The lessons and implications of Black July: A different perspective

“How do we get rid of this communal hatred and reconcile between communities in Srilanka. I think that it is a moral responsibility and duty of Srilankan government to apologise publicly for the atrocities of black July. Since black July 1983, successive Srilankan have failed to rectify their mistake and make public apology for the mistakes of political authority to maintain law and order during this riots: This was a professional blunder on the part of our political leadership.”

by Dr Sulaiman Rifai

(August 13, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) I have been reading various arguments, debates and contentions in the Srilanka Guardian about Black July 1983. Much has been said and written about this dark day from various perspectives. From the perspectives of victims and of perpetrators: The Proponents of black July have argued that this was a reactionary incident against LTTE’s atrocities and while the opponents against it, have argued that Black July was indeed well planned programmes against the entire Tamil community in Srilanka.

The proponents and opponents have given rational, logical emotional, historical, and political justification and reasons for their arguments: Sadly some of these arguments are very much subjective and bias: Each group accuses and points the finger on others for initiating atrocities of Black July and vicious circle of arguments has gone & gone as if we are asking if egg came first or chick came first: I personally feel that it is very important that we should identify the culprits of these atrocities and bring them into justice: However, I doubt this could happen in Srilanka: Nevertheless, It is equally or more important to learn some lessons from these anti-communal atrocities so that we could rectify our past mistakes and avoid such thing happening once again in Srilanka. .

Human history tells us that Mankind has done great atrocities throughout its history: Since inception of human life on this earth, murders, killings, and atrocities had been continuing and will continue until this world come an end: (if you believe that this world will come to an end). From ancient & medieval to modern human history human beings fought many wars and have shed rivers of blood on this earth: More recently mankind have seen two world wars and millions of people had killed by human atrocities: since this two world war we have witnessed many mini wars & ethnic genocides between countries and communities: Vietnam war, Korean war, Iraq & Iran war, Gulf war, Balkan war, Afghan war, Kashmir war, Palestine war and we could list many more. While I’m writing this article Russian& Georgian conflict kills thousands of innocent people. It looks that our modern world is a place of war rather than a place of peace and humanity at large passing through one of its dangerous periods in the entire human history.

Human beings collectively and individually have done great atrocities against humanity: The Individual atrocity started with Qabil killing his own brother Habil according to judo-Christian and Islamic texts ( if you believe in divine revelations). then we see that in ancient human history, kings, rulers and pharaohs had made grave atrocities individually to humanity: In our modern days individuals atrocities of rulers and dictators are endless and uncountable. Joseph V. STALIN (1879-1953 killed millions of his people, Adolf HITLER (1889-1945) who was depicted as the embodiment of evil, killed millions of innocent Jews in the holocaust and was the leader of Nazi Germany and responsible for initiating World War II, Benito MUSSOLINI (1883-1945) [Fascist dictator of Italy, Mao ZEDONG (1893-1976) [Ruled China, Saddam HUSSEIN (1937/ 2007 and many other modern dictators killed thousands of innocents people: The wrong foreign policies of Mr G.Bush paved the way for the death of millions of innocent Iraqis and Afghani people: Why do you think that human beings do such inhuman and barbaric atrocities against own follow human beings and above all, how could they do this barbaric atrocities without any remorse at all? Is it that animalistic characteristic overwhelmed these human beings to do such inhumane cruelty. A cursory reading into the recently human atrocities in Balkan War, Iraq war , Palestine war and other sceneries of war and communal violence including what happened in black July 1983, reveal shocking nature of human atrocities against fellow human beings: I abhor and detest to describe scenes of these atrocities and stories of tortures: Unlike in the past we have seen the images of these atrocities in our TV screens by our naked eyes: Sometimes, human beings behave like animals in the jungle.

An interesting irony is that in our modern world we have many international commissions to protect people from human violations, torture and to promote human rights: UN security council was established to protect nations from aggregation: UN human right commission was established to protect people and nations from human right violations and we do have many national, regional and international originations to protect people against atrocities and torture. We do have all these organisations in our modern world yet, ironically, we see more violence and more atrocities and more injustice in our modern world. What is wrong with humanity? I do not deny the fact that these organisations have managed, to some extent, to curtail and arrest the spread of violence, atrocity in the world: Indeed, International court of justice in Hague has done many good works and in fact it has punished many culprits. However, these international agents have not yet totally prevented nations and people from committing communal atrocities and genocides in the world: These international commissions do not have alternative ethical, moral and religious mechanism to prevent nation and people from committing these genocides and atrocities: These organizations may have identified the problems of human right violations, genocides and human atrocities: however they have not provided solid solutions for the problems of these continuous human atrocities and injustice.

I wonder why human beings kill each other some times for pity reasons. I personally believe that two strong forces dominate our world: The forces of evil and the forces of good: The struggle between good and bad and evil and righteous had been on our earth since the beginning of human existence and such struggle will continue until this world come to an end: This is a undeniable natural fact in human world. When the forces of evil and devil Saytan( if you believe in ) overwhelm hearts and minds of human beings and when human feelings and thinking are totally controlled by evil forces of devils, human beings individually and collectively do all sort of atrocities, murders and killings and they loose all their human characteristics and behave like animals. According to Judo-Christian and Islamic theology first man was initially settled in the Garden of Paradise and God instructed man not fall into the trap of devil tricks and stratagems. Man disobeyed the Divine command and trapped in the devil stratagem and hence he was expelled from the Garden of Paradise onto Earth and Devil made his pledge that he will misguide man until the day of judgment: Even angels predicted that Man will shed blood on earth when man disobeys divine commands: This moral struggle between good and bad and righteous and evils continues in our world in many forms: The forces of evils and devils will appear in the forms of materialism, racism, nationalism, tribalism, ethnicity, unlimited greediness, power, political authority and etc. look at World Wars 1& 11. Why did nations fight in these two wars. Whatever political interpretations we give for these wars, the underlying main cause was unlimited greediness and materialism to control world natural resources: Look at mini war in our modern world, we could see that forces of evils function behinds these all wars and communal violence: It may appear in any one of above mentioned forms: when hearts and minds of political and military leadership are bankrupt and vacuumed from ethical, spiritual and moral guidance, the forces of evil and devil fill this spiritual and moral emptiness with devils tricks and evil stratagem:

We have to evaluate the Black July and all other communal voidance and atrocities in the light of this moral interpretation: When the forces of evil and devils dominate minds and heart of people whether it is Muslims, Christians ,Hindus or Buddhist or any other religious groups they will report to all sort of evil activities: It is not Tamils vs. Sinhalese or Sinhalese vs. Muslims or Tamil vs. Muslims: We have to see as forces of evils vs. the forces of righteous: Barbarism is barbarism and evil is evil whoever does it. Whether it is done by Sinhalese, Tamils or Muslims: We can not justify evils of barbarism though our ethnicity or communal bonds: In Srilanka it looks like that each community has trapped in a racism of superiority and inferiority complex: Tamils feel that they are stronger than Sinhalese and Sinhalese feel that they are stronger than Tamils: Tamil thinks that ethnically they are superior than Sinhalese and Sinhalese think that they ethnically superior than Tamils: This is one more devil tricks for human beings: Tamils feel that how could we be ruled by Sinhalese: Our forefathers ruled the Northeast in olden time how could we now being ruled by Sinhalese: They resort to the proud tradition of their forefathers: This is indeed, a historical nostalgia for them. We all have to respect and appreciate their feeling and attachment to their culture and traditions; however, when they report to all form of violence and atrocities against innocent people to achieves some political power& hegemony it looks that they too trapped in the tricks of evils and devils: We can not win a noble mission through crook means: We should not try to achieve our goal thorough whatever means: Our goal and our mean both should be honest, clean and pure

: On the other hands, Sinhalese too feel shame to give up the Northeast to Tamils for as their traditional home lands: They too feel that they are the majority in Srilanka with political power and how could they give up the Northeast. This proud & arrogant mentality and thinking has paved the way to the death of thousands of people in all sides: The racism and communal hatred are fuelled by this proud mentality and social behaviours: Moreover, the ethical, moral and spiritual human values are diminished in this battle between these communities: often religious leaderships are side lined or used to fuel the social violence: Thus, in the name of nationalism, ethnicity, politic and regionalism the forces of evils and devil dominate our beautiful Island: if Each community goes for historical revenge on the basis of past history, this beautiful Island will plunge into vicious circle of violence and the future our all community will be bleak for all.

How do we get rid of this communal hatred and reconcile between communities in Srilanka. I think that it is a moral responsibility and duty of Srilankan government to apologise publicly for the atrocities of black July. Since black July 1983, successive Srilankan have failed to rectify their mistake and make public apology for the mistakes of political authority to maintain law and order during this riots: This was a professional blunder on the part of our political leadership. Failure to do so, fuelled Tamil people anger and antagonism against Srilankan Governments: LTTE leadership also failed to apologise for their mistakes: They should have made a public apology for Sinhalese and Muslims public: They have in deed, gravely violated all human norms in killing thousands of innocent Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims: They butchered thousands of unarmed Sinhalese villagers and brutally murdered innocent Muslim devotees in the sacred mosques: However, the proud and arrogant LTTE leadership never made a public apology for these atrocities: One reason for this failure, may be that they do not want take to responsibility for their mistakes: However, the mutual apology will at least condole families of victims and generate a sense of friendship and close bond between communities: While we see European leaders are still making public apology for holocaust and other grave mistake, We find that our leaders are so arrogant to make any public apology for any mistake they have done during their rulings: We are trapped in superiority complex and Singhalese leaders feel that how could we make public apology for minority Tamils and likewise, Tamils leaders also feel that how could we make an apology for minority Muslims: We need to get rid of this proud and arrogant mentality from our hearts and minds if we want to build up a good communal relationship between different ethnic and cultural groups in Srilanka:

What is the solution for all these problems: It is true that through International commissions and organisations we could reduce and manage levels of violence, atrocities and wars yet, these so called international organisations and political leadership can not entirely prevent and stop the repeats of these violence and atrocities in the world: whether it is in Srilanka or elsewhere: The real solution for all these problems entirely depends on changing the hearts and minds of people: Until and unless people change themselves and reform their moral attitude, all form of atrocities will appear again and again in this world: All depend in moral, ethical and spiritual developments of people’s hearts and minds: what world urgently needs is not man made weak and feeble solutions but mankind in greater need of divine guidance at this crucial juncture of human history: Failure to follow the divine guidance is the root cause of all these man made problems: Until humanity realises this simple truth and follows the Divine Instructions completely and submit to the Will of God humanity will suffer: It is God the Creator, Designer, Sustainers of this universe and man , who could provide eternal solutions for human problems not weak and feeble man.
- Sri Lanka Guardian