CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

Why Sinhalese are not Responsible for the Black July

Dilrook Kannangara

A recent article in Lankaweb was an eye opener for everyone keen on the conflict and unfortunate events that took place in July 1983 where mostly Tamil properties were attacked and mostly Tamil people were killed. Quickly the blame was passed to the Sinhalese. However, there is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that it was Sinhalese who did the riot against Tamils. Sinhalese who make more than 70% of the Sri Lankan population has no reason to apologize to the Tamils. However, blaming the Church and affiliated institutions and individuals for the pogrom is another false blame passing exercise. The Church was not at all involved in any violent act, conspiracy, instigation, management or abetment of the riot. On the contrary, the Church was at the forefront of providing safe abode, food and clothing to people who were made homeless. In spite of the presence of so many places of worship belonging to other religions, which were not open for the homeless as the churches were!

Naturally most criminals in India are Hindus; Malays in Malaysia; English in the UK; Russians in Russia, etc. Similarly most marauding hooligans at the 1983 riot were Sinhalese for the simple fact they were higher in numbers. Of course there were a few Tamil and Muslim rioters as well. It is wrong to say that the Sinhalese did it just because most of the rioters were naturally Sinhalese as they are approximately 74% of the population. How many Sinhalese were involved in the riot? It was a very miniature percentage of the total Sinhala population. This is much less than 0.01%. Therefore, is it fair to blame a whole race for the crimes of a tiny minority? Interestingly more Sinhalese individuals were engaged in protecting their Tamil friends and relatives from the few rioters!

Same applies to thousands of looters who had a party amidst all the havoc. There were looters and scavengers from all races.

Barbaric acts of July 1983 were not spontaneous. They were well planned, organised and executed by the then government for various reasons. This was brewing up since the late 1970s. Incidents including the burning down of the Jaffna Public Library, attacking Tamils who failed to pronounce (Sinhala) words (that were alien to them) on public transport systems, threatening riots and ridiculing Tamil elected representatives were all part of it. Perpetrators of these leading crimes (that eventually led to the Black July) went unpunished; not even investigated. How could the then government punish them when they were part of it!

The 1977 General Election was a watershed election in Lankan history. It resulted in the strongest ever ruling constituent in parliament. Sri Lankan elections have always been violent, especially when the UNP wins the election. Election related violence killed 81 people at the 2001 general election. Open antagonism exists between the Ruling party and the Opposition party. In 1977 the Opposition was the TULF (Tamil United Liberation Front) which was Tamil only and supporting the LTTE. The Ruling-Opposition antagonism took a new turn; it became racial. It didn’t take long for Jayawardena to ban them all from attending parliament altogether! Meanwhile members of the previous government that secured a very few number of seats were also mercilessly punished. Its leader was stripped off her civic rights including the right to contest elections. Power, power and more power was what the then government was after and they got it. In another world’s first, JR Jayawardena who was the leader of the government passed a new constitution creating a very powerful position for himself. He became the world’s only unelected executive president! He didn’t stop at that. He boasted that he could do anything except he couldn’t turn a man to a woman and vice versa. This statement and accompanying conduct amplified what Jayawardena and his hooligans were after.

In 1980 a mass strike was organised by trade unions demanding better pay. Their demands were rejected by the government. But the government didn’t stop at that. It organised hooligans to attack not only the striking workers, but also their families and properties. A number of people died, sustained permanent injuries and a few more committed suicide. Simply there was no law and order. Even the Chief Justice who was appointed by Jayawardena was his personal lawyer!

A general election was due in 1982 and Sri Lanka always had elections when they fell due. However, Jayawardena had other plans. He declared that there will be no election! Instead a referendum was held for the most bizarre matter: to extend the term of the parliament. Using extreme violence, he managed to get an overwhelming majority. Notably he got higher negative responses from the North and the East where the majority was Tamils. The Presidential Election that was held the same year was marred by violence, civic disability of his opponent and vandalism. It was reported that when the main challenger to Jayawardena went to cast his vote, he was told in no uncertain terms that his vote had already been cast!

Jayawardena’s ministers were no better. They abused their limitless and unchecked power at will. Corruptive, destructive and sexual adventures of his ministers are legendary. Power and punishment were the driving force of the then government and elections, the judiciary and the people couldn’t stop them.

This was the context in which the Black July took place. The Black July cannot be looked at separately from this context. It is unthinkable today but it was just another adventure in 1983. The government had deep rooted grudges against the North-East Tamils. They had repeatedly voted against Jayawardena’s party and stood as the only opposition. Had it not been for the LTTE, the Jayawardena administration would have been unstoppable in its rampage.

The government took no action to stop the riots. It had all the power it required, the political clout, complete absence of resistance and complete compliance by the masses. Governments with much lesser clout have stopped instances that could have spilled into worse violence. For four days the rioters were allowed to run their cause. There was no attempt either by the security forces or the police to stop it. At the end of it all Jayawardena shrewdly blamed the Sinhala people who are the majority for the riots! He was so shrewd that he justified Sinhalese rioting against Tamils which never happened. More than 99.99% of the Sinhalese didn’t engage in any form of violence although a small percentage looted the remains of the riot. By falsely blaming the Sinhala people he evaded responsibility! Blaming the Sinhalese fitted very well with the agenda of the LTTE and they loved it.

His deputies were even better. They blamed a small political party that went out of the way to build ethnic unity for rioting! Chandrika Kumaratunga who later became the President was a prominent activist of this group that was the first political group to demand a non-violent solution to the conflict. They eventually banned them and blocked all avenues for reconciliation altogether.

The then government thought by intimidating Tamils, banning their political parties and barring their friends, they can get them (who were the only opposition the government had) intimidated. The word “punishment” was used generously throughout the riot. This plan worked extremely well with all other opposition forces. Unfortunately for the Jayawardena government it didn’t work in July 1983. India sent a very strong message and demanded redress. The government renewed its blame on the Sinhalese and unrelated political groups. In fact it was the Sinhalese again that assisted Tamils rebuild their shattered lives. After Indira Gandhi’s warning the government reluctantly started helping the affected. Some government politicians attracted enough attention for themselves in their attempt to get back into the good books of India.

People were terrorised by the terror unleashed by the LTTE and the Jayawardena government. However, the riot, sectarianism and anti-Tamil sentiment actively promoted by the government helped the government whip up support for its war. The fear of tigers that send even Colombo resident packing was replaced by vengeance. However, the government was retracting its marauding and rampaging conduct. It couldn’t fight with the people anymore as it badly needed a lot of support for survival. The 1958 and 1972 riots were not much different.

It was the opposite for the LTTE. LTTE and other Tamil separatists continued from where Jayawardena stopped. They, till this date blame the Sinhalese en masse for the Black July. Why? If they blame the Jayawardena government for it, they cannot be fighting over it anymore! Blaming the Sinhalese, Tamil Tiger terrorists are trying to extort a large land mass for them and seek many other ‘returns’.

Today more than 54% of Tamils living in the island live among the Sinhalese. Around 350,000 Tamils are unfortunately trapped in LTTE controlled area. The Sri Lankan government educates them, medicates them and feeds them free of charge. It is people’s tax money which is mostly from the Sinhalese as their numbers are higher that does all the good work. On top of that the Sri Lankan army is engaged in a massive humanitarian operation to save these people and let them live like their cousins in the ‘south’. Enormous sacrifices are made by Sri Lankans, manly the Sinhalese since they are the majority, to liberate their fellow Tamil citizens.

Liberating them from terror is the most fitting tribute Sri Lanka can make to all those who died and suffered (essentially every Sri Lankan) in July 1983.

At the same time extortion attempts by separatist groups must also be defeated. Only those who rioted in July 1983 should feel guilty and others need not give a damn about the claims and demands of extortionists. If there is anything that needs to be rectified in order to avoid a repetition of July 1983 that is political absolutism and anti-national disposition. Jayawardena’s nephew is waiting in the wings to grab power; already he has to his credit more than 500 murders his henchmen committed in a place called Batalanda. Like his uncle he is ruthless and weary. The older he gets without political power, the more ruthless he gets which is uncannily similar to Jayawardena’s predicament!

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