"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." Charles
Sarvan from Berlin, Germany on Chandrika Kumaratunga’s Apology, 27
July 2004
President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga's belated
attempt at an apology
"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."
Report in the Sri Lanka State Controlled Sunday Observer, 25
July 2004
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..."
