remember our bus plying down a road in Nugegoda, where shopping complexes on either side of the street were a flame.

    We went home and tried to contact our Tamil friends. They were afraid to answer the phone. Later we found out that their Sinhala neighbour had saved them by hiding them in a construction ditch, and by telling the marauders that they , not the Tamil family, owned the home (a lie). When the curfew lifted we went to check in on them, and they were huddled in the back of the house. They did not respond to the door bell, but we went round to the back and they saw it was us when they stealthily peeked through the window. Boy were we glad to see them!

    Later I went to my school where there were refugees. It was pathetic – really cramped space and a hell-hole of a latrine. I understand that many of these refugees were sent to Jaffna by ship. I am sure many of the young men from this group probably joined the militant groups, as a direct consequence of the trauma and brutality they suffered in this one single pogrom. Such is life – every action bears a reaction. Thus violence was responded to with more violence.

    I am sorry. I, nor my family, has any connections to politicians or the military, nor was any of us involved in perpetrating this horrific violence. Yet having being born Sinhalese and Buddhist, I will apologize to the Tamils of Sri Lanka for this pogrom. It is a badge of shame that we wear to this day. I hope that the mind that I have cultivated to be open and accepting, and my attempts to befriend, sustain and nurture relationships with my fellow Tamil Sri Lankans will bear some fruit.

    Let us break the cycle of violence through sincerity. Peace.

    • 2
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      Sinhala Buddhist – Thanks for the apology for the black July 83 pogrom,
      though it came from layman and not from the govt. It goes a long long way to calm down the dead and those who survived.

  • 5
    0

    Was only 10, and the memory is as vivid as its was yesterday. To witness losing a parent and a sibling and unable to do anything, still haunts me to this day and will do so for eternity. A Mother who went into a shell 33 years ago and never came back still is part of me. Life has to go on, no matter what. Sometimes you forget, sometimes you forgive and you forget.Sometimes I really don’t know what to do. Like the Enlightened Buddha, said holding on to anger is like holding a hot coal to throw at someone and in the process its your hand that always gets burned. Keep telling myself this too shall pass, as getting angry and hurting someone is not going to bring back the dead nor peace.

    What I am thankful, for is that loving god fearing Sinhala Family, who put their lives on the line to shelter us, protect us. I can clearly recall, is my neighbour and quiet gentleman whom we affectionately called Wickrama Uncle saying to the mob that was wrecking the whole neighbourhood and when they came looking for tamils, that the only way they will get to the tamil families sheltered was over his dead body. May his soul rest in peace.

    All I can dream of for in this life, is to see, SL, where Race, Religion, Cast status are set aside and everyone works in harmony, to ensure, peace and prosperity grow throughout our glorious land.

    Its time to forgive and forget, “It is a man’s own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways.” ― Gautama Buddha

  • 3
    4

    tamil terrorists killed innocent sinhalese soldiers in thirunalvelly and started this. brave sinhalese finished what tamil terrorists started in may 2009.

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