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INDICTMENT AGAINST SRI LANKA
Black July 1983: the Charge is Genocide
Apology by Sri Lanka President Kumaratunga
25 July 2004
'We regard Sri Lanka's President Ms Chandrika
Kumaratunge's public apology for the 1983 pogrom against the Tamils as a
deceptive attempt,
driven by political expediency rather than principles... It is
politically convenient for Ms Kumaratunge to blame the United National Party
(UNP) which was in power during that period. Has she forgotten that her
father was in power
when the first communal
riot broke out in Sri Lanka in 1958? Why has Ms Kumaratunge failed to
apologize for all ethnic riots and massacres of Tamils by government forces
during her
regime and when her father
and
mother ruled the country?
Crimes were committed against Tamils under the
chauvinistic politics of Sinhala leadership of both parties.". .S.Elilan,
district political head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)
speaking at the
Welikada Martyrs Memorial
Hall ..21st
anniversary of Black July
in Trincomalee 25 July 2004
 The
Word -
the Apology
The Deed - Father,
Mother &
the Daughter
Charles Sarvan on
Kumaratunga’s Apology
Sarath Kumara on the Empty Apology
The
Apology
From the Report in the Sri Lanka State Controlled
Sunday Observer, 25 July 2004 -
President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga
tendering a national apology to the victims of July 1983 riots
on behalf of the state, government and all citizens last Friday
said that it is late but still not too late. Excerpts of the
speech:
"As we know all nations have great achievements,
which they are proud of, they also have moments in their
history, which they need to be ashamed of. Only very few nations
seem to have had the courage or the right leadership to accept
the blame for their moments of shame.
"At least now I
believe that we as a nation and especially the Sri Lankan State
should come of age, look the truth in the face and make a
national apology, first to all the victims of that day in Black
July and then beyond them to the entire nation.
"Perhaps
it is the responsibility of the State and the Government to
engage in that exercise first and foremost, and then all of us
as the Nation, every citizen in this country should collectively
accept the blame and make that apology to all of you here who
are the representatives or the direct victims of that violence
and through you to all the other tens of thousands who suffered
by those incidents.
"I would like to assign to myself
the necessary task on behalf of the State of Sri Lanka, the
Government and on behalf of all of us; all the citizens of Sri
Lanka to extend that apology. It is late but I think it is still
not too late.
 "Maybe
if all of us can collectively put behind us all the
little pettiness
that has bound us in shackles, free ourselves from those many
and
numerous hatreds, jealousies that make of us little men and
women, then I am sure we could move forward towards working,
living as one nation in harmony, in a search for that very
necessary
unity within the diversity that is Sri Lanka, the diverse
ethnic communities, the diverse religious communities, and
various other social groups that live together in this country.
"We cannot forget, we cannot blind ourselves to the
mistakes we have made; we will have to accept collective
guilt for the wrongs, and then move forward.
When I say
collective guilt I mean first the State of Sri Lanka for the
horrors they perpetrated upon one section of our peoples, 21
years ago and at
other lesser
moments, but I also mean all the others on the other side of
the divide who have also used young children as suicide bombers,
and killed hundreds of people and caused much suffering to other
people.
"I hope on this day, and I know that all of you
here would hope and pray with me that all those who call
themselves leaders, amongst the Sinhalese, the Tamils, the
Muslims, the Hindus and everybody else would be able to reach at
least for a brief moment that level of greatness that is
required of us mere humans, those of us who pretend to be
leaders to reach that greatness in order that we resolve this
problem for our peoples.
"We are willing to do that, I
hope all the others are also ready to do that. I am sure the
Government will receive the support from all the citizens of
this country, irrespective of who they are, or to what community
they belong, in this enterprise which is the most difficult, the
most challenging and the most dangerous any Government of this
country has undertaken."
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the father...
Tamil
Parliamentarians attacked by Sinhala Mobs & 150 Tamils killed in
1956
"What happened on 6 June 1956
when the Sinhala Only Bill was being debated in Parliament?
The members of the Federal Party, exercising their undoubted
constitutional right, wanted to protest against the imposition
of (the Sinhala Only) Bill. The Members of the Federal Party
said that they would sit in silence on the Galle Face Green...
It was a silent protest which they were entitled to make...What
happened? Hooligans, in the very precincts of Parliament House,
under the very nose of the Prime Minister of this country, set
upon those innocent men seated there, bit their ears and beat
them up mercilessly....Thereafter on that day, 6 June, every
Tamil man was set upon and robbed. He was beaten up. ..He was
thrashed mercilessly, humiliated and sent home. The police were
looking on while all this was happening before their very eyes.
Shops were looted... but the police did nothing... Why did that
happen? All that happened because specific instructions had been
given to the police that they .. should not arrest, should not
deal with the lawlessness and disorder that was let loose...
That was the attitude taken up by a Cabinet composed of
Sinhalese Ministers.(including Prime Minister
S.W.R.D.Bandaranaike)..." Senator S.Nadesan , Sri Lanka Senate
Hansard, 4 June 1958
From Genocide'58
- Tarzie
Vittachi: Emergency 1958 - The Story of the Ceylon Race Riots"...If
there had been any chance whatever at this stage of keeping
Sinhalese tempers under control it vanished completely following
the Prime Minister's (S.W.R.Bandaranaike)broadcast call to the
nation of May 26… By a strangely inexplicable perversion of
logic, Mr Bandaranaike tried to explain away a situation by
substituting the effect for the cause. The relevant portion of
the speech was:
"An unfortunate situation has arisen resulting in communal
tension. Certain incidents in, the. Batticaloa District where
some people lost their lives, including Mr D.A. Seneviratne, a
former Mayor of Nuwara Eliya, have resulted in various acts of
violence and lawlessness in other areas-for example Polonnaruwa,
Dambulla, Galawela, Kuliyapitiya and even Colombo."
"The killing of Seneviratne on May 25 was thus officially
declared to be the cause of the uprising, although the communal
riots had begun on May 22 with the attack on the Polonnaruwa
Station and the wrecking of the Batticalos-Colombo trail and
several other minor incidents. No explanation was offered by the
Prime Minister for singling out (the Sinhala sounding)
Seneviratne's name for particular mention from the scores of
people who had lost their lives during those critical
days.…Colombo was on fire. The goondas burnt fifteen shops in
the Pettah and a row of kiosks in Mariakaday. Looting on a
massive scale took place in Pettah, Maradana, Wellawatte
Ratmalana, Kurunegala, Panadura, Kalutara, Badulla, Galle,
Matara and Weligama. The cry everywhere in the Sinhalese
districts was 'avenge the murder of Seneviratne’. Even the many
Sinhalese who had been appalled by the goonda attacks on Tamils
and Tamil owned kiosks, now began to feel that the Tamils had
put themselves beyond the pale. Across the country, this new
mood of deep-seated racism surged. The Prime Minister's peace
call to the nation had turned into a war cry..."
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the mother...
From
Sinhala Army attacks Tamil Satygrahis, 1961 "...The voice of
the representatives of the Tamil people has been virtually
silenced. The military have been let loose on the Northern and
Eastern Provinces and from all accounts are behaving - at any
rate so far as the Jaffna Peninsula is concerned - as if they
were a conquering army in occupation of enemy territory....(In)
the early hours of the 18th (of April) the military, without any
warning and without informing the satyagrahis assembled at the
Jaffna Kachcheri that an emergency had been declared, assaulted
the men satyagrahis mercilessly, bundled the women satyagrahis
into trucks and transported them... Immediately the "Battle of
Jaffna" was over, the army proceeded to waylay and hit all and
sundry on t he roads of Jaffna on the ground that they were
breaking a curfew order, of which most of them were unaware."
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& the
daughter...
From
Genocide'95 - Under the
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of
Genocide, acts of murder committed with intent to destroy,
in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious
group as such are considered as acts of genocide.
The evidence presented here
serves to prove that during the period commencing May 1995 and
continuing 2001, the actions of the Sri Lanka authorities in
their war on the Tamil people in the North-East of the island of
Sri Lanka constitute genocide...The record shows that under
cover of this refusal to acknowledge the law, the Sri Lanka
security forces (acting
on the implicit or explicit authorisation of its commander in
chief, President Chandrika Kumaratunga) have with impunity
committed gross violations of the international humanitarian law
relating to armed conflict which law demands that - The
genocidal intent of the Sri Lanka government is proved by -
- the 'broad
front steamrollering' attack launched on the Jaffna peninsula;
- the
deliberation
with which the Sri Lanka security forces have
killed Tamil non combatants, shelled
densely populated Tamil villages, destroyed
Tamil homes and
cultivable
land, bombed
Tamil schools
and places of
worship, and
blocked the
supply of essential food and medicine to the Tamil homeland;
- the persistent and frequent
breaches by
Sri Lanka authorities of the laws and regulations relating to arrest
and detention
and the unprecedented number of
"disappearances";
- the systematic use of
torture
and
rape as
instruments of state terrorism;
- the
mass graves;
- the use of Tamil civilians
as human mine
detectors and as
forced labour;
- the
murder of Tamil prisoners whilst in the custody of Sri Lanka
authorities;
-the imposition of a
press
censorship which went beyond any needs of 'national security';
- by calculated resort to
disinformation and war mongering;
- the
public pronouncements of President Kumaratunga and her
ministers, together with the
'victory'
ceremony on establishing 'Sinhala rule' of Jaffna; and
- the
failure of
President Chandrika Kumaratunga and her government to condemn
the gross and systematic violations of humanitarian law by the
forces under their command and the
impunity
afforded to the offenders.
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Charles Sarvan from Berlin, Germany
on Chandrika Kumaratunga’s Apology, 27 July 2004
President
Kumaratunga in her words and actions has the advantage of
being completely free of any sense of embarrassment or shame.
Many who experienced Black July
1983 at the receiving end are either dead or, if alive, still find
it so terrible that they are unwilling to verbalise to others. On the
other hand, the guilty or the complicit either still gloat, minimise
(“It was not that bad”) or blame the victims: “They asked for it.”
It would be difficult to exaggerate the horrors of that day: human
beings, including children,
burnt
alive while jeering groups
danced gleefully around in “patriotic” and pious frenzy; women
gang-raped,
the eyes of at least one prisoner gouged out; bodies dragged and
placed before a Buddha statue, as if the Compassionate One were an
atavistic god who demanded human sacrifice.
Now the President thinks the past can be wiped out and the present
healed simply by saying sorry for those “incidents” (sic). She does not
seem to realize that such an apology is an insult to the dead, and a
painful affront to those who suffered directly or indirectly. Such an
apology is much worse than silence, which at least can be variously
interpreted. There is no declaration of an annual National Day of
Reflection and Sorrow; no mention of an independent Truth and
Reconciliation Commission; no mention of prosecution.
Simply waving the magic wand of “Sorry” brings about a wonderful
change of scene and situation. If only life were so simple, and
rectification so easy. She blurs and confuses matters by mentioning
those who send children as suicide bombers. While not condoning such
actions, one must point out that these unfortunate developments are both
after and, more importantly, because of 1983. (At that time, the
number of those active in the LTTE is estimated to have been between
fifteen and twenty-five. The Tigers are the creation of chauvinism, and
of the intolerance and violence that flow from it.)
But to return to the President’s utter lack of morality and, therefore,
of any sense of shame, she exploits the issuing of an apology to reflect
credit on herself. By implication, she says, I have the “courage” and
offer “the right leadership”. At root, it is not an apology so much as
preening self-praise: See how honest, courageous and just I am.
And one asks, “What took you so long, Madam? Being late, why so
little?” Is the apology to be seen as one of the “great achievements”
(of the President) that the nation can be “proud of”? It might seem
boorish of me to cavil at an apology, but (a) the nature and (b) the
motives of this verbal gesture need to be recognised, exposed and
condemned.
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Sarath Kumara on an Empty Apology, 6 August 2004
Speaking at a meeting to mark the 21st anniversary of the
pogrom, Kumaratunga declared: “Every citizen in this country
should collectively accept the blame and make an apology to the
tens of thousands who suffered. I would like to assign to myself
that task on behalf of the State of Sri Lanka, the government
and on behalf of all of us; all the citizens of Sri Lanka to
extend that apology.”
The “apology” was accompanied by nominal compensation to some of
the victims. Just 72.3 million rupees [$US702,000] will be paid
to 937 people or an average of 77,000 rupees [$750] for the
injuries and destruction they suffered. Leaving aside the cost
in lives, the loss of property alone in 1983 has been estimated
to run into billions of rupees.
Kumaratunga’s sweeping declaration that “every citizen” was to
blame is to consciously obscure the role played by the ruling
elites in Colombo not only for the pogrom itself but their
deliberate resort to anti-Tamil chauvinism over the preceding
decades and since...While the president now offers an empty
apology for the events of 1983, her Sri Lanka Freedom Party
(SLFP) was responsible for institutionalising the anti-Tamil
discrimination in the 1960s and 1970s that paved the way for the
pogrom and the war. Along with the United National Party (UNP),
she and the SLFP ruthlessly prosecuted the racialist war against
the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to ensure the
predominance of the Sinhala elite over their Tamil counterparts.
...“Every citizen” was not to blame for the tragic events. It is
open secret that this violence was instigated and organised by
then UNP government of President J.R. Jayewardene. .."
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