Black July: A Tamil Genocide

An inquest into the April 10 death of a Tamil detainee at the Gurunagar army camp found 35 injuries. Navaratnarajah, 28, of Kiliveddy, Trincomalee was detained two weeks prior, under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

After a call for a boycott of the May 18 local elections by the LTTE, a shoot out killed one army corporal. Later that day the army went on a rampage, leaving Jaffna in flames. Sinhala soldiers burnt homes, shops and vehicles, while looting and robbing.

In the south of the island, Tamils were facing increasing discrimination, harassment and violence, including at universities, hospitals and government offices. See articles in the Saturday Review from 21.05. and 04.06.1983.

On 30.05.1983, Sabaratnam Palanivel from Valvettithurai was dragged into the towns army camp and killed. As his relatives watched, a truck was driven over his dead body by a soldier, flattening his body.

Meanwhile, verdicts of homicide were returned in two separate judicial inquiries into Tamil deaths in military custody. Kathirgamathamby Navaratnarajah (28, Kiliveddy - as above) and Ratnasingham Sriskandarajah (25, Karainagar) were both killed in army custody.

On 01.06.1983, after two Sri Lankan Air Force men were killed in a Tamil ambush in Vavuniya, military personnel went "berserk", burning buildings and attacking Tamils. Gandhiyam's offices and farm were also attacked.

On 03.06.1983 emergency regulations were gazetted which permitted the disposal of dead bodies by armed forces without a judicial inquest and a post-mortem. The regulations came into effect soon after judicial inquiries found the army to have killed Tamil men in Jaffna.

Throughout June, racist violence occurred all over the island. Dozens of Tamils died. The army killed and refused to hand over the bodies of several Tamil youths in Jaffna. In Trincomalee homes and businesses were burned. Bombs were thrown at Sampanthan's house during curfew.

More Tamils were killed, including in Trinco, Jaffna, Negombo, Ratmalana and Kurunegala. Tamil businesses were being attacked, including a garment factory in Kurunegala. Harassment of Tamil students at universities also continued. Under the new regulations, no inquests were held

On 01.07.1983 the government banned the publication of Saturday Review and Suthanthiran, the two main papers reporting and printing in Jaffna. Information beyond this point was largely reported in diaspora media, as strict censorship was imposed. The last issue before Black July.

On July 20th, days prior to the violence of #BlackJuly, the Sri Lankan government imposed local and foreign press censorship on all news related to national security, law, and order. See the excerpt from The London Times dated 21.07.1983.

Throughout July, violence increased further. On July 22, the army abducted three Tamil girls in Jaffna and took them to their camps. News spread that they were raped and one had killed herself.

On 23.07.1983 the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam conducted the most successful attack on the Sri Lankan military by the Tamil resistance movement till date. 13 Sri Lankan soldiers were killed in an ambush in Thinnevely.

Violence against Tamils spread across the country. The premeditated violence caused over 3,000 Tamil deaths mostly in Colombo and in other Sinhala majority areas. The Tamil economy was destroyed. Over one hundred thousand were displaced with thousands fleeing abroad.

As the news of the pogroms reached the outside world, it became apparent that the violence occurred with support of the state and the security forces and was planned "well in advance".

Paul Seigart of the International Commission of Jurist in his report entitled, "Sri Lanka: A mounting tragedy of errors":

Clearly this (attack on July 1983) was not a spontaneous upsurge of communal hatred among the Sinhalese people - nor was it, as has been suggested in some quarters, a popular response to the killing of 13 soldiers in an ambush by Tamil Tigers on the previous day, which was not even reported in the newspapers until after the riots began. It was a series of deliberate acts executed in accordance with a concerted plan conceived and organised well in advance.

On August 4th, The London Times reported: "Sri Lanka Army personnel actively encouraged arson and the looting of Tamil business establishments and homes in Colombo. … Absolutely no action was taken to apprehend or prevent the criminal elements involved in these activities. In many instances army personnel participated in the looting of shops."