Member of Parliament and Convener of the Civil Monitoring Committee, Mano Ganeshan, speaks about his experiences during the anti-Tamil riots in July 1983.
For more articles on July 1983, please click here.
Prominent Tamil civil society activist Shanthi Sachithanandan shares her experiences of the July 1983 anti-Tamil riots in Sri Lanka.
For the Sinhala version of the interview, click here and visit the Vikalpa YouTube Channel for more short videos on the events of July 1983.
For more articles on July 1983, please click here.
From my Diary Notes written in Cell No.1, Negombo Remand Prison, (July 31st-Sept 24th 1983)
I had my own gruesome experience of the Black July. It was 29th July at midnight that I received a telephone call from my friend and party comrade AJMO Dr. Indra Kumar of his father’s sudden death by a heart attack.
By then, Dr. Indra Kumar’s wife was in the Thurstan College Refugee camp - the family was scattered - Dr. Indra Kumar was hiding in a private nursing home. Father and mother were isolated in a house at Kotahena. He was so desperate and helpless. He was unable to see the dead body of his father who died in Kotahena. The situation was so …
by Austin Fernando
In July 1983, my Accountant Mr. Vallipuram at the Cooperative Department lived off Castle Street where his neighbour was a notorious Sinhalese thug. Until ‘Black July’ Vallipuram once told me that, that thug was the ‘assailant select’ in his mind, whenever he feared a racial riot.
When violent crowds ‘visited’ him early morning on the Day of ‘Black July’ around 3.30 a.m. he, his wife and son escaped through the back door in to the premises of the thug, as it was the safest. They hid behind some banana trees until the ‘Sinhalese nationalist friends’ disappeared.
Suddenly, who appeared in front of them? It was the nasty thug, the intended killer. They thought that that was the last of their …
Tamil National Alliance MP Mr. R. Sampanthan speaks of the anti-Tamil riots of July 1983.
Speaking of the “terrible experience for all Tamil people in Sri Lanka” he says that the riot was “premeditated pogrom… largely believed to be with the support of very influential forces within the then government”. He notes that there were Sinhalese friends who helped Tamil friends in distress and says that the riots were a “determined effort by some forces within the majority community with the support of the government to teach the Tamil people a lesson.”
Mr. Sampanthan ends by stating that only a political solution, not violence, will bring about an end to the conflict. …
My Belly is White - මගේ බඩවත සුදුය දුටු සැනින් ඒත්තු නොයන මාතෘකාවක්.
ඒත් පිටු 927 ක් පුරා දිවයන කතාවක්. පසුගිය සඳුදා දොරට වැඩි මෙම කෘතිය ලියා ඇත්තේ ශී්ර ලංකා පරිපාලන සේවයේ කීර්තිමත් පරිපාලන නිලධාරියෙකු වූ හිටපු ආක්ෂක ලේකම් ඔස්ටින් ප්රනාන්දු මෙය ගැටුම් නිරාකරණ සාහිත්යයට අලූතින් එකතු කිරීමකි. අනෙක් අතින් වසර දෙකක්වත් නොපැවති රනිල් වික්රමසිංහ රෙජීමය තුළ සිදුවූ සාම කි්රයාවලිය දෙස නව මානයකින් බැලීමට කරන ලද උත්සාහයකි. මීට පෙර මෙම සාම කි්රයාවලිය පිලිබඳ විෂය අරභයා ලියවී ඇත්තේ කෘති දෙකකි. එනම් ජෝන් ගුණරත්න විසින් ලියන ලද ආණ්ඩුවේ සාම මහලේකම් කාර්යාලය විසින් ප්රකාශයට පත් කරන ලද සාම කි්රයාවලිය පිළිබඳ දින වකවානු හා යම් යම් විස්තර අඩංගු .රෙදප එයැ ිැජදබා රදඅ, කෘතියයි. කෘතියකි. අනෙක …
The leaders of the Tamil community and the left movement, who had joined the governments of UNP and SLFP since independence had helped the leaders of these two parties to bring this country to the present catastrophe - war and more war.
Gajaman Nona
Ryszard Kapucinski is no armchair observer. As foreign correspondent for the Polish Press Agency, he witnessed 27 coups and was sentenced to death four times in his lifetime. In his book on the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini, Shah of Shahs, he notes that: “despotic authority attaches great importance to being considered strong and much less to being admired for its wisdom”. Kapucinski observed that almost every revolution against despotism is followed by an excess of hubris and urge for total control. “This continuous display of power is necessary, because, at root, any dictatorship appeals to the lowest instincts of the governed: fear, aggressiveness, bootlicking. Terror most effectively excites such instincts, and fear of strength is the wellspring of terror”.
Sri …
By Gajaman Nona
Last weekend a friend gave me a CD of songs by Victor Jara, a Chilean teacher, theatre director, poet and political activist. His album Manifesto reflects his struggle against an American-backed coup in 1973 which brought General Pinochet to power in Chile. Jara saw through the hollow refrain that Chile could only be saved through military authoritarianism. He sang,
“I do not want my country divided…there is room for all of us in this country”.
Jara was killed for his protest. His final poem was written in a stadium in Santiago, as he was held captive by the military along with 5,000 others. He laments:
“For them, blood is a medal; Killing is an act of heroism”.
The 1973 coup heralded an …
We reproduce in full a statement by the Free Media Movement on the attacks against journalists in Sri Lanka. Namal Perera, the most recent victim of an abduction attempt, was a former colleague who significantly facilitated a number of progressive media initiatives in Sri Lanka including the creation and adoption of the Media Charter.
This is the second time I have run with a story of an abduction of a former colleague. The first was a little over a year ago. Although Vijayan was lucky, those who abducted him have not been identified to date.
Ironically, as I was on the way to see Namal at Apollo hospital on the night of his assault, I was stopped and checked …
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