13 July 2024 12:00 am Views - 1554
July is here again. It is one of the 12 months, Sri Lanka is notoriously famous for the wrong reasons. Reminiscence of the 1983 Black July or the anti-Tamil pogrom is one of the darkest black marks in the history of the entire country and for all Sri Lankans, especially the majority Sinhalese.
The short-sighted, irresponsible, petty political decision-making especially by the head of the State, the Executive President J. R. Jayewardene and his government resulted in creating one of the darkest chapters of Sri Lanka’s history which led to one of the bloodiest wars in the world that dragged on for 26 years. The severe economic, social and political consequences of the war between the Sri Lankan military and Tamil rebels, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are immeasurable. Unfortunately, the dark shadows of this era are still in Sri Lankan society where people have become insensitive to violence, killings, daylight robberies, fighting and lack of respect for basic humanity. The Chicago-like gun culture with firearms freely available and weapons with trained men undertaking killings for a few bucks, organised crimes by a section of the blood-thirsty society are byproducts of the long-dragged war. The unrestrained impunity used by certain police and law enforcement authorities who have failed to maintain basic human respect for individuals or citizens is also another result of the war.
Though it was stated that the Black July was a retaliation to the ambush attack on July 23, 1983 by the LTTE at its very initial stage and the killing of 13 soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army; the grounds for such a violent outcome against the Tamils had been already created especially by political thugs who were blind with power and impunity.
On May 31, 1981, almost two years prior to Black July, more than 100 hooligans with some Sinhala security personnel led by two leading politicians, at that time, went to Jaffna to sabotage a meeting organised by a Tamil political party. The Sinhala mob not only disrupted the rally but completely burned down the Jaffna Public Library which was considered the largest library in South Asia. History records that the humble beginning of this treasure of knowledge was initiated by a scholar named K. M. Chellapha, a private collector who started to lend books from his home in 1933—the very year Nazis burnt 25,000 volumes of “Un-German” books in Berlin’s State Opera’s Square. The mini-library with 1000 books, newspapers and journals in a small room was moved to a building in the main street of Jaffna and then to the present building designed by prominent architect V. M. Narasimman with a renowned Indian librarian S. R. Ranganathan advised it to be developed to international standards. In 1959, the main building was opened by the then-Mayor of Jaffna, Alfred Duraiappah, who was also assassinated by the LTTE in 1975.
Starting from the ‘Sinhala Only Act’ in 1956 by S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, hostilities continued especially in Northern Sri Lanka until it exploded on July 23, 1983. It was said that the retaliation ambush by the LTTE also as a result of the abduction of three Tamil School girls in Jaffna by the Sri Lanka military and the raping of the same in a military camp.
The week-long state-sponsored genocide from July 23 to 30, 1983 during which Sinhala mobs armed with clubs, fuel, fire and voter registration lists murdered more than 3000 Tamils with some burnt alive, many Tamil women were raped, destroyed over 18,000 houses across the country, displaced around 100,000 to 150,000 Tamils and over 500,000 fled the country. The total cost of property and business damage was estimated at USD 300 million at that time.
The unfortunate incident brought so much humiliation to Sri Lanka. The International Commission of Jurists in December 1983 declared that “the evidence points clearly to the conclusion that the violence of the Sinhala rioters on the Tamils amounted to acts of genocide.”
Four decades have passed since this darkest moment of Sri Lanka’s history and the cost of it has been paid by several generations and the generations to come. Once the pearl of the Indian Ocean Sri Lanka fell into the position of being the poorest in the region going through the worst-ever financial crisis with a bankrupt economy.
Sri Lanka has passed many trials and tribulations and the moment of truth has arrived for everyone to learn from the mistakes committed. One of the most important of them all would be “the Black July”.