1983 communal pogrom

property owned by Tamils. The electoral lists helped them to identify Tamil houses. Some Sinhalese people at great risk to their own safety hid Tamil friends in their houses.

Several eye witnesses including tourists have reported that the security personnel looked on as the violence was perpetrated. There are reports that the Army even threatened Police not to harass the rioters. On Monday 25th of July at 4.00 p.m. the government imposed curfew and this stayed in force throughout Tuesday the 26th. It was again imposed on 27th from 4.00 p.m. to 5.00 a.m. In spite of the curfew attacks on Tamil people continued through out this period.

Rest of the island

The communal violence against Tamils was not restricted to Colombo. Thugs roamed the city of Kandy looking for Tamils on the streets and in the buses. In Trincomalee on 26th of July, 200 houses of Tamils were burned. Violence in Trincomalee town has been continuing for over a month by the time the violence broke out in Colombo on the 23rd of July. The Trincomalee town has a Sri Lankan naval base. The violence against Tamils here was assisted by Sri Lankan Navy as well as the Army and the Police. In Jaffna on the 23rd of July, the Army went on a rampage shooting, on the road, in the houses and in buses killing a total of 50 civilians.

Welikade prison massacre

On 25th July Sinhala prisoners attacked and murdered 35 Tamil detainees in a section of the Welikade prison in Colombo. Another 28 Tamil detainees in a different section was immediately transferred to the Youth Ward. On the 27th armed Sinhala prisoners scaled the walls and appeared in front of the Youth Ward. Dr. Rajasundaram respected for his tireless work among the downtrodden sections of the Tamil community was one of the detainees in the Youth ward. He came forward and pleaded with the attackers to spare them. Door suddenly opened and Dr Rajasundaram was dragged out and beaten to death. The rest of the detainees broke the chairs and tables and used it to keep the attackers at bay.

ICJ report

International Commission of Jurists issued a report on the pogrom. It was written by Paul Sieghart. This report suggests that the riots of July 1983 began even before the reports of the killing of 13 Sri Lankan soldiers in a claymore attack in Jaffna appeared in the local newspapers.

Only on the fifth day, on 28th July the President of Sri Lanka appeared on television. In a brief address he blamed the violence and destruction exclusively on the reaction of “the Sinhala people” to the movement for the establishment of a separate Tamil state, and announced the Cabinet decision to bring in what in the event became the Sixth Amendment to the country’s constitution.

Following is from Paul Sieghart’s report,

“In his address to the nation on the 5th day of rioting president did not see it fit to utter one single word of sympathy for the victims of the violence and destruction which he lamented. If his concern was to reestablish communal harmony in the