Eyewitness account of anti-Tamil pogrom
COLOMBO - Sri Lanka, often referred to as the paradise island in tourist brochures, has entered into the gravest social crisis in its history.
The scale and the barbarity of the violence used by mobs made up of members of the Sinhala majority against members of the minority Tamil nation have surpassed those of the anti-Tamil pogroms of 1958, 1977, and 1981.
The hysteria that gripped the majority of Sinhalese is continuing; fresh rumors have been leading to new outbursts of attacks, search for "Tigers" (the term used to describe Tamil nationalist guerrillas in the North) and the burning and looting of Tamil shops and houses, as well of innocent Tamil people
It is difficult to estimate the number of innocent Tamils killed in this pogrom, and it will take a long time before we can calculate the damage it has done to the
According to government figures, over amongst them some of the largest workplaces in and around Colombo, such as Cuntex, Hirdramani, and Raharaja's. These workplaces, which employed more than 2,000 workers each, have been burnt down by Sinhala goon squads.
Every known Tamil shop has been
This has been the pattern not only in Colombo but also in every town and village throughout Sri Lanka, with some isolated exceptions. The jewelry shops in Sea Street, Colombo, have for some unknown reason received special protection from the police.
According to government estimates in early August, there were over 25,000 Tamil families in various refugee camps in Colombo alone. Apart from this, there were more camps in Kandy, Galle, and all other main towns.
Most of these refugees will never be able to return to their former homes because their belongings have been looted or burnt and their houses have been completely destroyed. entire neighborhoods have been totally
The army, navy, and air force units that were sent in to "prevent" have in fact played a key role in fanning the flames of communal hatred. In some instances, they have taken the initiative, and in others they have supplied petrol and other inflammable material to Sin-
In all instances, the state military forces have stood by while goons destroyed Tamil lives and property. The police have rarely intervened against the arsonists and Sinhala mobs.
The few Sinhala people who had the courage to try to protect their Tamil brothers and sisters have been attacked or threatened. The barbarity of those involved can be gauged by the manner in which innocent Tamils were killed by these mobs - beaten to death and their private parts burnt; people have been tied to lamp posts and set on fire; vehicles with little children in them have been overturned and burnt with all inside.
Only July 26, the government announced the deaths of 35 Tamil prisoners, most of them held in remand under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. Two days government announced the death of a further 18 detainees. According to the official communique "other set upon these Tamil prisoners and killed them.
version is particularly suspicious in the light of the fact that the persons killed are regarded by the security forces as hardline separatists.
Among those killed were Dr. S. Rajasunderam, secretary of the Ghandiyam Movement in Vavuniya and an activist in the Movement for Inter-Racial Justice and Equality.
The wave of anti-Tamil violence was unleashed following the deaths of 13 Sinhala soldiers in Jaffna in a clash with Tamil guerrillas.
The government had decided to bury these soldiers with full military honours at the Kanatte Cemetery in the Borella district of Colombo. close relations of the dead were apparentgathered at the cemetery.
According to government reports, the bodies could not be brought to the cemetery in time, and so they decided to call off the burial in Colombo and turn over the bodies to the relatives.
After this, the crowd that had gathered at the cemetery supposedly became incensed and went on a rampage, burning Tamil shops and beating up Tamils.
President J. R. Jayawardene backed up this version of the events and sought to support the idea that the outburst was spontaneous, saying that "the Sinhala nation, by the violent acts they have committed in the last few days," had tried to put the government on notice that it had to take a tough stand against separatists.
A closer examination of the pattern of events does not support the view that the pogrom was the result of a spontaneous
In general, ordinary people were not involved in riots except where there were rumors of "Tigers" attacking their localities. In most cases, the attacks were spearheaded by known criminals and thugs.
In some instances, the army, navy, or the air force were involved. Moreover, these actions seem to have been well planned. Shops were not burnt with makeshift inflammable material - often fuel barrels were placed in the shops or factories that were burnt. The army and police made no serious attempt to stop the attacks.
Last but not least, the governmentcontrolled news media had in the preceding week printed a number of reports and articles that heightened racial tension and anti-Tamil feelings.
Mr. J. R. Jayawardene himself gave interviews to the BBC and the Daily Telegraph in Britain, indicating that he was going to take a tough stand against the separatists.
Now the government wants to pass legislation that would make it illegal for any political party or individual to raise the demand for a "separate state." such person would be barred from contesting elections and lose civil rights. Furthermore, all such persons will forfeit their property and will not be admitted to any profession.
So, the government wants to force the Tamil people to abandon the demand for a separate state, Eelam, by stepping up the repression.
It is very unlikely that the vast major ity of the Tamil people would be intimidated by threats of this sort.
law would only parliamentary representation to any gen-
As far as the Tamil guerrillas are concerned, such measures will make no differrence for their strategic orientations. Thus, the Tamil-speaking areas of the North and East will remain the Achilles' heel of Mr. J. R. Jayawardene's policy. It is certainly unlikely that the guerrillas will be frightened by the prospect of being deprived of their civic rights.
Meanwhile, the food shortage created by the pogrom is beginning to affect the Sinhala population as well. The prices of essential foods have risen by 70% to 80%. For example, rice, which was at between 7 and 9 Rupees per kilo is now at 15
Coconuts have about 2 Rupees to 5 Rupees. Fish and beef are almost unobtainable. ernment may be able to get this situation under control but prices will not come back to their original levels.
Still more serious is the loss of jobs as
a result of the destruction of factories and businesses. In the country as a whole, 50,000 people may have lost their
The government may also find that the bad publicity the country has gotten may seriously reduce tourist business.
Clearly, the government is reaping the fruits of their own policies. They mobilised goon squads against their political opponents in the Presidential elections, the Referendum (December the local government and by-elections in
The government also refused to initmeaningful dialogue with representatives of the Tamil people and thereundermined the credibility of the Front - the party that represented the Tamils) in the North and the East.
Despite what its election manifestos say, the government failed to make any meaningful concessions to the Tamils, who were subjected to various discriminatory laws. Instead, the regime embarked on a policy of increased repression — the Prevention of Terrorism Act, the stationing of a large contingent of troops in Tamil areas, refusal to recruit Tamil people for government jobs. It justified these actions on the grounds that they were needed to stamp out "terrorism."
The government-controlled media fail to distinguish between those who stood for creating a separate state through armed struggle and the vast majority of Tamil nationalists who did not. litical propaganda consistently fanned the flames of racial hatred. So, it was not surprising that the anti-Tamil violence that erupted on Sunday night (July 25) took such a barbaric and ugly turn. Once President Jayawardene and his government embarked on this policy, they could not control all the consequences of their had petrol poured on them and were set
While they were rolling on the ground in agony, the mobs continued to beat these unfortunate victims with sticks and metal rods. The situation had gotten totally out of hand. police themselves became frightened.
In response to this turn, Minister himself "addressed the nation" and made it clear that no "Tiger" had engaged in any violent act in that area.
went on to say that the rumor "Tigers in Colombo" had arisen as a result of an incident that occurred in Fort, where certain persons had thrown a bomb at security forces. The persons involved were all Sinhalese. over thirty people had been killed and hundreds more injured and all of them
On Friday, the government clamped down a curfew beginning at 2:00 p.m. The curfew was to continue throughout Saturday and Sunday. It was lifted only on Monday at 5:30 a.m. (to be reimposed on Monday, August 1, at 2:00 p.m.)
The most important development on Saturday, however, was that the government announced a ban on three political parties - the Communist Party of Sri Lanka, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), and the Nava Sama Samaja party. At first, the government gave no reasons for this peculiar decision. Like the rest of the left, these three parties have been opposed to communal violence.
The first indication of the reason for the government's objective came in the speech of Minister of State Mr. Ananda Tissa Alwis broadcast over the radio. He claimed that there had been a definite plan behind the communal violence - a hidden hand. The plan was to be put into
The first stage was to set the Sinhala against the Muslims, Sinhalese against Sinhalese — that is Buddhists against non-Buddhists. He capped it all by saying that the whole plot had been planned in another country - a foreign power.
However, the minister explained, since Sri Lanka was friendly to all countries, it would not do to divulge the name of the country where this plot was hatched. This statement, however, was missing from the English version of his speech, as the BBC World Service noted.
Thus, it became obvious that the government was seeking to put the blame for the pogrom on leftists who were supposedly "conspiring" to overthrow the state by fanning communal violence.
On Sunday, the government said that the parties had been banned either because they were involved in the events that occurred after July 25 or that these parties would be an obstacle ot the restoration of law and order.
The government also announced that they had sealed the printshops of Attha,
Communist Party paper; Seenuwa, the JVP paper; Vane Satana, the NSSP paper; and Dinakara, the paper of the bourgeois opposition party, the operation was set in motion with considerable deceit. SLFP of Mrs Bandaranaike is opposed to all forms of separatism and terrorism.
The decision to silence all opposition parties that had any ability to inform the people of what really happened in the week beginning July 24 was obviously taken because the government was afraid that the real facts about these events would come to light and that this would make life very uncomfortable for the
The regime had obviously reached a against the Tamils, then the Sinhala crucial turning point.
In the weeks and months to come, when all the economic and social consequences begin to become clear, Mr. Jayawardene and his government may find themselves in an acute political crisis.