All Things Black Since Black July
It was exactly 27 years ago this day. The day was a Poya Sunday. Late Saumyamoorthy Thondaman, the respected plantation sector trade unionist and political leader, on a short visit to Chennai immediately after, was quoted in Tamil Nadu media as having said that in Sri Lanka, “It is Sunday sil – Monday kill”.
Mobs on the rampage
It was a day when my parental house was cramped full with about 50 men, women and children, wanting refuge and security. All, neighbours and ordinary Tamil families, with whom we grew together from our infancy. With whom we played, went to school, quarrelled and made friends the next day. Long time neighbours in Rathnakara Place, whose houses were being looted and burnt, while my parents were helplessly watching two whole days, trying desperately to find a way out to move them to safety.
They moved out on the third day to Saraswathy Hall, Bambalapitiya and Hindu College, Ratmalana in navy escorted convoys with tears they couldn’t hold on to, in swollen eyes. My father was admitted to the Cardiac Unit of the Colombo General Hospital, the same evening. All that after a belated 48 hour curfew, imposed by President Jayewardene.
That was “Black” July in 1983. There were more horrific incidents acted out without shame and with braggardismo, in broad daylight. Doped heroes in mobs looking for loot and humans to kill. How many heroes have we had since that “Black July”, in this motherland given in custody to the Sinhala Buddhists by Lord Gauthama Buddha himself?
Sinhala heroes they all are. The Rajapaksas right in front, led by President Mahinda R. with brother Gotabaya close on his heels, or close by his side. The architects of the now concluded war and President Rajapaksa honoured as King Mahinda VII by that archaeological scholar, Ellawala Medhananda Thera of the JHU.
Gen. Sarath Fonseka also claims he alone commandeered the army to victory against the Tamil separatist Tigers, paraded as a hero by the JVP and their DNA. Now we have the Honourable Minister Weerawansa who almost starved to death on a saline drip, whose photo went up on city walls with gratitude, for that “heroic” fast.
They are descendant heroes after Kaluwa Dewage Cyril Mathew, a prominent minister in the UNP government of J.R. Jayewardene, who gave Sinhala extremism the modern day hard line brutality. Mathew was conspicuously racist with a vengeance in his call for Sinhala supremacy. He was openly accused for his role in creating mayhem in Jaffna, burning down the Jaffna Public Library and the residence of TULF MP Yogeswaran, during the final days of the District Development Council elections in 1981. Mathew was also accused of the pogrom on Tamil people on “Black” July itself.
The rest is knotted history with a protracted war and a human tragedy that kept heaping more and more complications over the past decades. In between there were All Party Conferences, the Annexe “C” as it was known, the famous Thimpu talks which brought consensus among all Tamil armed groups and the TULF on the concept of a “Tamil Homeland” with three other conditions that laid the basis for any further negotiations. There were also three further attempts at negotiations under Presidents’ Premadasa and Kumaratunga and then under PM Wickremesinghe.
Each failed attempt made it far more complex and brutal to live with and the war crossed seas and geographical borders, bringing in many and varied actors. Some wanting to push geo political agendas and some wanting to live and earn with the war. This war, concluded in May last year, left all the agonies of a never attempted reconciliation in a distraught, divided and a devastated country. It still leaves the decades old, unanswered question, “do we really want peace and reconciliation the decent and honourable way as a modern, democratic, nation state ?”
I would beg to answer in the negative, even after all the blood we’ve shed and lives, infrastructure and environment destroyed. After unaccounted numbers of soldiers, Tiger combatants and even civilians who never wanted this war, have been left disabled for life. They would say an emphatic “no”, though it may insult thousands of young war widows on both sides of the divide, Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim. And with children — how many exactly none would still not know — who are orphaned, have lost one or both of their parents in the North, Wanni and the East and those from soldier families added.
We yet take pride fooling ourselves that we Sri Lankans are the noblest (loken uthum rata) and we don’t take orders from imperialist Western and international countries, calling them conspirators. We still try to fool ourselves that we do best, our own way, a Sinhala society that has pushed for political hegemony over six decades and in the process have woefully failed to find positive answers to any of our national issues in a decent, democratic manner. We don’t have to listen to or take orders from any, if we are truly working towards solving our own socio economic problems, within democratic politics. But we honestly, DON’T.
Leaving aside all the criticism, the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LL&RC) established by President Rajapaksa, does not prove the regime is sincere or committed in achieving what is said, it would. The way it is constituted, leaves no trust, no confidence for battered and bruised Tamil and Muslim people in North and East to walk up to the LL&RC, to say what they have to say. Will those people held in barbed wire camps under military guard, ever come up to this LL&RC to say how they were treated, how their relatives went missing and what they now need ?
If there was any serious commitment and a sincere political will for reconciliation in this ethnically divided and polarised society, the proposal for the LL&RC should have been brought to parliament for due consent from all political parties, including Tamil and Muslim members. A serious commitment would have sought a national consensus for honest reconciliation between estranged and polarised communities. But such was not even thought of. The LL&RC was established ex parté by the regime in control, only to counter any investigation, campaigned for in human rights circles.
It was the same with the APRC. As at all times in the past, there was no serious attempt to include democratic Tamil representation. The likes of EPDP were thought of as enough excuse. Dragged on for more than a year, the APRC began deliberating on a draft that is supposed to have spelt out the basis for a new constitution. Two years more and 128 APRC meetings to discuss the chapters of that draft document, produced a final report that was given to President Rajapaksa in June this year, only to be shelved and for other reforms to be approved by the Cabinet of Ministers for supposed extension of presidential terms.
That shelved on political uncertainties, Wickremesinghe as UNP and Opposition Leader accepts dialogue with Rajapaksa to bring in an Executive Premiership, totally outside the efforts of the four year old APRC.
It is again only about accommodating the political agendas of the Sinhala South and their post Mathew leaders, Rajapaksa, Wickremesinghe, et al. Where are the answers to the crying need of reconciling a nation that bled on either side of an ethnic divide for decades and is numbed for life ? Where are the answers for democratising a society to accommodate all within a secular, plural state ? Where are academics, intellectuals, civil society and corporate leaders, artistes, trade unionists and journalists, who should lead the people in finding answers ?
There are no leaders, no intellectual leaders, for sure. July ‘83 was a cardiac arrest that left us sick like dead. It left all things BLACK beyond that July, for sure.
A well reputed Media Institution reported that event using a bullock cart and a man with AMBUDAYA.
Kusal Perera, you say, “Where are academics, intellectuals, civil society and corporate leaders, artistes, trade unionists and journalists, who should lead the people in finding answers ?”
Why do you need them when the country has guys like you?
Well said Kusal. Sri Lanka needs more people like you. Winston Churchill lost the election after the II World war victory. Sri Lankans made a big mistake by electing Rajapaksa after the war victory in order to move on.
Whether Sri Lankans elected Mahinda or did he elect himself by employing all “possible means” one example is keeping Tamils behind barbed wire, not providing transport to vote, having the elections when Most of the northern and eastern people were displaced!!!!!Of course by vote rigging, threats, bribery etc.etc.
nandasena: This vote rigging was a mare visualisation of the opposition. Had the government rigged the presidential election, Rajapakse wouldn’t have lost the areas that were marked by LTTE as Eelam and a Tamil majority district in the central hills. And the fact that opposition cannot organise a mass rally even today proves that they do not have the mass support.
the difference is that post war in uk there was an alternative!!!
Kusal, how about organizing another ‘Padra Yatra”?
This time the route could be from Battaramulla to Killinochchi.
I am sure along the way, the academics, intellectuals, civil society and corporate leaders, artistes, trade unionists and journalists will join you.
Unfortunately there are a very very few educated Sinhalese who support the idea that Tamils and Sinhalese should enjoy equal rights. It is a shame to have people who have professor and doctor title who support Sinhala supremacy and racism. This very few people can not do any wonder, unless the mindset Sinhala society radically changes.
Singam: Everyone has equal equal rights in Sri Lanka. No Sinhalese oppose it. Tell me, what right do I as Sinhala Buddhist have over you in any field, anywhere? Now don’t accuse me of a racist which I am not, if I point out that Tamils have land rights in Sri Lanka that I don’t. ‘Tesawalame law’ forbids anyone other than Tamils buying land in Jaffna. Whereas, I nor any one or any law oppose Tamils or Muslims buying lands in my village hamlet. So be specific when when you accuse Sinhalese of being supremacists.
Madam Leela!
Where did you learn / who said that ‘Thesawalamye’ forbade or forbids / prevents people other than indigenous Tamils buying lands in North / East? Please refrain from posting (don’t come to post) your half baked comments with half knowledge. Half knowledge is always dangerous! Yet, Sinhalese brethren like Kusal Perera are always welcome – Tamils will never welcome allow / give to people like Cyril Mathew. Sorry for refuting but it’s an eternal fact.
Hi Leela,
You seem to be live in your village hamlet and never left it to see what is happening just beyond your little village. Please go to the East, to the Vanni or to the North and watch what your Rajapakse had done to the Tamils. Thesawalame Law is only in papers but the rule of law is the unwritten law of the Sinhalese soldiers who are instructed by Rajapakses. It is the law of Rajapakses which reign whole of Sri Lanka, nothing else. The land and the housings of the Tamils forcefully confiscated by the Sinhalese government are being given to Sinhalese who are brought to Tamil areas by the Rajapakse government to settle down. Sinhalese soldiers erecting Buddha statues and building vihare in every small villages and guarding them. Ist it for the Sinhalese soldiers? Sinhalese soldiers are either changing the names of the Tamil villages or writing intentionally wrong in unreadable Tamil. Why? Do you allow Tamils to come to your village hamlet and build Sivan Temples?
Leela, you are talking very far from the reality. Sri Lanka is slipping very fast to ultra Sinhalese Fascist’s state and very soon you too are going to regret. I tell you again, unfortunately there are very few Sinhalese who want to stop this downfall.
Ananthan: If you have not heard about ‘Thesawalame law’, find a book and read it. I have one. What I said in essence is; a Sinhalese cannot bid to buy every land for sale in Jaffna because of ‘Thesawalami law’. Yes or No.
If Ms. Janz would publish I would write a complete article on from where and when it came from, why and how ‘Tesawalamai law’ was established in the North and how it held lands in Jaffna among Jaffna Tamils to date. Sinhalese do not object Tamils buying any land for sale in anywhere down south. About Cyril Mathew; he is no more, he is dead and gone a long way back. We are not his followers. As for Kusal, Thisaranee and et al are separatists sympathisers and dollar sharks.
Tell me wt % of tamils represent in armed forces and foreigh affairs dept?
Leela, Thesawalamai (spell it correctly) does not prevent Sinhalese from buying land in North. Before writing crap, please read and learn. About Tamils buying land in South, any time Sinhalese thugs can make it their like they did in 1983. What is the point in having law? I can not visit my own home in North, no use of Thesawalamai.
Singham: In my little village just five miles from Padukka there is a little Hindu temple. Few Tamil lads parade their annual perahara along village roads as well. Whenever they ask, we all contribute towards it. Ask the chief curukal of the main Munneswaran devala whether he know me and have I recently contributed towards its colour washing. Singham, my friend we are not bigots or raciest. I do like a Tamil to be the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka if not the President. But I do not like Tamil demand for 100% homogeneous Tamil province because that is a recipe for separation.
It is not healthy in any land to have a homogeneous people and Tamils are famous for hospitality. Vanthaarai valavaikkum inam. But you came to the point: not a single Sinhalese politician offerd a solution earnestly in the past and this applies also to Ranil. Ranil singned the agreement with Pirabakaran and at the same time he tried to split the LTTE. It is betraying the trust of the LTTE.
After all the only solution for the Tamils left is SEPARATION, actually it is not separation but the reestablishment of the lost sovereignty of the Tamil Nation. Nothing else.
There was a time when the Sinhala politicians were blaming the LTTE for not agreeing on a political solution. But now there’s no LTTE. Are the politicians willing to give the Tamils any political solution. Nothing at all now.
While Tamils are held in camps, their land is being occupied and colonized by the Sinhalese.
Lankan: What political solution you are talking about; if it is Balasinghams tactic of ‘take a little and ask for more later’, that’s not on for we know the game. Sinhalese will not let N & E 100% homogeneous Tamil districts. Think in terms of whole of Sri Lanka and establish language rights, etc, etc. Think like Kadiragamar. He could have been our Prime Minister if he wasn’t murdered by LTTE.
Kadiargama is only one man. Why not keep a referendum to see what Tamil people really think? After all that is the Democratic way right?
Lakshman Kadirgamar was murdered no by the LTTE but by Chandrika Kumaratunge’s killers who also killed Mamanithar Kumar Ponnampalam. Chandrika did not want that Kadirgamar became Prime Minister, although he did a great service to the Sinhalese government and the Sinhalese people. A man of shame to the Tamils.
Madame Leela!
I am Ananthan, a Jaffna Tamil and live in Jaffna. I know what I am talking and writing about. Don’t worry about ‘Thasavalamai’. Yes it gives first preference to members of family, clan and neighbour and so forth; but it doesn’t prevent / preclude / exclude a Sinhalese or Islamite buying properties. If there is no one within the family / clan then he / she can sell to anyone. It won’t stop you buying.
I know what you are talking and writing about – rubbish. Do you want to create more ethnic divide and perpetuate the hatred for your ulterior motives? Until 1988, there were businesses – bakeries in particular – run by Sinhalese brethren not only in Jaffna town but also almost in every sizably populated village in peninsula. In my village too there was a famous bakery called ‘Anantha Bakery’ operated by people from Matara – of course not from Paaduka. They owned their business premises and houses and educated their children in Jaffna. They were not settled sponsored by the State by the scheme of Colonization. They were self-supporting private individuals came here on their own will and pleasure. If you are genuine in your effort please try to find out the ethnic composition of every village and come to a conclusion. You can not sell your garbage all the time to all
Ananthan: Here in Padukka, you can buy a if owner is willing to sell it, his family, clan, neighbour and etc cannot object. But in Jaffna, it is the other way round. Either we have to repeal the law to be fair on others or start state sponsored settlements. In my village just five miles from Padukka, five Muslim families were settled few years back by an NGO but we didn’t object. What do you say. These are not garbage but facts
We talk of peace and reconciliation how about identifying the perpetrators of 1983 July and bringing them to justice. Some of them are still doing well and even in government while others have died.
Did Black July really happen? Is it the work of LTTE to make more recruits?
Singhalese people are law obiding, more tolerant people. So called “Black July” could not have been done by Singhalese.
Fools can be educated and they become wise but someone who act like a fool never changes and stays and behaves like a fool.
Never Kalag, sinhala people are always law abiding..There was never Black July and JVP..Ha ha ha ha…What a joke. We will not even kill an ant…
Kalag: I was living in the vicinity of ‘Shanthi Vihar’ at the time. I’ve seen it all. I was disgusted. I have saved some and they are still here. So, yes it happened; but it was initiated by some UNP goons. I say; we are ashamed of the those thugs being Sinhalese. We are truly sorry about it. What is important is, nothing of the sort had happened for the last 27 years. What else could we ordinary people do. Question we should ask people like Kusal Perera is; what do they expect to achieve by reminding it constantly. If they think they can make us ashamed and push us to agree for their agenda, then they are mistaken.
nothing of the sort had happened for the last 27 years??
The government didn’t need the thugs to destroy tamils. After 83, they used planes ships and tanks to bomb and destroy indiscriminately.
Thanks to the media ban and branding all the tamils as LTTE, the governments were able to continue to continue their war. Thousands of Tamils went missing. Many thousand died. But who cared what was happening in the north/east?
Yoga: It is your right to contest my claim that no program took place during the last 27 years, pointing finger at our forces. Read Sinhaya.com to learn what LTTE had done during that 27 years. Surely, Piripaharan could have done a deal with RanilW in 2001-3 and save all those precious lives lost at Nandikadal. But he and diaspora wanted their pound of flesh like Shylock. So Rajapakse did the needful to finish LTTE for good.
dear leela, whether it was the unp or slfp does not matter, it was the elected leadership of sri lanka that allowed it to happen! in europe the end of WW II is still remembered. we can not progress without learnig from our mistakes! Petty thing is that we keep making the same mistakes! People (of all sorts, nationalities, beliefs etc …) don’t learn well. We rather keep putting blame on others for things that go wrong, and take credit for things that succeeded. It is the few good men (& women) that matter and often dare to carry the responsibility!
But as in the case of eternal vigilance being a prerequisite for maintaining perennial liberty, constant rekindling of the tragic memories of Black July 1983″ is very necessary to prevent repetition. written by D.B.S.Jeyaraj
I don’t do suicide bombing mate. That was done by your friend VP. He is buried and we have done away with him. Sorry to disappoint you.
Oh! really. There are only hand full of law abiding singhala people. the rest are thugs!
Well written article. Thanks.
This country has gone to dogs. This is why I refused to even consider visiting this blood soaked country. It doesn’t feel right to me to have my feet touch this blood soaked country full of crooks, killers and rapists.
Joshep: Read this and take a stock and see whether your hardy boys had done enough to compensate.
http://www.sinhaya.com/Sinhaya.com/Massacres_by_LTTE.html
Now a days anybody can open a website and make it very impressive with made-up-stories and fabrication. The most of the criminal acts are carried out by the Sinhalese army intelligence to put the blame on the LTTE. Most of the Sinhalese live in remote areas believe this fiction. Sadly a big portion of the so called Sinhalese intellectuals too believe without verifying the plausibility. The Sinhalese government with this criminal tactics satisfied the International community successfully to ban the LTTE in many countries as well as to get their support to wage the war against it. LTTE has always avoided civilen casualties. This is fact.
Kusal,
Well written article. But can you answer this question.
Why is it that articles on national harmony that say things as they are, are only written in English? Why cant this same article be written in Singhala and published in all the major private news papers?
Can you please answer that?
I don’t know Kusal Perera answer. But Sinhala media is more racist than English papers. They are done by editors and journalists like “Leela”. They think “we are right and we have a right” to tell all minorities what they can have and what they should have. So Sinhala media will not allow these articles. People like Kusal Perera can’t write in Sinhala papers. Only Sunday Leader allows Kusal Perera like people to write.
Mr. Amarnath’s thoughtfull observation and resulting conclusion have come out in the form of his convincing answer.
The loss for Tamils and Sinhalease was the same on Black July. Tamils lost loved ones relatives wealth property etc, Sinhalease lost decency human values culture and respect. The Sinhalease lost more than the Tamils. Kusal I hope your father recovered from heart attck and lived longer. If he is alive please tell him that he can be proud of himself and his son. We are Tamils we dont forget things that easily.
IS IT SO DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND ANSWER?.LOOK AT HISTORY OF SRI LANKA,THEN YOU CAN UNDERSTAND WHAT WENT WRONG AND WHAT THE SOLUTION.NORTH WAS A TAMIL NATION WHEN PORTUGESE OCCUPIED IT.THEN IT WAS OCCUPIED BY HOLLAND.THEN BY BRITISH.THEN BRITISH GIVEN INDEPENDENCE TO THE ISLAND AS A ONE COUNTRYT.GIVE THE NORTH TAMILS THEIR HOMELAND.THAT IS THE SOLUTION.
UNP and SLFP should br banned to get the firsr stage of peace in Lanka.
Also the Buddists clergy preaching opposite of Buddah’s teaching.
Leela,
Show me even one case where the Thesavalami law prevented a non-Jaffna Tamil from buying a land in Jaffna.
Please do not spread such nonsense; do you know that the Thesavalami Law applies to Jaffna Tamils regardless of wherever he/she lives in the country? Do you know what the law entails?
Burning_Issue: Don’t think that I do not know, Jaffna man carries the ‘Thesavalami law’ with him. Do you know that the Jaffna man avoid it by putting a Colombo address as his residence whenever he buys a property in Colombo or anywhere in down south. Jaffna man plays Jackle and Hide; he sells his Colombo properties to Sinhalese without first being offered to family, etc and etc.
Now, the ‘Thesavalami law’ is not a Hindu law. Such a law had never been there in Madras. It is a man dominant Muslim law from Malabar coast. It was introduced to the North by the Dutch. The labourers that they used to bring from India to grow tobacco had been going back after awhile. This had been a problem for them; and they came up with a plan to retain them permanently. So they introduced the ‘Thesavalami law’ and gave the labourers an incentive to stay on. It gave the migrant labour the land rights. That is the brief history that I know of. I will write more of it in time to come.
Thoughtful article, Kusal. Very unfortunately you are a microscopic minority I think. Sunday “sil”, other days “kill” has become institutionalised because rule of law id dead. That has become the “Thesawalamai”! Rivers do not flow backwards!
Well written Kusal. However noting some of the comments that followed your article – no point in my comments! Our intelligentia is nil – naught! why argue?
SL will continue like this for a very long time, unfortunately.