Do You Remember 1983?
Black July
As a follow-up to last week’s coverage of the anniversary of Black July, The Sunday Leader would like to ask its readers for their memories of those terrible riots. You can leave your story in the comments below. Space permitting, we would like to reprint a selection of this testimony.
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Posted by Indi Samarajiva
on Jul 29 2010. Filed under Lead, News.
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Memories are buried with the UNP’ers who have gone to visit the next world.
Excuse me… unless Ranil could recollect some..
Dagobert you are an idiot, if you have nothing to write just keep quiet and do not display your ignorence……….
If 1983 is too far away…..Do you remember May 2009 ?
I think many wish to forget that sad and ugly incedent than remembering it. It changed the face of SL completely.
Although this Sad thing occured during UNP period it was instigated by the SLFP in the past. Illtreatment discrimination hatred and racism gradually piled up one after the other and erupted in 83. SWRD & 70 Srimavo govt were the responsible for this. UNP was never a racist party under late DS Sir. John or Dudley S.
UNP was not buried and it wont be. This is the only party which carried SL image locally or internationally. Thats the fact though some barks loud and boast about themselves for temprery success. It wont take long for UNP to bounce back.
I am sorry my Dear Hussein to contradict your claim. It was the UNP which was planning to bring in the Sinhala only policy before SWRD,but unfortunately for the UNP ,SWRD decided to pre-empt and advanced the day the curse befalling the country, as he feared that he will never get a chance to rule Ceylon if the UNP execute their plan. Though SWRD caused the pogrom of 1958 he did not interfere in the action taken by the Army and Police, which helped in many ways getting out of hand as that of 1983. I must say at that time we had some sort of disciplined and decent Army and Police Force.But when SWRD realised the mistake and decided to curtail the damage done by signing the SWRD- Selvanayagam pact who blocks it . It is none other than JRJ by his foot march to Kandy along with the ‘MUNKS’. Who planned and executed the pogrom of 1983, none other than the UNP regime of JRJ. Even the two ministers, Gamini Dissanayakke and Cyril Mathew were camped at the Subhash Hotel in Jaffna and personally supervised the Burning of the Jaffna library. I was at N’Eliya during July 83, and I know how thugs were brought from Welimada to N’eliya for the execution. Even when Renuka Herath asked the Police to lockup these thugs it was Gamini who blocked that.Who brought this curse of Executive Presidency, none other than the JRJ, a UNPer. Who caused the loss of rights of the Tamils of the Indian origin just after the Independence, none other than DS and his gang.( I must admit that the politicians of the North played an important role in this injustice, for which their generations are paying a heavy price to this day, I reckon). The soil of Srilanka is soaked in too much of innocent blood this country will never be in peace and see any properity, until and unless the ‘majority’ Srilankans realise that it is wrong to deny the rights of others to live the life the same way they are and boot out the politicians and munks who prey on division and racism.
Peter – I agree with your ‘contradiction’. I dont deny the facts you have mentioned at all, about JR, Gamini, Cyrille Mathew and there were others too. I tried to point out the people/politians who instigated this hatred in the past. Its defineatly SWRD who started this in order to come to power. Maybe some elements in the UNP (for instant – JR) had that kind of vision too. Every time SLPF came to power there were racial/ethnic disturbances throughout the country. But UNP never had any racial policy as a party or never carried out anything like that before ’83.
Well, then we all know what had happened in 83. ‘Sad’ is not the word. Its appaling, catostrophic and disastrous. An irreparable damage has been done.
You have updated above so well.
I SAW A THUG AND A GROUP OF SINHALESE SUPPORTERS BEATEN TO DEATH A TAMIL MAN WHO WAS DRAGED FROM TRAIN AND KEPT HIS BODY ON THE RAIL TRACK.HUNDREDS WITNESSED BUT NO ONE SAID A WORD AGAINST THE CRIME.AROUND 20,000 TAMILS BURNED ALIVE,TORTURED,KILLED AND RAPED BY SINHALESE PEOPLE DURING 2 DAYS TIME,WHICH PRESIDENT JR AND PM PREMADESA GIVEN PERMISION TO THE SINHALESE PEOPLE TO DO WHATEVER THEY WISH TO DO.JR AND MATHEW HAD NATURAL DEATH,BUT MOST OF OTHERS WHO INVOLVED THIS INJUSTICE,SUCH AS PREMADASA,ATHULATHMUDALI,GAMINI DISA WERE LATER ASSASINATED FOR THIS REASON.SINHALESE CREATED THE REASON FOR TERRORISM BY DOI9NG THOSE TERRORIST ACTS.UNTILL TODAY,NO ONE TAKE TO COURTS TO PUNISH FOR OVER 20,000 TAMIL DEATHS THAT TWO DAYS.THOUSANDS OF TAMIL GIRLS RAPES,KILLING CHILDREN AND BURNING TAMIL HOUSES AND VIHICLES WHILE TAMILS ARE INSIDE.AS A RESULT,TAMILS ALSO STARTED TO TAKE ARMS TO REPLY WITH TERRORISM.TAMILS ARE NOT FIGHTING TO OWN SINHALESE TERRITORY,THEY ARE FIGHTING TO REGAIN THEIR LOST COUNTRY.
AN EYE WITNESS ACCOUNT OF THE DAY WHEN THE SINHALA FORCES OF LAW AND ORDER BURNT THE JAFFNA LIBRARY AND THEN WENT ON RAMPAGE IN JAFFNA TOWN
By Dilip Kumar
(Dilip Kumar was, when these events took place, a senior student at St Johns College in Jaffna. He is now a resident of Scarborough, Canada)
Day One
6.00am
One the morning of the 1st July 1981 I woke up early and got ready to attend an accountancy class scheduled for 6 am. It was conducted by a person we referred to as ‘Ghanam Master’ at his residence on Temple road in Jaffna. I was in time for the class despite the early hour but found on my arrival, scenes of some confusion. I was told that the class had been cancelled because Sinhala policemen, both in and out of uniform, had ransacked and set fire to the home of the Member of Parliament for Jaffna Mr V Yogeswaran.
Together with my friend Rajkumar we proceeded on our bicycles to Mr Yogeswaran’s house that we reached in about ten minutes. The scene before us took us a back. We saw the destruction of the MP’s house which had been set alight and was still smouldering. The MP’s car which was parked within the compound beside the house had also been damaged and set alight. It was still smouldering when we arrived.
6.13.am
I saw the MP Mr Yogeswaran at the gate to his house. He was wearing a pair of Khaki shorts and appeared very shaky. In answer to my question, he told me that there had been in all, around 10 to 15 persons in the house at the time of the incident. He said that on the previous night around 10 pm, a group of persons had come to his house and called out to him by name. He went out up to the gate at the top of the garden which had been shut and padlocked for the night. One of the persons in the crowd asked in Sinhala ‘Yogeswaran mahataya innavatha ‘(Is Mr Yogeswaran in?). Mr Yogeswaran said that he realised that something was up. It was very unusual to have a group of Sinhala men call this late at night and ask if the owner was in, in a very intimidating tone. He therefore told them that the MP was not at home. The men apparently believed him and took him to be the night watchman because of his khaki shorts. They however grabbed his hands through the metal bars of the locked gate. He was able to pull his hands back and his hands were still bleeding when we met him. He said he had run towards the house screaming to his wife to get out of the house. They were both able to make their way through the rear fence of the house into their neighbour’s property before the group of men forced their way in.
Mr Yogeswaran asked my friend and me if we could help him look for his wife’s ‘thali kodi’. This is a necklace of ceremonial and religious significance that a Tamil bride wears from the day she marries till the day her husband dies, if he predeceases her. It is made of solid gold and is often worth a considerable sum of money. Sadly, the house was a mass of smouldering timber and other material and we looked without any success. I do not know if the ‘Thali’ was ever recovered. We told him, both I and the few people who had come, to go away from the vicinity of his house to his father’s house and not remain around here any longer. His father Dr Vettivelu was a well known GP in the town and lived not far from his house.
6.20 am
My friend Rajkumar and I got on to our bicycles and cycled towards the Jaffna library. What we saw was almost unbelievable. This beautiful building with its wealth of rare and irreplaceable first editions and manuscripts, some of them on ‘ola leaves’ was covered in dense smoke. We could not enter the library for the smoke. There were about 10 or 15 persons on the premises. There was only one tap outside the building and this was beside the statue of Saraswathi the Goddess of Learning, facing the building as one approached it. But there was nothing we could do. Apart from the distance from the tap to the smouldering library and the books, we did not have sufficient implements or manpower.
Yet, only 2 minutes walking distance from the library, was the Jaffna Municipality building and offices and the Municipal fire station with its fire trucks manpower and implements. It was of no use, the firemen were too scared to try to put out a fire that had been started by the policemen quite a few of whom were still around with their guns.
While I was still at the library, I saw a police jeep drive slowly around the library in a wide arc. They drove along the Kandy Road in front of the Municipality then turned left in front of the Rest House proceeding along the road by Jaffna Central College and then turning left on to Clock Tower Road. They were clearly making a ‘show’ of their presence. It was generally understood that two government ministers and their deputies and principal henchmen were still in residence at the Rest House.
7.15 am
As there was nothing we could do to help put out the fire in the library, my friend and I decided to leave and, as it was too dangerous to cross by the road along Jaffna Central College because of the presence of the intimidating and slowly patrolling jeep, we decided to cross by the road behind the library called the Muniyappar Road. As we got ready to take this road we saw 150 to 200 police officers in uniform and in civvies at the Duraiappa Stadium on Muniyappar Road. Each of them was carrying a travelling bag while some were still in sarong. Clearly, these men were getting ready to get back to the Sinhala south from whence they had come, having completed their dastardly deeds.
7.15 am
As we crossed from the library on to Muniyappar Road we heard loud jeering from the direction of the Duriappah Stadium where some of the police officers were apparently taking a nap after having worked so hard through the night wrecking and burning buildings and houses! There were a large number of police officers standing on the tiers of the stadium while yet others, were standing near the fence facing the road that surrounded the stadium. At first, we thought that the loud jeering was directed at us, but then we noticed that a passing motor scooter had been hit by a rock thrown at it by policemen from the stadium and that the scooter and rider had both gone sprawling on to the road. This was what provided ‘entertainment’ and merriment to these mindless semiliterate Sinhala police morons. I was a 19 year old student and had been brought up to believe in the rule of law. I thought that the police were there to enforce the law not to break it! I am certain that these policemen had been brought from outside Jaffna for a specific purpose. They were clean shaven and had close cropped hair and well built bodies. They appeared to be police trainees or policemen from outside the regular Jaffna police force.
8 am
I am still within the library premises but the others are gradually beginning to leave. There is a general belief that there is an unannounced curfew and that there was the possibility that the police would start taking pot shots at persons seen in the vicinity of the library. My friend Rajkumar and I decided to leave by the Muniyappar Road though it meant having to go past the stadium with its unruly policemen. We heard the policemen jeering at us but kept on going and did not look back.
8.15 am
As we rode past the Regal Cinema we made a left turn at the Shanthi Cinema and took a little known lane behind the Subas Café and through the Haron Cinema. I saw as many as 50 Jaffna people gathered along the route I took. They told me that the New Market was burning. My friend and I went through the Kottadi Road and saw that the heads of the statues of the great Tamil poetess and poet Ouvaiyar and Thiruvalluvar that had occupied a prime location in Grand Bazaar at the New Market and at the junction of KKS Road had been knocked off. A statue to Mahatma Gandhi head also been destroyed. The Old Market had been ransacked and looted by the police and I saw dried red chillies from the shops scattered on the ground as well as rice, kithul, dry fish and various other condiments. The Old Market that lay beside the New Market had been ransacked and looted.
10 am
My friend Rajkiumar told me that he was going back home as he was too scared. Jaffna Town looked like a ghost town. I continued on my own towards Kasturiyar Road and saw that the Bata shop on the corner of the New Market store and the Arrack Tavern on Kasturiyar Road had been looted by the police. I am pretty certain that they had used a heavy truck or an armoured car to get at these shops since I saw that the iron gates of these shops had been smashed and were lying on the road with a chain hanging from one of the gates.
11.30 am
I heard from passers by that the EelaNadu Press had been ransacked and burnt I proceeded towards KKS Road where the offices of the EelaNadu were and saw that the print works had been completely burnt. I was told that Mr Sivanathan, a director of EelaNadu, had suffered severe burns and had been taken to the Aanaipanthi Hospital. Mr Sivanathan is the father of a friend so I decided to go to the hospital and seen him.
4 pm
I went to the hospital and found that my friend’s father had been badly burnt. All his hair had been burnt and he was practically bald. My friend Balakanna told me that his father had fainted due to inhaling excess smoke and that a co worker had bravely carried him to safety from the second floor to the ground floor, using a single drainpipe. Mr Sivanathan is today, a resident of Canada.
Note
It had been a very long and traumatic day and I was mentally and physically, exhausted. Up to this point I have been able to recollect in great detail not only the incidents but also their exact nature. I have also been able to give the exact times. From here on, even though I have described the incidents exactly as they occurred, I cannot vouch for the exact times.
I therefore describe them as the 2nd Day and the 3rd Day
2nd Day
I got home late on the first night unhappy and dejected. What I had seen that day was to remain with me for a very long time. Today, 27 years after the incidents, as I write these notes they remain vivid in my mind as if they took place yesterday. I had fitful sleep that night a sleep that was interrupted by terrible nightmares.
My parents were working outside Jaffna where, my father was a Conservator of Forests and my mother, a sister of Charles Somasundrum who writes on matters concerning the Tamil nation, was a teacher. There was no older person to restrict my movements or advise me to remain at home and not get out. I took my bike and went to Jaffna town on the morning of the 2nd July 1981.
I saw more destruction. The historic and well known Poobalasingham Book Depot that stood near the bus stand had been burnt. This was a shop that not only dealt in books but also dealt in school stationary like exercise books, paints and painting paraphernalia, school text books, instrument boxes and the like. All this had been burnt or destroyed. It then struck me. These police morons were only carrying out the instructions of the two ministers, who were at that moment hiding at the Rest House, and big man at the top in Colombo, who were pulling their strings. These senseless politicians were clearly under the impression that the Tamil people could be stopped from advancing if their access to books or the means of bettering themselves were taken away.
Little did these small minded Sinhala politicians and their semi literate, mindless uniformed goons realise, that the Tamil people were at the top of the field in whichever discipline they had chosen, because they had the will and the determination. Given the opportunity, there was nothing to stop the average Tamil person excelling in their chosen field as they have shown today, in the various countries to which they have been compelled to emigrate.
These silly Sinhalas and their equally mindless masters thought that by burning books and destroying their schools they could keep the Tamil nation at the bottom of the pyramid. It shows that however important or powerful a Sinhala person may be that person will never ‘learn’ or have the capacity to learn.
While I was at the Poobalasingham Book Depot looking at the damage, I saw a dead body in front of the Book Depot. One of the people there carried the body to the Out Patients Department of the Jaffna Hospital, which is only a few minutes away. Perhaps the body should have been taken to the mortuary but the person probably thought that the hospital authorities would know what to do next.
There were very few people in the town. There would have been, in all, around 200 to 300 heads. Yet, when a military vehicle passed by with soldiers pointing their guns, their fingers on the trigger, there was general panic. Barely 10 to 15 persons stood their ground. The others bolted with cries of ‘odathai’ ‘odathai’ (don’t run, don’t run) from those who stood their ground, ringing in their ears.
The military started to bring in small Baval armoured vehicles and some new attack vehicles I have not seen in Jaffna before, all this, to ‘attack’ unarmed civilians who took flight at the sight of any army vehicle carrying soldiers!
I visited the Dr Gobalapillai Flats to visit a friend, Chitragangani, to find, that she was preparing to leave the premises. She is currently resident in the UK.
I was very scared, having seen the dead body at the Book Depot that I returned home.
3rd Day
This was the 3rd day after the people of Jaffna had been subjected to terror and murderous assault. The Town appeared calm though most of the residents kept to their homes. I thought to myself, why are all these people so sacred? Why don’t they all walk together in a simple non violent protest group and show their solidarity. After all, their own MP’s house was ransacked and burnt and the MP himself escaped with his life by pure chance. I was ashamed that the people were so scared and frightened. Leading Tamils like Anandasangari and Amithalingam were nowhere to be seen or heard. There was no one to speak up for the Tamil nation in this time of their need. True, the two individuals mentioned above, made passionate speeches, but long after these incidents when they felt it was safe to come out into the open. Things have changed since. The Tamils are prepared to stand up for their rights and fight for them. There are many young men and women who would today have been brilliant professionals or academics but have sacrificed all to fight for a ‘free’ homeland for the next generation of Tamils. Though Tamils like me are outside our mother country we have not forgotten her. We will continue to extend her all the help and assistance to ensure a free and viable Eelam.
I continued on my journey towards Kasthooriyar Road and saw just empty space in the middle of the Jaffna bus stand. On normal days, this bus stand would have been a hive of activity with buses and vehicles constantly entering and leaving. All I saw today was a few policemen sitting in front of the Sunlight Laundry – of course they were armed. I needed to cross into Hospital Road and it was very easy crossing through the bus stand. On other days I would have had to take the long route through Stanley Road where the Windsor Cinema is. As I approached the bus stand I saw around 20 policemen in white T shirts and police uniform trousers. They stopped me and told me to get into the drain and stand there. One of then said to me ‘sinna podiyan paakirathu enna kaurtha kodi kaatu kiratha?’ meaning, ‘you look a small boy but you are the ones showing the black flags’. I told them that I had nothing to do with black flags. One of the policemen asked his boss to let me go as I was only a little boy. Meanwhile, the group had detained another person so they let me go. I was by now soaked with the smelly drain water. Perhaps they thought it was sufficient punishment.
As I cycled further, behind Hospital Road I passed the BMICH building and saw Tamil people looting building material from the shop. I thought to myself that only 200 meters away were policemen harassing innocent Tamil people while here were Tamil people, who lacked the guts to protest about what had happened, looting this shop. There was no law and order when the policemen themselves were themselves guilty of breaking the law.
I went on to MP Yogeswaran’s house and found that around 200 to 300 persons had gathered there, but none of the self titled ‘leaders’ of the Tamil people. As a military vehicle passed by they jeered at the soldiers. The vehicle stopped and the soldiers fired in the air. All the people promptly ran away. I watched the scene from the front of Subbas Hotel behind Hospital Road.
I heard that some persons had been killed in front of the Naga Vihare at Aariya Kulam Junction. The Vihare was well protected by the military. I heard that a young graduate of the Jaffna University had been piling bodies in front of the Vihare when he was apprehended by the army.
They had forced him to throw the bodies into a fire they had started. I later heard that the young man was himself thrown, alive, into the same flames!
I dedicate this article to the many Tamil men, women and children who lost their lives to the Sinhala policemen whose ‘strings’ were pulled by the hidden ministers in Jaffna and the big man in Colombo. I particularly remember the young graduate of the Jaffna University who demonstrated his personal protest by piling up some of the dead bodies in front of the Naga Vihare and lost his own life in the process.
Peter, I agree with you, those monks and politicians should move to 21st century and treat all people equally. Please send them to the western countries so that the public can tear them to pieces.
THE PROBLEM IS THESE SINHALA POLITICIANS SINCE 1948 ARE GOING BEHIND AYATULLAHS OF MALWATTE AND ASGIRIYA…WHO ARE LIVING IN STONE AGE….WHAT HAPPEND TO SIR OLIVER GUNATILLEKE………………… AND SIR JOHN KOTTLAWELA BECAUSE THEY WERE CHRISTIANS???AS LONG AS THESE FANATICS INFLUENEC POLITICS LIKE AFGHANISTAN..IRAN…THERE WILL BE NO PEACE…BUT THESE SAME AYATULLAHS WERE FORCED TO CLOSE THEIR MOUTH RECENTLY SIMPLY WITH A BOMB THREAT BY OWN SINHALEASE..WHAT A JOKE???
Dilip Kumar: You have gone back 27 years and narated some horible incidents that we have been ashamed of since 1983. It was a progrom allright. We have proved that we are ashamed of it, not by talking but by deed. What more deed than no such incidents have taken place since. Now, if some of you accuse Sinhala army had taken it over from the goons then that is not fair. I say it is not fair because it is the Sinhala army that had protected Tamil MPs etc from LTTE suicide bombers without distingtion all this time.
Dilip Kumar, as you know, a lot of things have taken place since 1983. Think of the rise of LTTE and their inventions such as human bombs. If eye for eye is your motto, then I am sure, you should have been satisfied with the number of killings by those human bombs during that period. LTTE and its cadries had blasted VVIPs like Rajive Gandhi and Premadasa and VIPs like Amirthaligam and Tiruchelvam and ordinery folks like my cousin; he was was killed in a train blast. Read wwww.sinhaya.com, you can have a clear stock.
So, in my opinion, you and this paper have writen enough about those dark days and incidents during the last few weeks. What do you expect from Sinhalese by constantly reminding them of those incidents. If you think they will succumb to your new tactic of making them ashamed and let you have Eelam, Federal or even 13A, then you are sadly mistaken.
The more the Diaspora demand ‘war crimes’ tribunals and etc, the more we understand about your ulterior motive. The more we think of your Eelam the harder we cling to Rajapakses. The Colombo wallahs and those that write vicious comments here are living in fools paradise. They think Rajapakse government is about to fall. But Rajapakses are popular as ever. I challenge the JPV to organise a successful strike on that 2500 pay rise or on any point if they can.
So, Tamils are better off if only they think like the rest of us in this country. There will not be ares called ‘home land’ for Tamils or 100% homogeneous Tamil areas in the future. Minority or majority, everone in Sri Lanka have equal rights and may live anywhere they like. That’s it.
Leela:
I am sorry that I can’t agree with you. Yes Rajapakse will survive because he relies on extremist Sinhalse’s votes. The more the Tamils suffer, the more Sinhalese happier. That’s the way Sri Lanka’s politics work. It will continue forever until some external forces interfer and find a solutions.
It is paranoia to be afraid of giving right to Tamils. Once this mentality is over, there will be a solution. I have been living outside Sri Lanka, I have never witnessed a racism that existed in Sri Lanka (its forces and people). RACISM IS A PROBLEM. Once racism disappear, there will be no problem. There are good Sinhalese politician who would like to find a solution. But, unfortunately, they are rejected majority Sinhalse for the same reason (RACISM).
I have seen people from India and other countries are elected by white people to the office in the western country. Can that happen in Sri Lanka? No.
I like to see the natural intergration of Tamils and Sinhalese. I do not like to see the extremism come from any side. Will that happen?
LEELA (THAILAND NAME) WHO THE HELL ARE YOU TO SAY THAT YOU WONT ALLOW 100% TAMIL AREA…ARE YOU OR YOUR BOSS AND HEROS ARE GOING TO RULE FOREVER….EXACTLY DURING 70 S THIS SINHALA COLONISATION AND VIHARA WERE BUILT…YOU LIVING IN A JUNGLE MAY BE NOW AWARE WHAT HAPPEND TO THIS…PODIMENIKE..LOKU BANDA NOW OCCUPY TAMILS HOUSES BY FORCE THINKING MODAYA ARMY WILL PROTECT THEM FOREEVER……I AM SORRY FOR THIS PODIMEBIKE AND LOKU BANDA…YESTERDAY MALWATTE AYATULLA HAS VISITED A NEWLY BUILT BUDDHIST TEMPLE IN A HINDU AREA….MODAYAS ARE FIXING THE HORSE BEHIND THE CART…..THIS IS NOTHING NEW…YOU CAN WRITE WHATEVER CRAP AS YOU LIKE WITH A THAILAND NAME..BUT THE SITUATION WILL BE DIFFERENT……
Leela,
I am not sure why you have to bring LTTE in to this may be you are trying to hide the truth. I guess you didn’t read the whole article but jumping in to conclusion. In Sri Lanka less than 2 % was recruited to the Armed Forces from the minority community and now a days may be none.
Dilip Kumar: I’ll read your article again.
Do you know that 90 % of the top government servants were Tamil until early sixties. That was because British wanted to keep the Sinhala Buddhists out of those jobs during their rule. It was the same story for Malay in Malaysia. Malay’s managed to solve it in their own way for they had patriotic leaders like Mahatheir and the minorities (Chinese and Tamils) understood the reality.
It is natural everyone wanted their share of the pie. But, Tamils didn’t want to accept that they have to come down of their number to accommodate others. And that had had been the foremost problem.
So, as of now, I understand you want your share of the pie. And we Sinhalese believe you are entitled for an equitable share in every field. Now that LTTE is no more, I believe, its only a matter of time before Tamils reach high positions in armed forces etc. For example, very many have joined the police, already.
Let me give you an example: I am sure you know how that annual cricket safari ended in England where Tamils, Sinhalese and a few Muslims have been participating for many years. LTTE banned it for segregation had been their strategy. Now that LTTE is no more, you can see more and more Tamils participating in that cricket match.
raj: This anecdote is about racism in UK that you say there never was. I went to England first in the mid sixties. I’ve seen shop window add for a room to let in New Cross saying ‘No cats, No dogs, and No blacks’. Stupid of me, I thought I am no black and went on to seek the room from the white lady only to get the the rude shock. British have introduced race relation act since to stamp out such degradable happenings.
Have you ever seen such adds here in Sri Lanka. No. What put you up or down here is money and affluence not the cast, the creed or the race. Sinhalese by and large are not racists.
As for Tamils, they have no alternative. So, leave the extremists out. Ordinary Tamils have to stuck a chord with Sinhalese. And we for our part, should lend them a hand. But not for Eelam, Self Determination, Federal, Home Land, 13A and etc.
I say, LTTE is finished. LTTE rump is on the wane. Eelamists will moan but they are getting nowhere. So ordinary Tamils should think whole of Sri Lanka, not just a little part of it. Buy a land, build a house and live next to me in my village hamlet, I well come you with both hands.
I remember in 1982, just before Jaffna district election day, army went door to door to arrest TULF members who were non violent political acitiviy. Next day, I saw bodies were left on the street side. Isn’t it a terrorism? Therefore, we can claim that it was Sinhalese army that started terrorism.
In 1983, I saw army was evacuating Sinhalese for sefety reason. When they were transporting, army was throwing stones on by standers who were wathcing. No Sinhalese were killed or murdered in the city where I was.
Though years passed, similar type of violence against is still going on.
What’s there to remember? Segment of racist, ultra-nationalistic, egoistical cowered Tamils kill their own 13 countrymen most brutal barbaric manner and in response two so-called Sinhalese thugs, namely, JRJ and Premadasa harressed our own Tamil brethren who lived and nestle among us. Unfortunatley, media circus and opportunistc politicians went to town with this peanut story like – like atom bomb unleashed. That’s the truth, whole truth and absolute truth. Even our son of the soil, great cricketer of the world Murali said the same. He said; I lived among Sinhalese majority and all these stories are made by vested interest politicians and media circus. That’s it!
Excuse-me, does anyone remember Aranthalawa, Manik farm or Dollar farm or at least Anuradhapura assassinations?
Leela you don’t have to be ashamed of this media hype. All this is made up story. Real story is written by me above. This 1983 story also just like the Jesus story. The guy call Jesus never lived but 1/3 of population of the world worshiping him. This wold is running on its head. All myth, superstition, one lie is enlarge to such propotion – it will end up as sun has fallen from the sky, when really only coconut fell down from a tree!
Your comments put the lie to your title. You should have called yourself a “Non-intelligence Officer” instead!
,,,,IT IS THE SINHALESE WHO HAVE CREATED TIGERS…YOU AND YOUR ARMED FORCES KILL THEM BURN THEM ALIVE FOR GENERATIONS AND EXPECTED TAMILS TO BE KEEEP QUITE…AND MODAYAS ARE DOING THE SAME AGAIN..KIDNAPPING…RAPES,,THUGGERY…CRIME IS RAMPENT TODAY IN THOSE LIBERATED AREAS…WHO IS DOING THIS WHILE EVERY 50 M THERE IS A ARMY???? MODAYAS NEVER THINK….SOON PEOPLE THEIR WILL TAKE LAW AND ORDER AT THEIR HANDS..EVEN A JUDGE INQUIRED ABOUT A KINAPING AND MURDE CASE WAS TRANSFERD..AND A SINHALA JUDGE WILL BE THERE SOON THE THE MURDERES WILL BE RELEASED….A LAND WITH JUNGLE LAW….BY MODAYAS…
..DURING 1983 JULY WHEN SIHALEASED KILLED..BUNED TAMILS ALIVE..LOOTED THEIR HOMES..WHILE SINHALA SECURITY FORCES LOOKED OTHER SIDE.1000000 S TAMILS WERE IN TEARS AND PANIC……J R JAYAWARDENA APPEARED ON TV AND INSTEAD OF CONSOLING THE TAMILS….WENT ON SAYING..THIS IS AN UNRISE OF SINHALEASE…THIS MESSAGE WAS TELECASTED AGAIN AND AGAIN TO ENCOURAGE SINHALEASE TO KILL MORE TAMILS…..CAN ANYONE DENY THIS????
The Buddhism never teach ungodly acts to do but the racism and the Sinhala Buddhism determine the country into horrible. The tough times always teach the Tamils to resist.
So you still live in the BC ( Before Christ ) era and thats perhaps the reason you never heard a guy called Jesus Christ lived. And incidentally what was the necessity to drag the poor guy Jesus Christ into this filthy Srilankan discussion.Is it because the ‘WELL KNOWN INTERNATIONAL AGENCY’ was inclined to this guy Jesus Christ and they booted you out. By the way this guy called ‘Lord Budha’ ever lived or not?
In the last week’s article Jeyaraj had written that only buildings which were owned by Tamils were targeted. There were few exceptions. The house we lived belonged to a single Sinhalease woman but was rented out by us for a very long time and therefore telephone was in our name. There was nothing left in the house. Even the plants and trees gone. It is easy for some Tamils to claim that they are living with Sinhalease peacefully but one never knows how Sinhalease (most of them) would react if there is any indication that there is some hope for Tamils to have some rights. As long as Tamils are ready accept 2nd level of citizenship then of course all sort of friendship and talk about equality comes in. It is obvious in the remarks of people like Leela and Gamunu and in the articles by Dyan Jayathilaga.
Yes Yes I can very well remember.
Orchestrated, organised and executed by JR, Premadasa and Cyril Mathews with to “Teach” our tamil brothers and sisters a lesson.
Darkest patch in our history and some bigots even now relish.
This is for those of you that complain about 200,000+ ordinary Tamils that are kept in camps. Read what D.B.S.Jayaraj has to say about them in the Daily Mirror today, 31/7. He has also written his first hand experience with ex-LTTE fighters and black tigers that are kept in detention camps. Interesting reading.
Leela,
I remember 1983 and I am sure all Tamils, who are worth their salt, remember this year and its significance. I do not wish to read the ravings of Sinhalas who ‘think’ they have crushed the Tamils.
What most Sinhalas fail to realise is that the Tamils are the original residents of the island from the days of Ilamuridesam. The Sinhals are made up of a few Dravidians who continued to live in the south of the island till the 17th 18th centuries when they absorbed a whole load of Indian tribes fleeing from the Muslim invasion. The Aryan Buddhist monks who were chased out of the Hindu/Dravidian Tamil land of southern India and northern and eastern Eelam, found a home among these southern Dravidian remnants who had mixed up with a whole load of other Indian and foreign tribes.
These southerners call themselves Sinhalas but most of their language is made up of Tamil and Tamil words. Buddhism is not a religion but the monks have made it so. Every Buddhist ‘Temple’ has at least one statue of a Hindu God. What place has a ‘Temple’ in Buddhism which is a philosophy? It is this uncertainty about their origin that has made the Sinhalas so violently self centred. The more sensible of the Sinhalas know this. Prof Satratchandra made his doubts public and was ostracised and died unmourned!
It is best to ignore such ignorant people like you !!
I forgot, this is the link: http://www.dailymirror.lk/print/index.php/opinion1/17153.html