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Man's pains and pains' relief are from within.
Thus have we seen in visions of the wise !."
-
Tamil Poem in Purananuru, circa 500 B.C 

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INDICTMENT AGAINST SRI LANKA

Black July 1983: the Charge is Genocide

"Ten years after the July �83 genocidal attack, no inquiry, leave alone an impartial one, has been held into the admittedly planned violence against the Tamil people - International Federation of Tamils on 10th Anniversary of Black July....

"Ten years ago, the International Commission of Jurists condemned the July �83 violence against the Tamil people in the island of Sri Lanka and said:

"The evidence points clearly to the conclusion that the violence of the Sinhala rioters on the Tamils amounted to acts of genocide.��

In March 1984, the late Paul Sieghart Q.C , Chairman of British Justice commented, after a mission to Sri Lanka:

"( The July �83 violence) was not a spontaneous upsurge of communal hatred among the Sinhala people - nor was it, as has been suggested in some quarters, a popular response to the killing of 13 soldiers in an ambush by Tamil Tigers on the previous day, which was not even reported in the newspapers until after the riots began. It was a series of deliberate acts, executed in accordance with a concerted plan, conceived and organised well in advance. But who were the planners?..."

In the United Kingdom in July 1984, on the first anniversary of the July �83 genocidal attack, David Alton MP, Paddy Ashdown MP, Norman Atkinson MP, Tony Banks MP, Prof John Barret, Kevin Barron MP, Alan Beith MP, Tony Benn MP, Gerry Berningham M.P., Prof Tom Bottomore, Sydney Bidwell MP, Malcolm Bruce MP, Dale Campbell-Savours MP, Dennis Canavan MP, Alex Carlile MP, Tom Clarke MP, Bob Clay MP, Anne Clwyd MP, Harry Cohan MP, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Ron Davis MP, Eric Deakins MP, Alf Dubs MP, Professor Michael Dummet, Derek Fatchett MP, Mark Fisher MP, Martin Flannery MP, Roy Hattersley MP, Michael Foot MP, Simon W.H. Hughes MP, Lord Jenkins, Russel Johnston MP, Sir David Lane, Robert Kilroy Silk MP, Archy Kirkwood MP, Ted Knight, Terry Lewis MP, Bob Litherland MP, Ken Livingstone, Tony Lloyd MP, Eddie Loyden MP, Max Madden MP, Joan Maynard MP, Willie McKelvy MP, Bill Michie MP, Dr.Paul Noone, Bob Parry MP, Alan Roberts MP, Ernie Roberts MP, Allan Rogers MP, Aubrey Rose, Ernie Ross MP, Steven Ross MP, Clare Short MP, Dennis Skinner MP, Prof Peter Townsend, Jim Wallace MP, Gareth Wardell MP, Dafydd Wigley MP and many others, called for an international commission of inquiry into the July 1983 violence against the Tamils, and declared in the Guardian:

"(In July 1983)...(Tamils) were beaten, hacked and burnt to death in a frenzy of racial hatred ... Their houses and businesses were selectively looted and destroyed. The Sri Lankan government has admitted that the violence was pre planned and well organised and that even sections of the security forces joined in the attack against the Tamils. 53 Tamil detainees held in a maximum security prison were brutally killed on July 25th and July 27th. Yet to date no impartial inquiry into these violent attacks has taken place... Amnesty International (AI) and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) have also reported on a number of cases of torture and death in custody of persons detained incommunicado for periods upto 18 months under the Sri Lankan Prevention of Terrorism Act. �No legislation conferring remotely comparable powers is in force in any other free democracy... such a provision is an ugly blot on the statute book of any civilised country�(ICJ). The Sixth Amendment to the Constitution has virtually disenfranchised the country�s 3 million Tamils by reason of the ban imposed on their political parties. This Amendment according to the ICJ, �constitutes a clear violation by Sri Lanka of its obligations in international law�... We are of the opinion:

* that an impartial international commission should be set up to inquire into the violence against the Tamils in July 1983 including the killing of 53 Tamil detainees held in custody by the government...

*that the Prevention of Terrorism Act should be repealed...

* that the use of torture and incommunicado detention in violation of Sri Lanka�s obligations under International Covenants should be discontinued...

* that the Sri Lankan government should repeal the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution and take meaningful steps to arrive at a political solution... by the granting of the legitimate rights of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka."

In March 1986, Senator A.L.Missen, then Chairman of the Australian Parliamentary Group of Amnesty International declared in the Australian Senate:

"Some 6000 Tamils have been killed altogether in the last few years...These events are not accidental. It can be seen that they are the result of a deliberate policy on the part of the Sri Lankan government...Democracy in Sri Lanka does not exist in any real sense. The democracy of Sri Lanka has been described in the following terms, terms which are a fair and accurate description:

�The reluctance to hold general elections, the muzzling of the opposition press, the continued reliance on extraordinary powers unknown to a free democracy, arbitrary detention without access to lawyers or relations, torture of detainees on a systematic basis, the intimidation of the judiciary by the executive, the disenfranchisement of the opposition, an executive President who holds undated letters of resignation from members of the legislature, an elected President who publicly declares his lack of care for the lives or opinion of a section of his electorate, and the continued subjugation of the Tamil people by a permanent Sinhala majority, within the confines of an unitary constitutional frame, constitute the reality of �democracy�, Sri Lankan style.�"

Today, ten years after the July �83 genocidal attack, no inquiry, leave alone an impartial one, has been held into the admittedly planned violence against the Tamil people. The Prevention of Terrorism Act remains an ugly blot on Sri Lanka�s statute book and the Sixth Amendment to the Sri Lanka Constitution continues in force, unrepealed. " International Federation of Tamils to United Kingdom Prime Minister, Rt.Hon. John Major, 24 July 1993

 

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