1983 : The Aftermarth

A look at the events that unfolded in Sri Lanka after the bloodbath of July 1983.

What is Black July?

On the evening of July 23, 1983, members of the banned Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam LTTE ambushed a military convoy outside Jaffna. Thirteen soldiers were killed. To avoid a backlash, the Lankan government decided to quietly bury the 13 soldiers at a cemetery in Colombo. On July 24, the day the 13 servicemen were to be buried, some Sinhalese civilians who had gathered at the cemetery got to know of the ambush, formed mobs and allegedly started killing, raping, and assaulting Tamils. Estimates of Tamil deaths vary wildly 8212; from the official figure of 387 to the unofficial ones of 3,000, even 70,000 deaths. Over one lakh Tamils fled to India and a state of emergency was imposed.

Did the riots mark the start of the present violence in Lanka?

Though it all blew up on July 23, the roots of the conflict lay in the way the British colonial government promoted the minority Tamils approximately 2.5 million or 18 per cent of the population over the majority Sinhalese. They even gave them disproportionate representation in the civil services, something the majority community resented and held against the Tamils for long after the British left. After the country got its Independence in 1948, the Sinhalese government tilted the scales in favour of the Sinhalese. In 1956, prime minister Srimaou Bandaranaike brought about the 8220;Sinhala Only Act8221;, making Sinhala the only official language in the island nation. The Act was amended in 1987, after Black July, but by then, the damage had been done.

Did the government ever apologise for the riots?

Neither President Jayawardene, whose government was blamed for not doing enough to stop the rioters, nor subsequent governments apologised. This was because the movement for a separate nation was getting increasingly popular among the Tamil population and and no government wanted to annoy the majority Sinhalese, who thought the riots of 1983 were justified. But 21 years later, President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge made a public apology to the Tamil people.

How violent is the situation now?

In February 2002, the government and Tamil Tiger rebels signed a Norwegian-mediated ceasefire. But a year later, the Tigers pulled out of talks. Though the ceasefire stayed and the two sides met a couple of times for talks, violence spun out of control with the killing of the Lankan foreign minister in August 2005. In March 2007, the Tigers launched their first confirmed air raid, hitting a military base next to the international airport. In January 2008, the 2002 ceasefire deal was formally buried when the government pulled out.