{"id":203598,"date":"2019-07-24T21:53:35","date_gmt":"2019-07-24T16:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=203598"},"modified":"2019-07-29T01:57:40","modified_gmt":"2019-07-28T20:27:40","slug":"some-brief-notes-on-1983-violence-against-the-tamils","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/some-brief-notes-on-1983-violence-against-the-tamils\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Brief Notes On 1983 Violence Against The Tamils"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Imtiyaz Razak<\/a>\u00a0\u2013<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Prof. Imtiyaz Razak<\/p><\/div>\n

The incident in 1983, known as Black July<\/span><\/strong><\/a>, is particularly well documented.\u00a0Approximately two thousand Tamils were killed in July\/August 1983 by Sinhalese mobs\u00a0in an attempt to begin genocide (or at least ethnic cleansing) of the Tamils. Human Right\u00a0Watch documented the cruelty of the 1983 \u201cstate sponsored\u201d Sinhalese riots. \u201cMany\u00a0neighborhoods were destroyed and nearly 100,000 Tamils in Colombo were displaced.\u00a0Evidence suggested government collusion in the riots.\u201d<\/p>\n

Further, an eye witness who rescued a Tamil employee of the state media company-Lake House described the cruelty of the day:<\/p>\n

Well organized gangs that had the blessings of powerful Government politicians\u00a0mainly from the city of Colombo began their orgy of murder, looting and arson\u00a0in broad daylight while the Police and the Armed Forces appeared to be\u00a0helpless. I remember taking a vehicle out of Lake House to Wattala, with my\u00a0colleagues also taking a Tamil accountant at Lake House, Mr. Edward, who also\u00a0lived in Wattala. Five colleagues and the driver were all Sinhalese and we kept\u00a0Mr. Edward between us in the middle of the vehicle and at each 100 meters or\u00a0so gangs armed with clubs, swords and knives stopped each vehicle and\u00a0inspected them to see whether any passenger or driver was a Tamil. Smoke\u00a0filled the streets of Colombo and while we were leaving Lake House a\u00a0flourishing textile shop, Sarathas was being looted while the armed forces and\u00a0police were turning a blind eye to the crime.<\/p>\n

With respect to the state\u2019s role behind the violence, the witness reported:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A Tamil boy stripped naked and later beaten to death by Sinhala youth in Boralla bustation |pic by Chandraguptha Amarasingha<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2026most notable matter that was observed was that the gangs carried official\u00a0Householders Lists and stopped their vehicles in front of the homes or offices of\u00a0the Tamil people. If the UNP Government of JR Jayewardene had not\u00a0provided them with those official documents, how could the gangs have had\u00a0access to them? It meant two things. The Government deliberately delayed the\u00a0burial of the corpses of the soldiers on July 24 to plan an attack on the Tamil\u00a0people in Colombo and the suburbs to provide their own goons with documents\u00a0to make sure that only Tamils were attacked. Any other political party or group\u00a0could not have managed both these things without State power.<\/p>\n

\u201cNeither the Sinhala ruling elite nor state institutions openly condemned or took\u00a0any meaningful immediate measures to prevent the violence against the Tamil civilians\u00a0from spreading to the other parts of the island from Colombo. Instead JR Jayewardene,\u00a0then President of Sri Lanka, referred to the mobs as a “mass movement by the generality\u00a0of the Sinhalese people\u201d and praised the mobs as heroes of the Sinhalese people.\u00a0Jayewardene\u2019s complicity was reflected in the interview he gave to Ian Ward, a British\u00a0journalist, prior to the anti-Tamil pogrom of 1983:<\/p>\n

I am not worried about the opinion of the Jaffna (Tamil) people now. Now we\u00a0cannot think of them. Not about their lives or of their opinion about us. The more\u00a0you put pressure in the north, the happier the Sinhala people will be here\u2026 really,\u00a0if I starve the Tamils, Sinhala people will be happy.<\/p>\n

The Sinhalese atrocities against the Tamils continued unabated even\u00a0after the notorious ethnic violence in 1983. According to Human Rights Watch, after\u00a01983, tens of thousands of people ended their life in prison cell. Several studies accuse\u00a0Sinhala politicians of institutionalized anti-Tamil violence and atrocities. S.J. Tambiah\u00a0reported that the Sinhalese ruling elites hired some Sinhalese to butcher the Tamils.<\/p>\n

The evidence suggests that the Sinhalese who were hired by local Sinhala politicians to\u00a0kill the Tamils are deprived and they did it for some economic benefits.\u00a0It is evident that the violence and ethnocentric policies of the Sinhala ruling elites\u00a0contributed to the growth of Tamil nationalism in Sri Lanka. Tamil moderate parties,\u00a0such as the Federal Party (FP) led by skillful politicians such as SJV Chelvanayakam,\u00a0articulated frustration among common Tamil people into a \u2018defensive nationalism\u2019 with\u00a0peaceful protests. However, Sinhalese collective, competitive chauvinism responded\u00a0violently to the Tamil moderates. A former Premier of Sri Lanka noted during his visit to the United States, that \u201cthe Tamils tried peaceful protests which soon degenerated into violence. With the underlying grievances being unattended the stage was set for terrorists groups to emerge.\u201d This background helps us to understand the birth of violent Tamil movements, particularly the LTTE, toward the end of the 1970s.<\/p>\n

The LTTE eventually resorted to violence to secure a separate state, called Eelam. The LTTE claimed that they are a product of the Sinhala violence and chauvinism, and hold the belief that Tamils will not win any justice from the Sinhala polity. Many ordinary Tamils began to share similar sentiments after they became targets of Sri Lanka police and military retaliation against the LTTE\u2019s attacks on the state and its institutions. The state justified violence against the Tamils in the name of protecting territorial integrity of the island. Yet, the violent actions of Sri Lanka forces against the Tamils further radicalized the average Tamils, thus providing a fertile opportunity for the ethnic Tamil recruitment to fight against the state. Therefore, the Tamil separatist movement was, \u201cSinhalese-inspired.\u201d<\/p>\n

The systematic growth of the LTTE showed that when a particular community feels is being continuously terrorized by the dominant ethnic\/religious or political group, many will join a politico-military movement to resist the oppression and violence of the persecutors. The LTTE could have silenced their guns, but Sri Lanka\u2019s Sinala-Buddhist politicians and the state should embrace better ways to address the roots of the Tamil nationalism. Such measures may help to address the concerns of Sri Lanka Muslims so April 21 style horrible terrorist attacks could be avoided.<\/p>\n

*Dr. A.R.M. Imtiyaz teaches courses related ethnic conflict, and China. His research interests examine ethno-religious conflicts in Asia. He is the author of several journal articles on ethnic conflict and political violence. The Journal of Asian and African Studies has accepted his research paper on the Easter Sunday Attack and it will carry Dr. Imtiyaz\u2019 most recent research paper on Sri Lanka Muslims in its fall issue. He can be contacted at mohamedimtiyaz@yahoo.com and he tweets regularly on Sri Lankan ethno-religious and political violence. Dr. Imtiyaz tweets @imtiyazpeace<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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