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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
...continued...
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