"I am not worried about the opinion of the Jaffna people...we cannot think of them, not about their lives or their opinion...the more you put pressure in the north the happier the Sinhala will be here...Really if I starve the Tamils out, the Sinhala people will be happy" - Sri Lankan President J R Jayawardene, July 1983.
Black July is a day of commemoration by Tamils all around the world and a day that remains implanted in the hearts of every single Tamil. This year, Tamils will unite and stand together in solidarity with Eelam Tamils to mourn the many lives lost on this 'Black July' and to call for an end to the suffering of the people in IDP camps in Vanni.
UK
Date Sunday 26th July
Time: 1 pm
Place:Trafalgar Square (Nearest Stations Charing Cross and Embankment)
Sydney
Date: Friday 24th July
Time: 5 – 8pm
Place: Town Hall Square
Organizers call all to be united to fight the genocide of Tamils and to Save Tamil People & bring Justice.
July 23rd 1983 marks a significant phase in the history of the Tamils. On this day, 3000 Tamil lives were taken, tens of thousands of houses were destroyed and many were forced to leave their homes to other countries. It is now 26 years on and the tamils are still facing brutal genocide at the hands of the Sri Lankan governemnt. 300 000 Tamils remain detained behind barbed wire in internment camps with no freedom of movement and minimal access to the necessities of food, shelter and clothing. The Sri Lankan government continues to play their propanganda and have denied aid agencies, media monitors and journalists access to these camps to cover up their atrocities.
Lead up to Black July
The killing of 13 soldiers is usually explained as the spark which led to the ‘spontaneous Anti Tamil riots’ of 1983. However, this is not true. With an urgency to suppress all activism and regain control of the North, many Tamil political activists were detained without charge for months prior to Black July. A plan had already been devised by Minster Cyril Mathew to carry out a large-scale systematic attack on Tamils. The plan had the approval of many top leaders in the government, including President J. R. Jayawardene himself. Following the pattern of all past governments, anti-Tamil hysteria was generated to deflect pressure on addressing growing concern for political and economic discrimination and human rights abuses. The President’s remarks on July 11, 1983 indicated the manner in which he was going to handle the “Tamil problem”.
The killing of the soldiers was exploited as the spark to ignite Black July. The state media widely publicized the killing while decisively leaving out key details that the killing was a reprisal for the abduction and rape of two Tamil girls (as reported by London Times on July 27, LAWASIA, and others) and other acts of violence by security forces. Much of the public was unaware of these incidents since the government banned Tamil newspapers in early July, and all media by the outset of violence. Despite the publicity of the initial pretense for the riots, at the conclusion of the riots, the President went on to contradict the initial reason by stating that blame for the violence lied with political parties in the opposition, namely Tamil parties and Sinhalese leftist parties.
Events of Black July23
The events of July 1983 are poignant for the entire Tamil population around the world. Between July 24 and 29, Tamils were systematically targeted with violence in Colombo and many other parts of Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankan Governments officials categorized the violence as uncontrollable race riots instigated by the killing of 13 Sinhala soldiers on the night of July 23. However, history and the course of events during Black July illustrate the Sri Lankan Government’s undeniable involvement in the genocidal acts against Tamils.
July 24 (Day 1): At 1 o’clock in the morning of July 24, the army rounded up hundreds of Tamils in Trincomalee, Mannar, and Vavuniya in the Northeast who had fled the anti-Tamil riots of 1977 and 1981. These Tamils were forcibly taken and left without possessions in the central hills.
Before the riots broke out in Colombo, the army in Jaffna went on rampage killing 51 innocent Tamil civilians. In Trincomalee, similar violence broke out as members of the Navy randomly shot at civilians and burnt down Tamil property.
In the evening in Colombo, the state funeral was being organized for the soldiers. Thousands of people arrived at the cemetery but the bodies failed to appear. After waiting several hours, much of the crowd objecting the burial in Kanatte and demanded the bodies to be returned to the next of kin. As the large crowd began to leave the grave, a new group of people (identified as government gangs) entered the Borella junction and raised anti–Tamil cries. As the anti-government cry subsided and anti-Tamil cries became dominant, arson and murdering of Tamils broke out.
July 25 (Day 2): After the midnight lull, mobs were led by people with voter registration lists in hand torched Tamil homes, looted and destroyed Tamil businesses. All traffic was searched, and any Tamils found were killed, maimed, or burned alive. Cyril Matthew, Minister of Industries, was witnessed directly pinpointing shops to be burned down.
Many policemen were deployed throughout the city; however, they tacitly stood and watched on. Witnesses recall lorry loads of armed troops leisurely waving to looters who waved greetings back. Curfew was only declared by the President late in afternoon after the worst was over. However, the violence continued unabated. Tens of thousands of Tamils who were homeless, sought refugee in schools and places of worship.
In Welikade prison, 35 Tamil political prisoners who were awaiting trail under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, were massacred by Sinhalese prisoners with the complicity of jail guards using spikes, clubs and iron rods.
The violence spread rapidly throughout the country, engulfing towns like Gampaha, Kalutara, Kandy, Matale, Nuwara Eliya and Trincomalee. One town was completely wiped out - the Indian Tamil town of Kandapola, near Nuwara Eliya.
July 26 (Day 3): Government imposed a strict censorship of media reporting on the anti-Tamil violence. Word spread of Sri Lanka’s state of disorder as eye witness accounts and photographs taken by returning tourists illustrated the scale of violence. They described how Tamil motorists were dragged out of their vehicles and hacked to pieces while others were drenched with petrol and set alight in full view of the security forces. The International Airport in Colombo was closed.
July 27 (Day 4): 17 more prisoners at Welikade Prison were hacked to death just two days after the prison massacre. The surviving 36 prisoners are transferred to other prisons. Rioting continued and the curfew is extended. Witnesses of the violence reported that charred corpses of Tamil victims lined the streets of Colombo, some mutilated with X’s.
July 28 (Day 5): President J.R. Jayewardene addressed the nation for the first time since the anti-Tamil pogroms, only to fan the flames of anti-Tamil sentiments by stating that anyone who advocated for separatism would lose all their “civic rights”. He states, He states, “….the time has now come to accede to the clamour and natural request of the Sinhala people to prevent the country from being divided.” Vigilantes set up make-shift roadblocks in villages across the island, searched cars and buses for Tamil passengers. In one incident, a Sinhalese mob burnt to death about 20 Tamils on a minibus as European tourists look on in horror.
July 29 (Day 6): Tamils in Colombo began evacuating by cargo ship to the Northern city of Jaffna. Hundreds more internally displaced persons waited anxiously for the next cargo ship to transport them to Jaffna.
July 30 (Day 7): Violence began to dissipate. There was an extreme food shortage in Colombo and across the island as a result of the week long violence. (some information here refered from blackjuly83.com)
