Sources
Port hit in Sri Lankan tourist city, BBC, 18 October 2006; Sri Lanka navy base attacked, sparks anti-Tamil riot, Reuters, 18 October 2006.

Source
Speech by President Chandrika Kumaratunga at the 21st Anniversary of ‘Black July’, Presidential Secretariat, Colombo, 23 July 2004.

Extracts from the speech
“[Today] we commemorate one of the most shameful crimes ever perpetrated on this nation. … We know what occurred on that day and I don’t think I need to remind anyone of you here of the details of that day and the week that followed. Twenty one years is a long time, but I’m happy that at least today I have the opportunity to correct, even in a small way the tragedy that was perpetrated upon some of the Tamil people of this country.

“Many years after 1983, my Government had the occasion to appoint the Truth Commission under the distinguished chairmanship of former Chief Justice, Mr. S Sharvananda and two other distinguished members, Mr. M M Zuhair and Mr. S S Sahabandu, both legal luminaries; and that we were able even to some extent to elucidate the details of the incidents that occurred on those days. …

“The Commission has recommended certain amounts of monetary compensation to these victims of the various forms of violence. I must hasten to say that we do not believe that these small amounts of monetary compensation will in any way make up for the suffering undergone by those people. It is only symbolic of what the State wishes to do or say to those people, it is only symbolic of the apology that we wish to make to all those victims who have been identified and whose who may never be identified. The consequences of those incidents are horrendous. I don’t think I need to elaborate, those of you who are here are only too well aware of it. Over 700,000 Tamil people out of a total of about 1.2 million Tamil people living in this country at the time had to run away and find homes in other countries. Amongst these we count some of the best qualified professionals of Sri Lanka; committed qualified professionals and decent people. In addition these incidents of 21 years ago have radically changed the entire fabric of Sri Lankan society. From the top, right down to the bottom, vertically, horizontally and entirely. …

“Maybe the sociologists and other types of researchers could tell us, tell us how to honestly and truthfully look at what happened on that fateful day in Black July 1983, the reasons that led up to this and the consequences of that day.

“I believe at 21 years, one is supposed to come of age, human beings are said to come of age at 21 years. At least now I believe that we as a nation and especially the Sri Lankan state should come of age, look the truth in the face and make a national apology, first to all the victims of that day in Black July and then beyond them to the entire Nation.

“Perhaps it is the responsibility of the State and the Government to engage in that exercise first and foremost, and then all of us as the Nation, every citizen in this country should collectively accept the blame and make that apology to all of you here who are the representatives or the direct victims of that violence, and through you to all the other tens of thousands who suffered by those incidents. I would like to assign to myself the necessary task on behalf of the State of Sri Lanka, the Government and on behalf of all of us; all the citizens of Sri Lanka to extend that apology. It is late but I think it is still not too late. …

“All I wish is that we can all do collectively; all I would like to ask you at this moment is that we put that unpleasant past of about 50 years or a little bit more behind us and attempt to move forward. … We cannot forget, we cannot blind ourselves to the mistakes we have made; we will have to accept collective guilt for the wrongs, and then move forward. When I say collective guilt I mean first the State of Sri Lanka for the horrors they perpetrated upon one section of our peoples, 21 years ago and at other lesser moments, but I also mean all the others on the other side of the divide who have also used young children as suicide bombers, and killed hundreds of people and caused much suffering to other people. They will have all kinds of justifications, they will say, we have been wronged so therefore we must do the same thing. I do not think any of the religious leaders here or any one of us would accept those excuses. Those who use violence as a response to violence will have to understand as Lord Buddha has said and many others, Jesus Christ and all the other religious leaders, violence begets violence, it will never resolve the problem. …

“Today we are compensating just a handful of the victims, because we could not get together all the others, but from Monday onwards my office will be ready to undertake the task of distributing the relevant compensations to all those who would wish to present themselves, all those who have been identified in the Truth Commission Report. I would also like to take this opportunity to express my deep and sincere gratitude to Justice Sharvananda and the members and the Secretary of the Truth Commission for having painstakingly gone into all the details and the complaints that were presented to you and for having done this gigantic job with great success.”

Related events
31 May 1981
24 July 1983
23 July 2001

Source
Tiger Manipulation of Tamil-Muslim Relations and the Creeping Siege of Kinniya and Mutur, University Teachers For Human Rights (Jaffna), Information Bulletin No. 34, 21 December 2003.

Headed by former Chief Justice, Suppiah Sharvandana, the Commission’s mandate was to “inquire into the nature, cause and extent of the gross violation of human rights, the destruction and damage to property committed as part of the ethnic violence which occurred from the beginning of 1981 to the end of 1984 with special reference to Black July 1983, including the circumstances which led to such violence”.

Sources
Report on the Presidential Truth Commission on Ethnic Violence
(1981 – 1984), Volume I; S. Sharvananda, S. S. Sahabandu, M. M. Zuhair;
September 2002; Scripting the Welikade Massacre Inquest and the Fate of Two Dissidents, Supplement to Special Report No.25, University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) UTHR(J), 31 May 2007; Remembering Conflict, The Hindu, 20 July 2003.

Extracts from the report
“It is necessary to emphasise the difficulties of giving a complete picture of these events, firstly because no official records of any investigation are available; secondly, almost all reports were censored at the time from publications; and thirdly most of the victims are still living outside the country – some in South India, most of the others in Western countries. We have restricted these records to those who made representations, almost all of which were verified by a competent team of investigators appointed by the Commission and to he accounts of those who were able to give oral testimony before the Commission. We are in no position sitting as we do, nearly 19 years after these events of July 1983 to give a reasonably complete picture of the events of 1983.

“We regret to find that the government had failed to prosecute those involved in the crimes of the July 25th and 27th. The domestic inquiry initiated by the Head of Welikade Prison Mr Leo de Silva was not proceeded with. There is not evidence that investigations commenced by the Borella Police had been proceeded with, beyond the stage of the inquest. the efforts of the commission to trace the police records turned futile. It is the responsibility every government to ensure that perpetrators of crimes are punished and that no one acts with impunity or gets away without responsibility. The government of the day has failed to discharge these obligations.

“The question arises as to why the government failed to declare the curfew in the morning of Monday 25 July, when trouble had already broken out in several parts of Colombo, in addition to the troubles that had occurred in Borella, the previous evening? This was [a] question that Sarath Muttetuwegama MP raised in Parliament, for which no satisfactory response came from the government. … The government however declared the curfew only in the afternoon of 25th July, which came into effective operation late in the evening.

“Another important aspect concerns the role of the media. … There was a lot of disinformation, distortions, exaggerations, inflammatory bloating of events: they all led to an escalation of domestic violence. I would specifically refer to a newspaper that is no longer in print, that of the Dawasa Group. Much before “Black July” on 17th July 1983, there was a headline, “Uthure Thrasthawadaya madinna Thawath Thrasthawadayak” (“To counter Northern terrorism, there is going to emerge another terrorism”). It was a banner headline. The newspaper went on to the extent of stating that after the 22nd of July a very strong course of action will be taken to exterminate or to defeat terrorism. It significantly mentions the date, “after 22nd and 23rd”.

Recommendations

1. The President and the Prime Minister must give leadership to a new era of ethnic reconciliation and national unity;
2. The support and participation of the people of the country in the towns and the villages must be obtained and sustained by the country’s leaders for the above purpose;
3. Legislation similar to the South African, Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act No. 32 of 1995, by enacted to establish the legal framework for sustaining the process of ethnic reconciliation and to provide for the elimination of all forms of racism and ethnic related discrimination;
4. The leadership, support and cooperation of religious leaders, the civil society, the mass media, the schools, the police and the armed forces be ensured in the process of reconciliation and national unity;
5. National unity and ethnic amity [must] be fostered with due regard and recognition for pluralism and diversity;
6. The establishment of just and fair governance that will eliminate all forms of racism and discrimination be promoted, with perpetrators of discrimination losing the right to hold public office for specified periods of time;
7. The media be made to recognise that sections from amongst them did contribute to the sustenance of ethnic misgivings and that they have a major responsibility to support and promote national unity and ethnic reconciliation;
8. The government must pay full compensation to the victims (or their dependents) on the basis of the Commission’s Recommendations;
9. An Investigations Division of officers with police powers functioning entirely under the direction of the Human Rights Commission (HRC) to apprehend and prosecute persons holding public office acting in violation of fundamental rights with particular reference to ethnic related discrimination;
10. The HRC in all cases on its own, or upon complaints of unsatisfactory investigations by police relating to ethnic violations or issues, must take over and conduct investigations through its Investigations Division and ensure appropriate action;
11. The perpetrators of ethnic violence whether they be members of the public, the police, the armed forces or the public service by prosecuted whenever any ethnic violence occurs in the future;
12. Truth Commissions be appointed mandating to cover ethnic violence during the post-1984 period and to compensate all victims of ethnic violence and to achieve national unity and ethnic reconciliation.

Quotations

“I dare say much of the facts were not available to the Commission because of the long period that had ensued between ‘83 and the appointment of the Commission in the year 2001. … I am aware the Commissioners went into in great detail and took much trouble to investigate these complaints placed before them. And as you know they have been able to find evidence of what was nearly a 1,000 killings during that period and I believe 18,000 properties were destroyed, mainly by fire, and thousands of others were injured in incidents of violence. We suppose that there must have been many more incidents that have not been reported to the Commission, simply because there is nobody to report them anymore, either in this world or in this country,” President Chandrika Kumaratunga at the 21st Anniversary of ‘Black July’, Presidential Secretariat, Colombo, 23 July 2004.

“Where the Welikade massacres were concerned for instance [the Commission] did hardly any – if any – investigation of its own. It relied on me for practically everything and seemed more than happy with just our material. What it should have done is taken our material as a starting point and then followed up from there, with all its powers of investigation and summoning witnesses, which we didn’t have. For instance it could and should have tried to obtain the statements recorded by the police after the first massacre. The instructing attorneys in the 35 civil cases filed by dependents of victims called for these time and time again in preparation for the trials, but were met with evasion after evasion by the police. The cases never came to trial because they were eventually settled, with the state paying some compensation but without admitting liability. …  Welikade was only a small part of the Commission’s whole remit. In its report the Commission did pay CRM and me a handsome tribute, which was certainly gratifying, but we had really hoped that it would investigate further and uncover information which we had not already found out for ourselves,” Suriya Wickremasinghe, Civil Rights Movement, who had appeared before the Commission.

“[The] indications were clear enough that [the Commission] was not meant to be taken too seriously, and that it was really meant to serve a cosmetic purpose. The time frame of 1981 to 1984 was absurd as the State terrorism clearly began in 1977. However, the Commissioners ignored that time frame and went into the antecedents leading up to 1981. They were required to submit their report in January 2002 – that is, in no more than just six months. The report was in fact submitted in September 2002. It noted that the South African Truth Commission had a staff of 750 to assist it, the media gave it wide coverage, and there was something like national participation in what was seen as a process of reconciliation by establishing the truth. There was hardly any of that here. The report emphasized the need to set up new Commissions to continue the work of establishing the truth as part of a continuing process of reconciliation and nation-building. There has been none of that, and all that has happened is that President Kumaratunga issued a perfunctory apology over 1983. Clearly at the level of the State also there has been a resistance to establishing the full truth about what happened in 1983,”Izeth Hussain, 1983 July Anti – Tamil Violence – State Terrorism, transcurrents.com.

Sources
Report on the Presidential Truth Commission on Ethnic Violence (1981 – 1984), Volume I; S. Sharvananda, S. S. Sahabandu, M. M. Zuhair; September 2002; Scripting the Welikade Massacre Inquest and the Fate of Two Dissidents, Supplement to Special Report No.25, University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) UTHR(J), 31 May 2007.

Related events
31 May 1981
24 July 1983
23 July 2004

41 people were initially indicted for the killings, but 23 were freed due to lack of evidence. Out of the 18 people who faced a full trial, a further 13 were discharged for lack of evidence. In July 2003, the remaining five accused were sentenced to death by the Colombo High Court. These included three residents of the area, Sub-Inspector of Police S. Jayampathi Karunasena and Sub-Inspector of Police Tyronne Roger Ratnayake (who was later released on lack of evidence). In May 2005, on appeal to the Supreme Court, the remaining four were acquitted: the Supreme Court held that the Attorney General had failed to prove the charges.

Source
Mobs kills Tamil inmates in Sri Lanka prison attack, toll 25, AFP, 25 October 2000; Sri Lankan mob kills 25 former child soldiers, Associated Press, 25 October 2000; Two Sri Lankan police sentenced to death over Tamil prisoner massacre, AFP, 1 July 2003; Bindunuwewa accused acquitted, BBC Sinhala, 27 May 2005.

Quotations

“The killing of 29 LTTE prisoners undergoing rehabilitation in Bandarawela under the security and supervision of the state is an appalling crime. … The incident demonstrates that the war mentality cannot be limited to the north-east theatre of operations. Unless the government speedily emphasises constitutional reform and a political solution, we fear that the larger society will be brutalised beyond repair”. National Peace Council, 27 October 2000.

“If not for the complicity of police officers, this would have been avoided. When the victims went running to policemen seeking protection, they were fired at by the police.” Judge Sarath Ambepitiya, High Court in Colombo.

Opinion
“In July 2003, the High Court in Colombo convicted two mid-level police officers and three local residents of murder and sentenced them to death for their role in the massacre. Still, it took another year, and much prodding by the International Committee of the Red Cross, to arrange for something resembling a proper burial. Yet without death certificates, the families of the ten victims still have not received the $2,000 government compensation awarded the other 17 families, despite multiple letters and personal visits by family members to virtually every government official and bureaucrat directly or indirectly involved in the case. … That said, the principal responsibility for the massacres of course lies with the Sri Lankan state, and here, despite years of studying and living in Sri Lanka, I was in for an unexpected shock. Last August I attended one of the final Bindunuwewa appeals hearings. Held before a five-member bench of the supreme court, the justices—addressed by counsel as “your lordships” and adorned in dark red judicial robes and stiff white collars—had all the markings of decorum. At previous hearings earlier in the summer I had been disturbed by the apparent sympathy of most of the justices for the arguments of the lawyer for the second police officer convicted of murder. (The first had earlier been acquitted when the prosecution admitted that its evidence against him was insufficient.) But the final hearing was truly shocking. As the solicitor general repeatedly referred to the ways the Tamil inmates had been murdered – “beaten, stabbed, and some even roasted alive” he would say with a flourish – one of the justices began to mock his emphasis on the word “roasted”. This brought much laughter from the other justices and the defense lawyers, and even, most disturbingly, from the government lawyers themselves. … This conduct was only the most grotesque example of the judges’ utter disdain for the crimes under consideration and for the state’s responsibility to determine the truth. The proceedings were filled with bad jokes and undignified behavior, lacked any sense of gravity of the case, and indicated no awareness of the state’s obligation to protect the inmates whatever their political sympathies.” Alan Keenan, visiting assistant professor of political science at Bryn Mawr College, No Peace, No War: Have international donors failed Sri Lanka’s most vulnerable? Boston Review, Summer 2005.

“The latest fiasco concerns the Supreme Court’s overturning of convictions in the Bindunuwewa massacre case. The Trial-at-Bar comprising High Court Judges, Sarath Ambepitya, Eric Basanayake and Upali Abeyaratne delivered death sentences on five of the accused in July 2003. Two of the defendants were police Inspector Senaka Jayampathy Karunasena and Sub-Inspector Tyronne Roger Ratnayake. By 27th May, 2005 the five-member bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices T.B. Weerasuriya, Nihal Jayasinghe, N.K. Udalagama, N.E. Dissanayake and Raja Fernando had acquitted all five on appeal. The bench led by T.B. Weerasuriya ruled that the Attorney General failed to prove the charges without reasonable doubt.” Bindunuwewa: The Thin End of the Wedge of Impunity, University Teachers for Human Rights (UTHR), 12 June 2005.

Sources and quotations

“Eye witnesses and victims reported that on the streets cars were stopped by gangs and the people inside were asked whether they were Sinhalese or Tamil. Some Sinhalese words are extremely difficult for people who do not speak the language fluently to pronounce, people were tested by being made to pronounce these words. The mobs were also demanding to see identity cards to establish whether or not people were Tamils… People identified as Tamils as a result of the questioning were told to get out of their cars and their cars were set alight… In cases where any resistance was offered, killings were likely to take place… It was reported by many people that in some instances students from Buddhist schools followed on behind the first rioters and that some Buddhist monks were seen amongst the gangs.” Patricia Hyndman, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of New South Wales and Secretary, Lawasia Human Rights Standing Committee Report – Democracy in Peril, June 1985.

“A tourist told yesterday how she watched in horror as a Sinhala mob deliberately burned alive a bus load of Tamils… Mrs. Eli Skarstein, back home in Stavanger, Norway, told how she and her 15 year old daughter, Kristin, witnessed one massacre. “A mini bus full of Tamils were forced to stop in front of us in Colombo” she said. A Sinhalese mob poured petrol over the bus and set it on fire. They blocked the car door and prevented the Tamils from leaving the vehicle. “Hundreds of spectators watched as about 20 Tamils were burned to death”. Mrs. Skarstein added: “We cannot believe the official casualty figures. Hundreds may be thousands must have been killed already.” London Daily Express, 29th August 1983.

“Considerably more people died during the recent violence in Sri Lanka than the 380 deaths the government there has admitted to, according to an aid organisation. Dr. Sjef Teuns, General Secretary of Novib, the leading private development aid organisation in the Netherlands, said between 1000 and 2000 people lost their lives. He returned to Netherland on Saturday. He accused the Sri Lanka government of serious human rights violations against the Tamil population and called the Dutch government to reconsider its development aid policy towards the country.” The Times of London, 22 August 1983.

“Our view is that the July holocaust was a pre-planned, well-orchestrated genocidal pogrom against the Tamils, carried out by the racial elements of the ruling party. Initially, these racist elements did attempt to put the whole blame on the LTTE. Then, suddenly, they blamed the left parties for the riots. But in fact, it is the racist leaders of the present government who should take responsibility for this tragic loss of life.” Velupillai Pirapaharan, Leader of Tamil Eelam in an interview with Anita Pratap, March 1984.

“It is relevant to mention the gruesome massacre of 53 Tamil prisoners in the Welikade jail in Colombo on July 25 and 27 last year. Many of them were only detainees on suspicion and not convicted prisoners. After they were brutally murdered, their wives, sisters, children and parents came to know about their death only through the radio. Much more terrible was the fact that the bodies of these detainees were buried or cremated without any member of the families knowing or being present. They were not even given the chance of having a last look at the body. No amount of sanctimonious expressions of sorrow or statements made before the Commission that the Sri Lankan Government was not proud of what happened at the Colombo jail would be acceptable to the civilised world, when up to date, the government has failed or neglected or refused to order an independent judicial inquiry into this unprecedented slaughter of those who were in the custody of the Government.” Statement by All India Womens Conference at UN Sub Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, 24 August 1984.

“Three weeks ago, the people of Sri Lanka passed through experiences which they have rarely had in this country since Independence. Hundreds of people lost their lives, thousands lost their jobs, houses were burned, factories destroyed. These events applied equally to all citizens of Sri Lanka – Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims…. I had been advised that I should say this or something else, but I thought that I should speak from the depth of my conscience…” President Jayawardene, 22nd of August 1983.

“This was part of an international conspiracy to destabilise us. We know who are behind it at all. I have even told the nation this… These people are jealous of the success of our experiments with a free economy. That is why they are trying their best to set us in flames. Behind all this is the foreign hand: the KGB, to be precise. I am not afraid of saying this openly.” Anandatissa de Alwis, Minister of State, Interview by Pritish Nandy, Illustrated Weekly of India, 18 December 1983.

Interview by Anita Pratap with Velupillai Pirabakaran, leader of the Liberation Tigers for Tamil Eelam, March 1984, Sunday Magazine, India 11-17 March 1984:
Q: “The Liberation Tiger for Tamil Eelam (LTTE) staged the 23 July 1983 ambush in which 13 Sinhalese soldiers were killed. The ambush was allegedly the reason for the Sinhalese retaliation on innocent Tamils. Did you expect such a massive retaliation?”

A:”The July violence should not be assessed simply as a Sinhala retaliation for the guerrilla ambush. This view is a gross oversimplification of the event. The island has been plagued with anti-Tamil racial violence which erupts periodically over the years. There were violent racial holocausts even before the emergence of our movement. Violent riots erupted in Trincomalee a couple of weeks before the ambush. Therefore, the phenomenon of anti-Tamil racial violence cannot be traced to a single event. We are engaged in a protracted guerrilla warfare. There has been several guerrilla raids, several ambushes,, and we have killed several Sinhala soldiers and policemen The July ambush was only a part of the warfare we are engaged in. It is incorrect to assume that one particular military operation has precipitated the entire violence. The July riots, you would have certainly observed, was not aimed at the physical extermination of our people but it was also aimed the destruction of the economic power base of the Tamils in Colombo. Our view is that the July holocaust was a pre-planned, well- orchestrated genocidal pogrom against the Tamils, carried out by the racial elements of the ruling party. Initially, these racist elements did attempt to put the whole blame on the Tiger. Then, suddenly they blamed the left parties for the riots. But in actual fact, it is the racist leaders of the present government who should be the responsibility for this tragic loss of life and property of our people.”

Related events
Tigers kill 13 soldiers in armed ambush
Anti-Tamil violence spreads around the country
Anti-Tamil riots causes civilian deaths and displacement
31 May 1981
Tigers attack international airport

Other features
Feature: Historical roots of conflict in Sri Lanka
Feature: Assassination of an activist
Feature: LTTE expels northern Muslims, 1990

Quotations and sources

“A large group of police (estimated variously from 100-200) went on rampage on the nights of May 31-June 1 (1981) and June 1-2 burning the market area of Jaffna, the office of the Tamil Newspaper, the home of the member of Parliament for Jaffna and the Jaffna Public Library…The widespread damage in Jaffna as a result of the actions of the police were evident during the visit of the ICJ observer in Jaffna in August…The 95,000 volumes of the Public Library destroyed by the fire included numerous culturally important and irreplaceable manuscripts… The government should lead a major national and international effort to rebuild and develop the Jaffna Public Library destroyed by arson by police in June 1981. Such an effort would evidence the respect the government for the cultural rights of the Tamils, help to remedy a serious injustice done to the Tamil community and contribute to restoring Tamil confidence in the government…A primary concern of the government should be the physical security of the minority Tamil population and the avoidance of future communal violence so frequently directed against Tamils in the past… In this regard the government should pursue a vigorous policy of investigation and prosecution of police officers responsible for the burning of many areas in Jaffna in May/June 1981,” Virginia Leary, Ethnic Conflict and Violence in Sri Lanka – Report of a Mission to Sri Lanka on behalf of the International Commission of Jurists, July/August 1981.

“It is regrettable that the government did not institute an independent investigation to establish responsibility for these killings and take measures against those responsible. Instead, one police officer involved was promoted and emergency legislation was introduced facilitating further killings,” Orville H. Schell, Head of the Amnesty International 1982 Fact Finding Mission to Sri Lanka.

Related links
From Destroying a symbol: Checkered history of Lanka’s Jaffna public library, Rebecca Knuth, University of Hawaii, June 2006:
“The collection became well known internationally and was popular with Sinhalese and Tamil intellectuals, as well as the general public. It became the major repository for all known literary source materials of the Tamil people (Sivathamby 2004). … The library held miniature editions of the Ramayana epic, yellowing collections of extinct Tamil-language newspapers (Dugger 2001), and microfilms of important documents and records of the Morning Star, a journal published by missionaries in the early twentieth century (“Civilization and Culture…” 2003). It held historical scrolls, works on herbal medicine, and the manuscripts of prominent intellectuals, writers, and dramatists. Indeed, one could think of the Jaffna Library as a national library even though a Tamil nation had not yet come into being.

From What’s lost forever when a library burns, The Economist, 28 May 2008:
“With 97,000 books and manuscripts, including many medieval Tamil texts written on palm-leaf parchment, Jaffna’s library was one of the greatest repositories of Tamil history and learning in the world. It was also one of the finest libraries in Asia. A 15th-century Spanish bible was among its lost jewels.”

Related events
LTTE kill 13 soldiers in armed ambush
Widespread anti-Tamil communal riots, remembered as ‘Black July’
Anti-Tamil violence spreads around the country
Anti-Tamil riots causes civilian deaths and displacement

A Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the riots of August and September, commonly referred to as the Sansoni Commission, was appointed on 9th November 1977. Its mandate inter alia was “to ascertain the circumstances and the causes that led to, and particulars of, the incidents which took place in the island between the 13th day of August, 1977 and the 15th day of September”. The Sansoni Commission commenced its sittings on 8 February 1978 and concluded on 12 October 1979. The Commission found that 100 people had died in the riots.

Sources
Ethnic Conflict and Violence in Sri Lanka: Report of a Mission to Sri Lanka in July-August 1981, International Commission of Jurists, Virginia Leary, August 1983; Playing the “communal Card”: Communal Violence and Human Rights, Cynthia G. Brown and Farhad Karim, Human Rights Watch, 1995.

Quotations

“Militant Tamil Youth from the North were organizing guerilla groups with support from offices in Tamil Nadu, India. When they killed two [Sinhalese] policemen in Jaffna in mid-August 1977, anti Tamil rioting broke out in many parts of the country. The violence lasted more than a month. Over one hundred people were killed and over 25,000 were displaced. Many Indian Tamils fled to the Eastern Province. … This time the government did not declare a state of emergency to quell the violence. This failure to deploy official forces has been interpreted as an indication that the government could no longer trust the army and police to enforce the law. Criticism was leveled against the government for placing the blame for the riots on the Tamil politicians. Basing its conclusions on the [Sansoni Commission] the government attributed the violence to the killings of the two policemen in Jaffna, to inflammatory statements by Tamil leaders, and to Tamil separatist aspirations.” Playing the “communal Card”: Communal Violence and Human Rights, Cynthia G. Brown and Farhad Khan (1995).

“On August 22, J R met M C Sansoni, a former Chief Justice, a Burgher, and persuaded him to accept the onerous task of inquiring into the causes of the incident in the riots that had broken out in the previous week, and suggesting remedial action. The choice of this highly respected and ‘ethnically neutral’ figure to head an official inquiry was accepted by all sections of opinion in the country as an astute move and as an important step in the process of confidence building after the blood-letting August.” K M deSilva & Howard Wriggins (1989), J R Jayewardene of Sri Lanka: A Political Biography: Volume Two: From 1956 to His Retirement.

“Civil society in the South is to blame for failing to scrutinise the Sansoni Report in spite of its glaring deficiencies, and allowing it to be quoted frequently and selectively as a piece of impartial history. This silence contributed in no small way towards the worsening situation. By contrast no effort has been spared in discrediting reports of commissions appointed by President Kumaratunge which touched on matters which the ruling establishment found inconvenient.” Antecedents of July 1983 and the Foundations of Impunity, University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna).

“As on previous occasions, what took place recently was not Sinhalese – Tamil riots, but an anti-Tamil pogrom. Although Sinhalese were among the casualties, the large majority of those killed, maimed and seriously wounded are Tamils. The victims of the widespread looting are largely Tamils. And among those whose shops and houses were destroyed, the Tamils are the worst sufferers. Of the nearly 75,000 refugees, the very large majority were Tamils, including Indian Tamil plantation workers.” Behind the Anti-Tamil Terror: The National Question in Sri Lanka, Edmund Samarakkody in Workers Vanguard (New York), No. 176, 1977.

“V. Pirabhakaran founded the LTTE on 5th May, 1976. After the founding of the LTTE, on Aug. 16, 1977, the Police and the Tamil Youth, clashed in Jaffna. This triggered off anti-Tamil riots resulting in major loss of life and property of Tamils and the creation of a large number of refugees. Violence became frequent in the Northern Peninsula. At least one incident of violence and confrontation was reported every day.” Jain Commission Report, published in India Today, August 1997.

“During the 1977 elections, many Tamil youths began to engage in extraparliamentary and sometimes violent measures in their bid for a mandate for a separate state. These measures precipitated a Sinhalese backlash. An apparently false rumor that Sinhalese policemen had died at the hands of Tamil terrorists, combined with other rumors of alleged anti-Sinhalese statements made by Tamil politicians, sparked brutal communal rioting that engulfed the island within two weeks of the new government’s inauguration. The rioting marked the first major outbreak of communal violence in the nineteen years since the riots of 1958. Casualties were many, especially among Tamils, both the Sri Lankan Tamils of Jaffna and the Indian Tamil plantation workers.” Sri Lanka Country Study, Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress.

“The vast majority of the people in this country have not got the restraint and the reserve that members of parliament, particularly those in the front ranks, have been used to. They become restive when they hear such remarks as a separate state is to be formed, that Trincomalee is to be the capital of that state, that Napoleon had said that Trincomalee is the key to the Indian Ocean, and therefore Trincomalee is going to be the capital of the state … Whatever it is, when statements of that type are said and the newspapers carry them throughout the island, and when you say you are not violent but that violence may be used in time to come, what do you think the other people in Sri Lanka would do? How will they react? When this happened in Jaffna – I am not saying that you [members of the TULF] caused it. You are completely innocent of it. When Sinhalese boutiques are attacked, when government property is attacked – every railway train bringing people from there to the South spread the stories – all that caused the death of the most innocent Tamil people and Muslim people, which should never happen. I am very sorry that it should have happened. … But I say, be careful of the words you use. … Such words can inflame people. And what has happened can happen in a greater degree if such words are used by responsible leaders.” Excerpts from Prime Minister J.R. Jayewardene’s speech to parliament, 18 August 1977, two days after the first incidents in Jaffna.

Related events
Anti-Tamil violence spreads around the country
Widespread anti-Tamil communal riots, remembered as ‘Black July’

Source
The Clash of Ideologies and the Continuing Tragedy in the Batticoloa and Amparai Districts, University Teachers For Human Rights (Jaffna) Report No. 7.

Extract from Emergency ’58: The Premier Waves his Wand
“By June 3, when the Government Parliamentary Group met to assess the situation, their attitudes had crystallized in some definite form. Almost every one of the members knew the depths to which the prestige of the Government had tumbled since the emergency. All over the Sinhalese areas, wherever people had been roused by communal leaders and by the rumours of Tamil atrocities, the charge was that the Govern­ment was using the army to murder Sinhalese instead of to quell the Tamils, as it should have done.

When, therefore, the Government members of Parliament met on June 3 many of them knew their line. They had to find a scapegoat to offer to the Sinhalese whose communal passions had been churned up by the riots. …

“I will run this country with my army and navy – I have taken certain steps to see that no extremists, either from the north or the south, will ever succeed in undermining this Government. Even if it means running this country for fifty years with my military forces, I am prepared to do so. Certain people seem to think that the Government is weak and they also expected it to collapse during the last few days. They have been proved wrong, the Government is firmer than ever before. I will show these people just exactly how strong the Government is—as I have proved during the last ten days.” S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike.

The Premier outlined the events that led to the State of Emergency being declared. He began with the Federal con­vention, the Polonnaruwa train hold-up, the Batticaloa derailment, and the shooting of the planter, Mr D. A. Seneviratne. The shooting, he said, had resulted in a number of other incidents in the rest of the country which finally resulted in his advising the Governor-General to declare a State of Emergency.

“Gentlemen. I have since then got complete control of the situation. All the forces which are against law and order, under the misguided conception that they could overthrow this Government, combined in the events during the last two weeks. The Government did not hesitate to act. We have succeeded in checking law breakers and hooligans.”
The group then passed a vote of apprecia­tion of the Premier on ‘the tactful way the entire situation had been handled’. The resolution was moved by W. Dahanayake and seconded by the M.P. for Nattandiya, Hugh Fernando.
“If the Government had banned the Federal Party, why did not the Government then take the next proper step and arrest the Federal leaders? Why haven’t Messrs Chelvanay­akam and company been arrested? They should be behind bars instead of being free to do as they like! It is the Federalists who have planned this, in a well-organized way – the Government is weak and has brought itself into disrepute by not taking the proper action in arresting these leaders.” MP for Gampaha, S. D. Bandaranayake.
“I also want to know why the Federal leaders have not been arrested. All over the country they are saying that the Government is weak. If we cannot govern, then let us get out. The Tamils have worked against us, they have plotted to overthrow this Government, with outside assistance. They will destroy us eventually. Before that happens, I ask that the Tamils be settled once for all. I ask that they be told that Sinhala Only has come to stay -and they must submit. This Government has been too tolerant of these Tamils. The Sinhalese are the laughing stock in the country as a result of the Government’s weak stand against the Tamils.” MP for Weligama, Pani Ilangakoon.
“Certainly the Federalists and other forces have planned to overthrow the Central Government and set up a separate administration in the east and the north. But I have thwarted that. Their attempts have been quelled. My military forces are now in the east and the north. There is military rule in these two provinces, each with a military governor, yes, I say they are military governors. With my army I will see that there is no repeated attempt to set up a different administration in these provinces.”
“All over the country they are saying that you have acceded to the Federal request for a Federal State by sending the Tamils back to the north and east. The whole country is under the impression that before long they will exist as separate Tamil Federal States.”
“I will never allow that. I will never allow division of this country. What has happened is that the women and children who were living under very unsatis­factory and inconvenient conditions, have been sent, on their own wish, back to the north. That is all. There was no intention, nor is there any intention whatsoever, that the Government is helping, by this manner, the creation of a Federal or separate State.” S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike.
“The Tamils are gaining strength in all parts of the country where they are. Is this Government going to stand for this nonsense? The Sinhalese are in danger of being liquidated by them.” MP for Horana, Sagara Palansuriya.
“Destroy them!” MP identified as MP for Hambantota, Lakshman Rajapakse.
“Who said that? Are you seriously thinking that the Tamils must be destroyed? This Government has no such intention. I am surprised that there is such talk and stranger still such talk from the M.P. for Hambantota, who is wedded to a Tamil, for better or for worse – isn’t that so, Lakshman?”

“It is my intention that every inhabitant in this country should live in peace and harmony. It is my intention that we should live together as one brotherhood. I tell you as Prime Minister, I would be inhuman if I did not work for this, and I tell you again, as Prime Minister, this Government will work towards this end. My mind has been engaged on this problem and I have no doubt at all that the Government Parliamentary Group will co-operate in the fulfilling of this task. I will further tell you that I intend appointing Advisory Councils for the north and the east to begin with. Meanwhile the military will stay there until such time that the Government is convinced that they should be with­drawn.” S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike.

“For a full account of the events leading up to and following the 1958 riots, we recommend Tarzie Vittachi’s award winning Emergency ’58: The Story of the Ceylon Race Riots, 1959 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts.

Related events
19 February 1958
April 1958
9 April 1958
27 May 1958

Extract from Emergency ’58: The Horror Spreads
“The killing of Seneviratne on May 25 was thus officially declared to be the cause of the uprising, although the Com­munal riots had begun on May 22 with the attack on the Polonnaruwa Station and the wrecking of the Batticaloa—Colombo train and several other minor incidents.

“No explanation was offered by the Prime Minister for sing­ling out Seneviratne’s name for particular mention from the scores of people who had lost their lives during those critical days. Did the fact that he was a wealthy man rate him a special mention in a Call to the Nation at such a moment?

“No effort was made to check whether the Seneviratne killing was a political affair or the outcome of a private feud as sug­gested by Mr S. J. V. Chelvanayakam during the debate in Parliament on June 4. If it was, indeed, a ‘private’ murder, the use of this man’s name in that context was a grievous and costly error.”

Extract from Emergency ’58: Emergency Declared
“Shortly after noon on May 27, the Governor-General proclaimed that a State of Emergency had arisen in Ceylon. Several units of the army and navy were mobilized. Army units were rushed to Batticaloa district from Colombo and Diyatalawa where the Sinhala regiment had just held its passing-out parade. Volunteers were called up for active service. A dusk to dawn curfew was clamped on the whole island.

“The Government also took the bold step of proscribing the Federal Party and the Jatika Vimukti Peramuna, which were at the two extremes of the language conflict. It was a bold step, certainly, that had immediately beneficial results—but whether it was a wise one remains to be seen.

“The rioters continued their battle in the streets. Fresh fires broke out in Wellawatte, Maradana and Pettah. Looting continued apace.”

Extract from Emergency ’58: Federalists Detained
“Little did Chelvanayakam or his colleagues suspect that behind the Prime Minister’s glasses his eyes were twinkling with dramatic irony. The House adjourned that night at about 10 p.m. As the Federal Party M.P.s left the premises they were accosted by the police and placed under house detention. Chelvanayakam and Party Secretary Dr E. M. V. Naganathan were held incommunicado in their homes in Kollupitiya. Those who had no homes in Colombo were detained at the Galle Face Hotel, on the second floor, overlooking the swimming pool.

“The Federalist leaders arrested were: S. J. V. Chelvanayakam (Kankesanturai), Dr E. M. V. Naganathan, V. A. Kandiah (Kayts), Dr V. K. Paramanayagam, V. N. Navaratnam (Chavakachcheri), N. R. Rajavarothiam (Trincomalee), C. Vanniasingham (Kopay), C. Rajadurai (Batticaloa) and A. Amirthalingam (Vaddukoddai).”

For a full account of the events leading up to and following the 1958 riots, we recommend Tarzie Vittachi’s award winning Emergency ’58: The Story of the Ceylon Race Riots, 1959 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts.

Quotation

“An unfortunate situation had arisen resulting in communal tension. Certain incidents in the Batticoloa district where people lost their lives, including Mr D.A. Seniveratne, a former mayor of Nuwara Eliya, have resulted in various acts of violence and lawlessness in other areas,” S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike’s ‘Call to the nation’, 26 May 1958.

Related events
19 February 1958
April 1958
May 1958
27 May 1958

Source
Appendix 2 of Sri Lanka: Ethnic Fratricide and the Dismantling of Democracy, Stanley Jeyaraja, 1956, University of Chicago Press.

Extract from Witness to History: A Journalist’s Memoirs (1930 – 2004)
“On May 26 the rioting spread to Colombo and the city suburbs. Tamils were beaten, robbed and in some instances stripped naked on the streets, while Tamil-owned houses and shops were looted or set on fire. The evidence of planned, organised rioting was particularly evident in Colombo. The rioting in each area was carried out by hooligans from other parts of the city, in order to hide identification. They were transported to and from from the scene in lorries, with gang leaders flitting about in cars overseeing the operations. Tamil-owned buildings had been carefully marked out in chalk beforehand.” S. Sivanayagam, 2005.

Extract from Emergency ’58: The Horror spreads
“In the Colombo area the number of atrocities swiftly piled up. The atmosphere was thick with hate and fear. The thugs ran amok burning houses and shops, beating-up pedestrians, holding-up vehicles and terrorizing the entire city and the suburbs. …

“Another Tamil officer working in the same Government de­partment was not so fortunate. The thugs stormed into his house and assaulted his wife and grown-up daughter in the presence of his little child. His mind cracked under the shock. In the French liner Laos which took the family away to safety in Jaffna he insisted on reciting large chunks of the Bhagavad Gita to the captain of the ship. All his formal education—he is a Cambridge scholar—had proved useless to him in the face of disaster. His broken mind reached out for the only solace a man has when his own ingenuity and ability have proved futile.

“At Wellawatte Junction, near the plantain kiosk, a pregnant woman and her husband were set upon. They clubbed him and left him on the pavement. Then they kicked the woman repeatedly as she hurried along at a grotesque sprint, carrying her swollen belly.

“A great deal of property was destroyed in the wave of arson which hit Mount Lavinia and Ratmalana on May 27. Mr R. R. Selvadurai, a former Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Justice, was one of those who lost his house. He had at first been reluctant to accept warnings of impending trouble, and had in any case no wish to leave until he had made contact with his sons, who were out.”

For a full account of the events leading up to and following the 1958 communal riots, we recommend Tarzie Vittachi’s award winning Emergency ’58: The Story of the Ceylon Race Riots, 1959 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts.

Related events
‘Anti-Sri’ campaign launched
Campaign in response to the ‘anti Sri’ campaign
‘Banda-Chelva pact’ revoked
State of emergency declared
Widespread anti-Tamil communal riots, remembered as ‘Black July’