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  INDICTMENT AGAINST SRI LANKA
The Charge is Ethnic Cleansing
ORGANISED POGROM
AGAINST TAMILS - 1977
 "A tragedy is
taking place in Sri Lanka: the political conflict
following upon the recent elections, is turning into a
racial massacre. It is estimated by reliable sources
that between 250 and 300 Tamil citizens have lost their
lives and over 40,000 made homeless...(The Tamils) have
now lost confidence in their treatment by the Sinhalese
majority and are calling for a restoration of their
separate national status...
At a time when the West is wake to the evils of
racialism, the racial persecution of the Tamils and
denial of their human rights should not pass without
protest. The British have a special obligation to
protest, as these cultivated people were put at the
mercy of their neighbours less than thirty years ago by
the British Government. They need our attention and
support." - Sir John Foster, David Astor, Louis
Blom-Cooper, Dingle Foot, Robert Birley, James Fawcett,
Michael Scott, London Times 20 September 1977
"...The trouble (in 1977) began in Jaffna, capital of
the Northern province, when Sinhala policemen, believed
to have been loyal to the defeated Sri Lanka Freedom
Party of Mrs. Bandaranike, acted provocatively by
bursting into a Tamil carnival. In the violent
altercation that followed the police opened fire and four
people were killed. A wave of rioting followed, spreading
quickly to the south.
Among 1,500 people arrested were several well known
Sinhalese extremists, accused of instigating violence
against Tamils. Martin Wollacott reported in the Guardian
from Sri Lanka (27 August 1977): 'It looks very much as
if disgruntled Freedom Party leaders in many places saw
an opportunity to embarrass the government and with the
collusion of some Freedom Party police appointees and of
local gangsters, organised and encouraged the attacks on
the Tamils'..." - Walter Schwarz: Tamils of Sri Lanka,
Minority Rights Group Report 1983
"
The outbreak in mid-August (1977) of the anti-Tamil
pogrom (the third such outbreak in two decades) has
brought out the reality that the Tamil minority problem
in Sri Lanka has remained unresolved now for nearly
half a century, leading to the emergence of a
separatist movement among the Tamils. As on previous
occasions, what took place recently was not Sinhalese -
Tamil riots, but an anti-Tamil pogrom. Although
Sinhalese were among the casualties, the large majority
of those killed, maimed and seriously wounded are
Tamils. The victims of the widespread looting are
largely Tamils. And among those whose shops and houses
were destroyed, the Tamils are the worst sufferers. Of
the nearly 75,000 refugees, the very large majority
were Tamils, including Indian Tamil plantation
workers..."
Behind the Anti-Tamil
Terror: The National Question in Sri Lanka - Edmund
Samarakkody in Workers Vanguard (New York), No. 176,
Oct.7, 1977, pp.6-7 & 10]
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