‘A large number of professional people left the island immediately and many more followed in the years to come. This is what Jayawardene and his ‘goons’ wanted. But, the Tamil nation is not made entirely of professional people. The grass roots Tamils still remain along with their protectors, the freedom movement and the army of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. They are still there, 25 years after Jayawardene’s talk to the nation.’
__________________
by Charles Somasundrum
__________________
by Charles Somasundrum
(These are the personal views of the writer)
(July 23, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Friday, the 25th of July of this year (2008) sees the 25th anniversary of what all Eelam Tamils will always remember ‘Black July’. This date is permanently etched in the minds of all Eelam Tamils – never to be erased! There are today, some young Tamil men and women in their 20s, who were born after this traumatic event. They were fortunate in that they were personally spared the trauma and tension that their parents may have undergone. I am sure these youth will have read, at least a small cross section, of the many books and articles published by persons who had been in the thick of ‘Black July’.
The fact that their parents and consequently, their progeny are alive today is just plain luck! One such person, who now lives in the USA has written a book that describes vividly, his experiences, is Siva Pragas, best known to Sri Lankans as Sivapragasam. He was driven by necessity to break up his name into two short manageable parts, to make it easier for the Americans, among whom he and his family had since settled, to pronounce. Sadly, his wife died some years back.
Siva, as he was popularly known, was my contemporary both at St John’s College in Jaffna and at the university in Peradeniya. He was, at the time of the pogrom on the 25th of July 1983, the chief editor of the Express Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd, who published the well known twin Tamil national newspapers, the daily Virakesari and the weekly Virakesari. He was therefore, one of the many Tamils singled out, by the ‘ministerial team’ entrusted with the task of exterminating, or driving out the Tamils from the island.
But before I proceed, let me get one matter straight. There are many persons both Sinhala and Tamil who tend to refer to these incidents as ‘riots’. Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary defines ‘riot’ (n) as a disturbance of the peace, by a crowd legally, three or more). What took place under the presidency of the man called J R Jayawardene and some of his blood thirsty ministers, especially a man with the unlikely name of Cyril Mathew, for a Sinhala ethno nationalist, was a ‘pogrom’. This word ‘pogrom’, is a Yiddish word of Russian origin and dates from the devastation of the Jews in 1903. It means, ‘an organised massacre of Jews (eg. the pogrom of 1915 in Russia); to massacre or destroy in a pogrom.’ As was the case with all pogroms, the July 25th pogrom in Sri Lanka was state planned. It was planned in the ministry offices of a government minister, by a team of specially selected persons who worked with copies of electoral registers and road maps. There was even a branch of men who, perhaps because they could not read or write in their own tongue, were entrusted with the more mundane task of getting ready to commandeer buses of the state owned Ceylon Transport Board (CTB), to provide the necessary transport for the wreckers and arsonists on the day in question. These persons were given sinecure jobs in certain CTB depots, till the due date.
Please therefore, do not refer to such incidents as ‘riots’ since they were state planned pogroms. Do give credit to these Sinhala persons, for the months of careful planning and scheduling that they put in, preparing for their ‘great day’! They poured their hearts and souls (if they had any), into the task that faced them, in the minister’s office. They were preparing for the final ‘pogrom’ that would finally rid the island of these ‘bothersome’ Tamils. Sadly for them, the Tamils are still there, though President Jayawardene and Minister Mathew and some of their henchmen are no more. What these Sinhalas did not realise and apparently still do not, is that one cannot ever ‘erase’ an entire nation. Hitler tried it with the Jews and failed.
There is a book titled ‘Assignment Colombo’ by J N Dixit who was a former Indian Foreign Secretary and India’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka from 1985 (shortly after the ’83 pogrom) to 1989 when India attempted to involve herself directly in Sri Lanka and burnt her fingers in the process! As is the case with senior officials who attempt to write about events in which they played a large or small part, Dixit tries to show himself as the ‘man of the moment – perhaps he was.. He does however make mention of Jayawardene’s actions following the July 1983 pogrom. He says that Jayawardene appeared on the television network six days after the worst of the pogrom. He says in his book, ‘What was even more significant was that in his television speech, no assurance of security or safety was held out to the Tamils, nor was any sympathy conveyed about their victimisation. It was a bland and defensive message which Mr Jayawardene gave.’ It was clearly not possible for Jayawardene to extend sympathy or commiserations when he was himself, reportedly involved in its planning!
This was the pogrom in which Buddhist monks played an active role in the arson and destruction while women played an equally active part in looting the Tamil houses from which the occupiers had fled for their lives. There were reported instances, of women and girls carrying away fridges – in most cases, along with their contents, apart from television sets, radios and the like. But then, these were just material things that did not last the looters indefinitely. The loss to the self respect of these people, if they had any, would have been longer lasting. After all, they were ‘stealing’ the property of their Tamil neighbours who they had known over a number of years. In one instance, the house occupied by my widowed sister and her married son and his family was looted as they fled. Months later, after matters had returned to normal and my sister and her son and his family had returned home, it so transpired that the shopkeeper living across the road died. My sister and her son visited the funeral home. They were politely offered seats in the garden along with the other mourners. The seats they were offered were their own chairs, part of the dining table suite that had been looted!
What was more serious and irreplaceable was the loss of life. There were many instances of houses being set on fire with the occupants still inside. There were occasions when cars were set alight with the occupants still within. There was one reported instance, when a Tamil family comprising husband, wife and two young children had been attempting to make their way from the scene of slaughter. Their car was surrounded and, after it was drenched with a flammable liquid, set on fire. One of the crowd noticing two young children, opened the car door and took the children out. The father, immediately opened his door, took his children back into the car and shut the door. He had decided that if they were to die, they would die with dignity as a family. This tragic incident did not stop the arsonists and looters and murderers from their mission. They continued to spread havoc and destruction. Incidents like this should never be forgotten. I was told by a good Christian, to whom I mentioned these incidents that one should forget and forgive. If a person strikes you on one cheek she said, turn your other cheek to that person. I wonder what that Christian would have done had she been in that car surrounded by that bloodthirsty screaming mob.
A nephew who was working in a tourist frequented hotel near Sigiriya had to flee the hotel with a few other Tamil employees and take refuge in a slaughter house in the jungle. He was there for three days without food till he made the dangerous journey, on foot, with occasional lifts, back to his parents in Jaffna. He was lucky in that he could speak Sinhala and has a fair complexion. He passed himself off as a Burgher. He is today, a resident of Toronto, Canada but has never forgotten his ordeal. His children, born in Toronto, have a detailed knowledge of what happened on ‘Black July’.
A nephew of my wife was born in and lived all his life in Colombo and studied at St Thomas’ College. He played school cricket and later club Rugby and had a wide circle of friends from a cross section of Sri Lankan society. His experiences, when he barely escaped with his life, have disillusioned him. I met him in Toronto where he now lives, some years back, and after dinner at his sister’s house, he gave me details of his experiences. Though they took place a number of years ago they are still vivid in his mind. His story took us into the early hours of the morning. It was many years since the pogrom took place but his personal experience remains crystal clear in his mind as though they took place yesterday!
A doctor friend had built himself a beautiful house in Jaffna, in readiness for the day when he would retire. He was one of the many who were forced to flee for their lives, first to South India where he lived briefly, till he finally made his way to Australia where he now lives. He has never forgotten his experiences. He believes, like many others, in an independent Eelam and is today one of Eelam’s strongest advocates like many of his kind.
I give above, these few examples from personal knowledge, to show that Black July was not just a passing incident. Readers will themselves, be aware of many more such incidents where they were involved or where friends or kin were involved. These incidents must never be forgotten. They should be passed on to children and grandchildren. I see a time in a free Eelam when the 25th of July will be observed by all Eelamites, who will remember the many acts of Tamil heroism in the face of a bloodthirsty Sinhala mob, which was aware that they had the state behind them.
This brings me finally to Sinhala attitude to the Tamils. I have been reading a book gifted to me be a Sinhala friend on a recent visit to Sri Lanka and Eelam. The book is titled ‘War or Peace in Sri Lanka’ (Volume V). The author is a man called T D S A Dissanayake. The flyleaf states that since 1975, Mr Dissanayake has published 16 books, 12 of which he claims were ‘best-sellers. Modesty is apparently not his forte! This man, for all his profession of religion (Anglican Christianity), liberalism and education (Royal College, Peradeniya and Harvard) is a close friend of and apologist for, the Sri Lankan military big brass. His views have a clear pro military bias. Page 6 of this particular book is in fact devoted entirely to a colour picture of the Commander of the Sri Lankan Army, Lt. General Sarath Fonseka in all his glory. The blurb accompanying the picture reads ‘The Commander of the Army Lt. General Sarath Fonseka is a highly respected officer who leads in war and peace through personal example’. The picture is of a smug, uniformed man at a desk in a plush red upholstered chair. Readers will be aware, that this General is in his current position, because he is a personal friend of the all powerful Rajapakse triumvirate.
One contribution Dissanayake has made in this particular book (or volume), is to give the full text of Jayawardene’s address to the (Sinhala) nation 6 days after the destruction and bloodshed. For reasons of space, I will give only a few relevant extracts. ‘The Sinhalese people will never agree to the division of a country which has been a united nation for 2,500 years.’ Apart from the historical inaccuracy of this statement, the President virtually admits that the Tamil nation have been in the island for at least, 2,500 years. He then goes on to say ‘Because of this violence by the terrorists, the Sinhalese people have themselves reacted’. So now we know from the President’s own mouth, that all the violence and burning and looting was the work of ‘violence by the terrorist’ Tamils to which the Sinhalese people ‘reacted’.
So, what positive action had the President taken? ‘The Cabinet therefore, this morning decided that we should bring legislation, firstly to prevent people from entering the Legislature if they belong to a party that seeks to divide the nation.’ So, representatives of the Tamil nation will not be permitted to sit in the legislature. He then went on to say, ‘those who advocate the separation of the country lose their civic rights and cannot hold office, cannot practise any profession, cannot join movements or organisation s in the country.’ This is fine! First, you chase the Tamils out of their homes, then you loot them and burn them (with the Tamils in them if possible) and then you declare that they no longer have any civic rights or even the right to practise a profession! The President finally ends, ‘my government cannot see any other way we can appease the natural desire and request of the Sinhalese people.’ So, appeasement of the Sinhalas was the President’s main concern, in the face of all this destruction and bloodshed!
This is what the President had, to tell the Tamil nation, after 6 days of silence, while they were being beaten, looted, stoned or burnt by his Sinhala ‘goons’.
A large number of professional people left the island immediately and many more followed in the years to come. This is what Jayawardene and his ‘goons’ wanted. But, the Tamil nation is not made entirely of professional people. The grass roots Tamils still remain along with their protectors, the freedom movement and the army of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. They are still there, 25 years after Jayawardene’s talk to the nation.
The Tamils who migrated to countries in the west and east have done well with the typical tenacity of the Tamil man. Yet, they continue to support the Tamil demand for self determination and keep the fire of Tamil freedom burning. People like T D S A Dissanayake and his pal D B S Jeyaraj (who is not a ‘Tamil’ as claimed by Dissanayake, but a Chetty from the Chetty Community), claim that 38% to 40% of the Tamils from the northern and eastern provinces have left their homes permanently. They claim that Paris and Rome have 50,000 Tamils with 400,000 in Canada.
People like Dissanayake want the whole island for themselves. This is the reason for the continuing 40 year war against the Tamil nation yet; Dissanayake shows a tinge of envy for the Tamils who had fled to pastures new, as the Tamil Diaspora. I end with a passage from Dissanayake’s book, ‘The Tamil populations in the Districts of Batticaloa, Jaffna and Trincomalee have left either as immigrants or as refugees, their destinations being Canada, Australia and the UK in that order…….For instance there are more Sri Lankan (Tamils) living in Toronto, Canada than in Colombo. In the suburb of Scarborough in Toronto there are streets where 90% of the population consists of Sri Lankan Tamils. Advertisements appear in Tamil like in Colombo and Tamil foodstuffs are readily available like in Wellawatte. The new Tamil population is no longer on immigrant visas, the final step in obtaining citizenship, not of Tamil Eelam but of Canada!
The envious Dissanayake must be aware that today, there are more Jews in America than in the nation of Israel. That does not prevent Israel existing as a viable nation. The worldwide Tamil Diaspora is there, to invest funds in an independent Eelam, by starting industries, hotels and the like. Eelam will be the holiday resort of choice of the Tamil Diaspora. They will flock to Eelam hotels and holiday homes with their western friends. I see a time when the Eelam International Airport at Palaly will be a hub of activity, much more active than Katunayake.
- Sri Lanka Guardian
(July 23, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Friday, the 25th of July of this year (2008) sees the 25th anniversary of what all Eelam Tamils will always remember ‘Black July’. This date is permanently etched in the minds of all Eelam Tamils – never to be erased! There are today, some young Tamil men and women in their 20s, who were born after this traumatic event. They were fortunate in that they were personally spared the trauma and tension that their parents may have undergone. I am sure these youth will have read, at least a small cross section, of the many books and articles published by persons who had been in the thick of ‘Black July’.
The fact that their parents and consequently, their progeny are alive today is just plain luck! One such person, who now lives in the USA has written a book that describes vividly, his experiences, is Siva Pragas, best known to Sri Lankans as Sivapragasam. He was driven by necessity to break up his name into two short manageable parts, to make it easier for the Americans, among whom he and his family had since settled, to pronounce. Sadly, his wife died some years back.
Siva, as he was popularly known, was my contemporary both at St John’s College in Jaffna and at the university in Peradeniya. He was, at the time of the pogrom on the 25th of July 1983, the chief editor of the Express Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd, who published the well known twin Tamil national newspapers, the daily Virakesari and the weekly Virakesari. He was therefore, one of the many Tamils singled out, by the ‘ministerial team’ entrusted with the task of exterminating, or driving out the Tamils from the island.
But before I proceed, let me get one matter straight. There are many persons both Sinhala and Tamil who tend to refer to these incidents as ‘riots’. Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary defines ‘riot’ (n) as a disturbance of the peace, by a crowd legally, three or more). What took place under the presidency of the man called J R Jayawardene and some of his blood thirsty ministers, especially a man with the unlikely name of Cyril Mathew, for a Sinhala ethno nationalist, was a ‘pogrom’. This word ‘pogrom’, is a Yiddish word of Russian origin and dates from the devastation of the Jews in 1903. It means, ‘an organised massacre of Jews (eg. the pogrom of 1915 in Russia); to massacre or destroy in a pogrom.’ As was the case with all pogroms, the July 25th pogrom in Sri Lanka was state planned. It was planned in the ministry offices of a government minister, by a team of specially selected persons who worked with copies of electoral registers and road maps. There was even a branch of men who, perhaps because they could not read or write in their own tongue, were entrusted with the more mundane task of getting ready to commandeer buses of the state owned Ceylon Transport Board (CTB), to provide the necessary transport for the wreckers and arsonists on the day in question. These persons were given sinecure jobs in certain CTB depots, till the due date.
Please therefore, do not refer to such incidents as ‘riots’ since they were state planned pogroms. Do give credit to these Sinhala persons, for the months of careful planning and scheduling that they put in, preparing for their ‘great day’! They poured their hearts and souls (if they had any), into the task that faced them, in the minister’s office. They were preparing for the final ‘pogrom’ that would finally rid the island of these ‘bothersome’ Tamils. Sadly for them, the Tamils are still there, though President Jayawardene and Minister Mathew and some of their henchmen are no more. What these Sinhalas did not realise and apparently still do not, is that one cannot ever ‘erase’ an entire nation. Hitler tried it with the Jews and failed.
There is a book titled ‘Assignment Colombo’ by J N Dixit who was a former Indian Foreign Secretary and India’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka from 1985 (shortly after the ’83 pogrom) to 1989 when India attempted to involve herself directly in Sri Lanka and burnt her fingers in the process! As is the case with senior officials who attempt to write about events in which they played a large or small part, Dixit tries to show himself as the ‘man of the moment – perhaps he was.. He does however make mention of Jayawardene’s actions following the July 1983 pogrom. He says that Jayawardene appeared on the television network six days after the worst of the pogrom. He says in his book, ‘What was even more significant was that in his television speech, no assurance of security or safety was held out to the Tamils, nor was any sympathy conveyed about their victimisation. It was a bland and defensive message which Mr Jayawardene gave.’ It was clearly not possible for Jayawardene to extend sympathy or commiserations when he was himself, reportedly involved in its planning!
This was the pogrom in which Buddhist monks played an active role in the arson and destruction while women played an equally active part in looting the Tamil houses from which the occupiers had fled for their lives. There were reported instances, of women and girls carrying away fridges – in most cases, along with their contents, apart from television sets, radios and the like. But then, these were just material things that did not last the looters indefinitely. The loss to the self respect of these people, if they had any, would have been longer lasting. After all, they were ‘stealing’ the property of their Tamil neighbours who they had known over a number of years. In one instance, the house occupied by my widowed sister and her married son and his family was looted as they fled. Months later, after matters had returned to normal and my sister and her son and his family had returned home, it so transpired that the shopkeeper living across the road died. My sister and her son visited the funeral home. They were politely offered seats in the garden along with the other mourners. The seats they were offered were their own chairs, part of the dining table suite that had been looted!
What was more serious and irreplaceable was the loss of life. There were many instances of houses being set on fire with the occupants still inside. There were occasions when cars were set alight with the occupants still within. There was one reported instance, when a Tamil family comprising husband, wife and two young children had been attempting to make their way from the scene of slaughter. Their car was surrounded and, after it was drenched with a flammable liquid, set on fire. One of the crowd noticing two young children, opened the car door and took the children out. The father, immediately opened his door, took his children back into the car and shut the door. He had decided that if they were to die, they would die with dignity as a family. This tragic incident did not stop the arsonists and looters and murderers from their mission. They continued to spread havoc and destruction. Incidents like this should never be forgotten. I was told by a good Christian, to whom I mentioned these incidents that one should forget and forgive. If a person strikes you on one cheek she said, turn your other cheek to that person. I wonder what that Christian would have done had she been in that car surrounded by that bloodthirsty screaming mob.
A nephew who was working in a tourist frequented hotel near Sigiriya had to flee the hotel with a few other Tamil employees and take refuge in a slaughter house in the jungle. He was there for three days without food till he made the dangerous journey, on foot, with occasional lifts, back to his parents in Jaffna. He was lucky in that he could speak Sinhala and has a fair complexion. He passed himself off as a Burgher. He is today, a resident of Toronto, Canada but has never forgotten his ordeal. His children, born in Toronto, have a detailed knowledge of what happened on ‘Black July’.
A nephew of my wife was born in and lived all his life in Colombo and studied at St Thomas’ College. He played school cricket and later club Rugby and had a wide circle of friends from a cross section of Sri Lankan society. His experiences, when he barely escaped with his life, have disillusioned him. I met him in Toronto where he now lives, some years back, and after dinner at his sister’s house, he gave me details of his experiences. Though they took place a number of years ago they are still vivid in his mind. His story took us into the early hours of the morning. It was many years since the pogrom took place but his personal experience remains crystal clear in his mind as though they took place yesterday!
A doctor friend had built himself a beautiful house in Jaffna, in readiness for the day when he would retire. He was one of the many who were forced to flee for their lives, first to South India where he lived briefly, till he finally made his way to Australia where he now lives. He has never forgotten his experiences. He believes, like many others, in an independent Eelam and is today one of Eelam’s strongest advocates like many of his kind.
I give above, these few examples from personal knowledge, to show that Black July was not just a passing incident. Readers will themselves, be aware of many more such incidents where they were involved or where friends or kin were involved. These incidents must never be forgotten. They should be passed on to children and grandchildren. I see a time in a free Eelam when the 25th of July will be observed by all Eelamites, who will remember the many acts of Tamil heroism in the face of a bloodthirsty Sinhala mob, which was aware that they had the state behind them.
This brings me finally to Sinhala attitude to the Tamils. I have been reading a book gifted to me be a Sinhala friend on a recent visit to Sri Lanka and Eelam. The book is titled ‘War or Peace in Sri Lanka’ (Volume V). The author is a man called T D S A Dissanayake. The flyleaf states that since 1975, Mr Dissanayake has published 16 books, 12 of which he claims were ‘best-sellers. Modesty is apparently not his forte! This man, for all his profession of religion (Anglican Christianity), liberalism and education (Royal College, Peradeniya and Harvard) is a close friend of and apologist for, the Sri Lankan military big brass. His views have a clear pro military bias. Page 6 of this particular book is in fact devoted entirely to a colour picture of the Commander of the Sri Lankan Army, Lt. General Sarath Fonseka in all his glory. The blurb accompanying the picture reads ‘The Commander of the Army Lt. General Sarath Fonseka is a highly respected officer who leads in war and peace through personal example’. The picture is of a smug, uniformed man at a desk in a plush red upholstered chair. Readers will be aware, that this General is in his current position, because he is a personal friend of the all powerful Rajapakse triumvirate.
One contribution Dissanayake has made in this particular book (or volume), is to give the full text of Jayawardene’s address to the (Sinhala) nation 6 days after the destruction and bloodshed. For reasons of space, I will give only a few relevant extracts. ‘The Sinhalese people will never agree to the division of a country which has been a united nation for 2,500 years.’ Apart from the historical inaccuracy of this statement, the President virtually admits that the Tamil nation have been in the island for at least, 2,500 years. He then goes on to say ‘Because of this violence by the terrorists, the Sinhalese people have themselves reacted’. So now we know from the President’s own mouth, that all the violence and burning and looting was the work of ‘violence by the terrorist’ Tamils to which the Sinhalese people ‘reacted’.
So, what positive action had the President taken? ‘The Cabinet therefore, this morning decided that we should bring legislation, firstly to prevent people from entering the Legislature if they belong to a party that seeks to divide the nation.’ So, representatives of the Tamil nation will not be permitted to sit in the legislature. He then went on to say, ‘those who advocate the separation of the country lose their civic rights and cannot hold office, cannot practise any profession, cannot join movements or organisation s in the country.’ This is fine! First, you chase the Tamils out of their homes, then you loot them and burn them (with the Tamils in them if possible) and then you declare that they no longer have any civic rights or even the right to practise a profession! The President finally ends, ‘my government cannot see any other way we can appease the natural desire and request of the Sinhalese people.’ So, appeasement of the Sinhalas was the President’s main concern, in the face of all this destruction and bloodshed!
This is what the President had, to tell the Tamil nation, after 6 days of silence, while they were being beaten, looted, stoned or burnt by his Sinhala ‘goons’.
A large number of professional people left the island immediately and many more followed in the years to come. This is what Jayawardene and his ‘goons’ wanted. But, the Tamil nation is not made entirely of professional people. The grass roots Tamils still remain along with their protectors, the freedom movement and the army of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. They are still there, 25 years after Jayawardene’s talk to the nation.
The Tamils who migrated to countries in the west and east have done well with the typical tenacity of the Tamil man. Yet, they continue to support the Tamil demand for self determination and keep the fire of Tamil freedom burning. People like T D S A Dissanayake and his pal D B S Jeyaraj (who is not a ‘Tamil’ as claimed by Dissanayake, but a Chetty from the Chetty Community), claim that 38% to 40% of the Tamils from the northern and eastern provinces have left their homes permanently. They claim that Paris and Rome have 50,000 Tamils with 400,000 in Canada.
People like Dissanayake want the whole island for themselves. This is the reason for the continuing 40 year war against the Tamil nation yet; Dissanayake shows a tinge of envy for the Tamils who had fled to pastures new, as the Tamil Diaspora. I end with a passage from Dissanayake’s book, ‘The Tamil populations in the Districts of Batticaloa, Jaffna and Trincomalee have left either as immigrants or as refugees, their destinations being Canada, Australia and the UK in that order…….For instance there are more Sri Lankan (Tamils) living in Toronto, Canada than in Colombo. In the suburb of Scarborough in Toronto there are streets where 90% of the population consists of Sri Lankan Tamils. Advertisements appear in Tamil like in Colombo and Tamil foodstuffs are readily available like in Wellawatte. The new Tamil population is no longer on immigrant visas, the final step in obtaining citizenship, not of Tamil Eelam but of Canada!
The envious Dissanayake must be aware that today, there are more Jews in America than in the nation of Israel. That does not prevent Israel existing as a viable nation. The worldwide Tamil Diaspora is there, to invest funds in an independent Eelam, by starting industries, hotels and the like. Eelam will be the holiday resort of choice of the Tamil Diaspora. They will flock to Eelam hotels and holiday homes with their western friends. I see a time when the Eelam International Airport at Palaly will be a hub of activity, much more active than Katunayake.
- Sri Lanka Guardian
The 1983 riots were a terrible thing done to us Tamils.
But I see the same terrible Hitlerite tendency as in JR Jayawardene and Cyril Matthew, in the author, Charles Somasundaram.
He claims that D.B.S. Jeyaraj, one of the best Tamil writers today, is not a Tamil for being a Chetty.
I do not know what DBS Jeyaraj's caste is. But what caste must one belong to, to be accepted as a Tamil by Charles Somasundaram?
I suppose in Charles Somsundaram's eyes, one must either belong to his own brinjal caste or the caste of Veluppillai Pirabaharan for whom he works in London. And the rest of us have no place as Tamils!
Sad, isn't it when those who battle fascism become fascists in the process?
Fools like these are directly responsible for sending thousands of poor people's children to be sacrificed at the Wanni Sun God's altar and they dream on....
July 1983 massacre – an Apology to the Tamil people from a Sinhalese
Brian Senewiratne
Brisbane, Australia
Two years ago, in a comprehensive article, ‘Sri Lanka’s Week of Shame - July 1983 massacre – long-term consequences”, I dealt with this blot on Sri Lanka which set the stage for the division of Sri Lanka. This is still on the web
(www.tamilcanadian.com/pageview.php?ID=4260&SID=145)
(www.org/taraki/articles/2006/07-28_Consequences.php?uid=1866)
(www.tamilnation.org/form/brian/060723blackjuly.htm)
This year I will simply offer the Tamil people an Apology for what was done to them in 1983, and even more so, for the increasing violations of their basic human rights in the quarter of a century that has followed.
I did not slit Tamil throats or pull out the intravenous drips and throw out Tamil patients from hospital, But there is a collective guilt, a collective shame,, when members of one’s ethnic group behave like savages. The only ‘crime’ that the victims had committed was to be born Tamil. For the first time in my life, I felt ashamed to call myself a Sinhalese. An entire ethnic group was shamed by the behaviour of a handful of Sinhala goons led by their masters in Dictator J.R.Jayawardene’s government, and hoodlums in yellow robes who were desecrating Buddha, one of the greatest teachers of Peace the world has ever known. (My mother was a devout Buddhist and her father a teacher of Buddhism and the author of books on Buddhism).
Some 3,000 Tamil civilians died that week and their homes and property burnt. Many more would have died had it not been for courageous Sinhalese, ordinary decent Sinhalese, who risked life, limb and property to hide Tamils and save them from certain death. Thank God for some decent Sinhalese. I have no doubt that some of them tendered an apology to the devastated and petrified Tamils, but the best apology was the shelter they provided at considerable risk to themselves.
The news
I was already in Australia when the massacre occurred. All I could do was to watch the horror on television. I watched with disbelief and disgust, that a country which calls itself “Buddhist”, had scores of absolute barbarians, both in and outside Government.
I had a call from London. It was from one of the finest Sri Lankans, a Sinhalese, I have ever met – Rt Rev Lakshman Wickremasinghe, the Bishop of Kurunegala, The ailing Bishop was in London but said he was returning home at once to be with his (and my) people, the Tamil people. He did, I wish I had the courage to do the same. I have regretted it ever since.
He visited the numerous refugee camps all over the island to comfort the devastated people, as Christ would probably have done. He visited a refugee camp in Akkarayan, Jaffna, with Dr Luther Jeyasingham and a close friend of mine, the irreplaceable Kandiah Kandasamy of the Movement for Interracial Justice and Equality (MIRJE) After talking with the refugees he was discovered crying in a room. When asked, he replied that from his conversations he had found that his family had been closely linked with the violence. (The Bishop was the uncle of Ranil Wickremasinghe, a Minister in Jayawardene’s government, and a kinsman of J.R.Jayawardene). The Bishop died on 23 October 1983, a broken man. He never recovered from that trauma.
Sri Lanka has produced two saints – Bishop Lakshman Wickremasinghe (a Sinhalese in the South) and Bishop Bastiampillai Deogupillai (a Tamil in the North).
When Bishop Lakshman called me from London, I said that we, the Sinhalsese had to apologise to the Tamils. He said he would and he did. I apologised to my Tamil wife.
The apology
In his final Pastoral Letter “A cry from the Heart” (15 November 1983) before his untimely death, this is what he wrote,
“We must be ashamed as Sinhalese because what took place was a moral crime. We are ashamed as Sinhalese for the moral crime other Sinhalese committed. We must not only acknowledge the shame. We must also make our apology to those Tamils…”
In a more private way, I tendered my apology. When the full horror of what happened in that week of shame, dawned on me, I sat up one night and wrote a long letter. In the morning I gave it to my wife – “This is an apology from a Sinhalese to a Tamil”. I left for work. When I returned she said, “I have read it. What do you want me to do with it?” I said, “If the apology is accepted, you can throw it away”. She said she would keep it. It was this which was later expanded, and published, with a Foreword from that doyen of Australian Tamils, Sri Lanka’s most brilliant mathematician, Professor C.J. Eliezer who was the Dean of the Faculty of Science in Colombo where my wife and I were students in the 1950s. In the expanded version Sri Lanka. The July 1983 massacre. Unanswered questions, I held President Jayawardene and his murderous Ministers responsible for a carefully planned and executed massacre of Tamils and the total destruction of their economic base, which had nothing to do with the ambush of13 Sinhalese soldiers in the North.
I believed then, and even more so now, that unless the Sinhalese apologise to the Tamils for the outrageous violation of their basic human rights over the past 50 years, there will be no peace, and certainly no peace with friendship, between the ethnic groups in Sri Lanka – divided or undivided.
It has to be a genuine apology – not the bogus apology of my cousin, the former President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, or her political name, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga.. At a meeting to mark the 21st Anniversary of the 1983 pogrom, she declared,
“Every citizen in this country should collectively accept the blame and make an apology to the tens of thousands who suffered. I would like to assign to myself that task on behalf of the State of Sri Lanka, the government, and on behalf of all of us, all citizens of Sri Lanka to extend that apology.”
As I said in my earlier publication, that is not an apology, it is political clap-trap. “Every citizen” (that includes the Tamils – unless, of course, she considers Tamils to be non-citizens ) is not to blame for the 1983 pogrom. J.R.Jayawardene and his anti-Tamil Ministers were to blame.
“Every citizen” is not to blame for the wholesale massacre of Tamils that occurred in Jaffna in 1995. She, Chandrika Kumaratunga, President, Minister of Defence and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, is to blame. Had she the courage and integrity, she would have apologised to the Tamil people in the North for what she did to them.
The blame for the massacres of Tamils does not rest on “every citizen” but on two elite families – of S.W.R.D Bandaranaike (his wife and daughter), and of J.R.Jayawardene and his cronies. To this can now be added another, more murderous than both of the others, the Rajapakse’s and their supporters among the ranks of the so-called Marxists, and the ‘gentlemen’ in yellow robes.
Tracking down the criminals
Nazi war criminals have been hunted down and punished (irrespective of their age), 50 years after their crimes. There is no reason that those responsible for the Sri Lankan crime in July 1983, should not be hunted down and brought to justice.
Many of those who were responsible, J.R.Jayawardene and his hoodlum Minister Cyril Matthew, and his colleagues, and their thugs, are either dead or not traceable. Others with blood-drenched hands are very much alive and readily accessible. One is Elle Gunawanse thero.
This yellow-robed hoodlum played a crucial role in the events of July 1983.. He was the monk who whipped up the emotions of the crowd that had collected in the kanatte cemetery to bury the soldiers, and later fanned out to set fire to Colombo in general, Tamil homes and businesses in particular.
He then led a mob down Cotta road, Borella, armed with a list of Tamils (obtained from the electoral office) who were to be destroyed. He was later seen at the Cinnamon Gardens police station, with a pistol visibly tucked in his yellow robe, demanding curfew passes. He was the man in the passenger seat of a lorry (I had the photograph), with hoodlums armed with petrol and kerosene, directing them to the Tamil homes to be burnt.
Where is he now? Exactly where he was then – opposite the BMICH on Buller’s road (now Bauddaloka mawatte). That was crown property where he, like many other monks, had illegally squatted, building a small structure. With strong ties with Gamini Dissanayake, Minister for the Mahaveli, this small structure was replaced by an impressive one, with State funds and acknowledged his benefactor, calling it “Mahaveli Maha Seya”. It was from here that the detailed pogrom of the Tamils was meticulously planned and executed.
And now? On 15 January 2003, this virulently racist monk, launched the “Organisation to Protect the Motherland” (OPM), to oppose the talks between Ranil Wickremasinghe, then the Prime Minister, and the LTTE, for a federal settlement. He claimed that the North and East which had been merged under Emergency Regulations in 1987, should be de-merged as the ‘Emergency’ had lapsed with the peace accord signed by Wickremasinghe and the LTTE.
On 1 October 2003, Elle Gunawanse launched the National Patriotic Movement, accusing Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe of trying to divide the country.
What stops his arrest and trial? Nothing, other than the will to do so. There he is in all his glory, right in the middle of Colombo, with his heavily blood-soaked yellow robes.
There are others with a case to answer. There is one, in particular, a Minister in Jayawardene’s government, who has much to explain. Let us call him “Minister X”
There were 72 Tamil political detainees in the Welikada prison in Colombo, held there without charge or trial. On 25 July 1983. 35 of them were massacred by Sinhalese prisoners in the jail. President Jayawardene, in a rare act of responsibility, wanted the rest of the Tamil detainees to be immediately sent to Jaffna prison. However, Minister Lalith Athulathmudali and ‘Minister X’, opposed this saying that the Sinhalese would become further infuriated over such a decision. It was obvious that Athulathmudali and ‘Minister X ‘ did not want the prisoners taken away to safety. Surprise! Surprise! A day late (27 July) there was a second prison massacre, and another 18 slaughtered. Of the original 72 Tamil detainees, only 19 were left. The Sinhalese would now not be ‘infuriated’, since the job was ¾ done.
Who was Minister “X”? Find it out for yourself. There’s a bit of home-work for you.
Action
In January 2008, I was invited to New Zealand to address a special prayer session in the Elim Church, Auckland. Rev Prince Devanathan, a soft-spoken Tamil priest conducting the service said, “We have been praying and praying for Peace for more than 20 years. But the more we pray, the further we get distanced from Peace. That is the reality”. He then came out with the finest words I have heard for years – “Prayer without action is dead”
I’d say the same about an apology. An apology without action is dead. It is this ‘action’ that I have been trying to deliver in the past two and a half decades.
The same holds for protests. To protest, to hold a vigil, to remember the July 1983 massacre is fine. But protests without action is dead.
I urge you to act. To free the Tamil people to live with dignity, and safety in their area of historical habitation – the North and East. I urge you to act, to act, to save the Tamil people from the Genocide, started in July 1983, and now progressing at an alarming rate. Like the Welikada prison massacre, it is ¾ done. Act now. Tomorrow may be too late for the Tamils in the North and East of the ‘Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka’, as it likes to call itself.
Sri Lankan Tamils in Canada Donate Blood
Canada opened its door and its heart to the hundreds of Tamil refugees fleeing the Anti-Tamil violence that took place in Sri Lanka in July 1983. In gratitude for the kindness offered by Canada in providing a safe haven for 300,000 Tamils, the community in return has chosen to give back to Canada in the form of blood. Throughout the month of July, the Tamil community in British Colombia, Quebecl and Toronto will join Tamils across the Nation in a blood drive to increase Canada's blood supply.
The Tamil Canadians have signed on as a Partner for Life with Canadian Blood Services and have challenged themselves to donate an astounding 5,000 units of blood to give others the gift Canada gave them 25 years ago, the gift of a ‘lifetime’.
I think Brian S does not pray or 'act' enough to save the tamils in SL ... Why so pessimistic when you can have the Eelam International Airport at Palaly? I do not understand. Be like the author of the artcle. Don't you guys ever think of the security of majority sri lankans called 'sinhalese' at least for a minute. Fact is 125 million tamils without a country (Prabha's words) are fighting for a country Eeeelam in tiny Sri LANKA with 12 million sinhalese people. Have all you guys gone mad? You had a excellent standing in SL for decades .. Almost all higher and middle level management and professional positions were occupied by tamils. 'Divide and rule' and 'promotion of minoroty over majority' policies of 'suddahs' helped to achieve that. Superior complexed tamil community thought that it has been achieved by their superiority of brain. If they have had brains, they would have achieved much prominent place in SL. Now, it is history. There is no way you could go far with Prabha with his terror because SL has a good management team with excellent spines. Simply, you can not kick around them with terror tactics as used to under spineless leaders like Ranil/Chandrika who are very very comfortable in Paris or London among their 'locals'.
Dear: same mistake has been done to Muslims by LTTE at gun point and we did not see any public apology for that from any one: Many Muslims did help Tamils in Colombo in that black July and in return Muslims were chased out at gun point from Jaffna and Mannar within 24 hours: still they live in Refugee camps in Puttalam: I could tell you hundreds of stories of Muslims families who suffered a lot on their way from Jaffna and Mannar. I too remember many good Tamils helped Muslims to bring their money and jewelleries: One minority fight for its own rights at the expenses of another minority’s right mighty one is always right: Is it jungle law?. Naseeff
As a percentage of the population in their respective areas more Sinhala were killed in Jaffna. Is the riot better or expulsion and ethnic cleansing in Jaffna and nazi eelam better ??
Lets not forget the 400 policemen killing riot or the riots during the JVP uprising because they were not Tamil !! ......
No Sinhala and Muslim students in Jaffna Uni, GG Ponna race hatered speech (1915),Chelva’s 50:50 during 50’s,Tamil ideology over Lanka ideology (Sinhalas and Tamils look so much alike, have mixed and inter-married throughout history; there is no race issue but one of language, discrimination goes both ways),
Madras seapoys killing Lankans and Indians, Colonialism Divide and rule and minority benefits are some root problems.
Tmils in Lanka, Tamil Nadu and Tamil-only eelam(Sinhal not in latter two), Frank Jayasinghe the only world recognized sinhala pricipal in an International school in Tamil Nadu was almost murdered by a mob in who surrounded the school to murder him and the handful of Sinhala students(6) Kodaikanal Tamil Nadu during the eighties is a little known fact.
Tamil expansions begining in small lLanka, then India, Malaysia..
Sinhala (also Muslim and non tiger Tamis) far worse than harresed= cant live in Jaffna, Wanni, Nadu……..!!
Thousands of Sikhs were also killed after Indira Gandi was killed and the govt. took several days to respond, hurricane Katrina saw the most powerful/advance country in the world taking days to respond and prevent death.
Why are these people not into apatheid nazism and baby army ??? !! ! ?
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