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Tamil members of parliament marked the 43rd anniversary of the Black July pogrom in parliament on Thursday, saying that although Sri Lanka's political and social structures have undergone many changes over the past four decades, the losses and suffering caused by July 1983 remain an unhealed scar.
In a statement issued to mark the occasion, the MPs said the commemoration was held to remember the victims and to reflect on the lasting impact of the violence, which continues to shape the island's social and political landscape.
Shanakiyan Rasamanickam, the Batticaloa MP, said Tamil parliamentarians had commemorated the anniversary "with deep sorrow and remembrance".
"Forty-three years have passed since the atrocities of July 1983 forever changed the lives of the Tamil people. Despite the political and social changes Sri Lanka has witnessed over the past four decades, there has still been no justice and no accountability. The memories of those who were killed, the homes that were burned, and the scars left behind remain unhealed in the hearts of Tamils."
An organised pogrom
Beginning on 23 July 1983, Sinhala mobs armed with electoral rolls moved through Colombo and the south identifying Tamil homes and businesses, looting them and setting them ablaze. Contemporaneous press reports described Tamils being dragged from cars and vehicles, beaten, hacked down and burned alive in the street. More than 3,000 Tamils were killed, hundreds of women were raped, and thousands more were effectively deported by the state to the North-East.
The violence was backed by the then United National Party government and state forces, and was not the spontaneous reaction to a guerrilla ambush that official accounts have long claimed, as documented in our feature - Anatomy of a pogrom.
Anti-Tamil violence in 1981 had already seen ruling party MPs supervising attacks in Jaffna, including the burning of the Jaffna Public Library.
Tamil political prisoners held in Welikada prison in Colombo were also targeted. On 25 July 1983, Sellarasa "Kuttimani" Yogachandiran, leader of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation, and the political writer Ganeshanathan Jeganathan had their eyes gouged out in mockery before being killed by Sinhalese inmates, who were assisted by prison guards. A total of 37 Tamil prisoners were murdered that day, and 18 more were killed two days later.
No one has ever been held accountable for the killings, in the prison or on the streets.
