In July 1983, people throughout the world were shocked by news reports of communal violence in Sri Lanka. Not only were hundreds of innocent people physically abused and killed, and their houses burned and looted, but this was done systematically. The attacking gangs were reported carrying electoral rolls and their targets were Tamil houses only; the police and security forces did not attempt to stop the carnage; there were accusations of complicity by members of the government. Thousands of Tam its fled Colombo for the safety of Jaffna in the north, where Tamils form a majority of the population.
Since that time many people have become aware that there are serious problems tearing Sri Lankan society apart. The image of a tropical island paradise has been shattered by continuing reports of violence, and there is a growing concern that the situation there is one of civil war.
This article attempts to clarify the situation in Sri Lanka by briefly giving a historical perspective of the relationship between the two main communities, the Sinhalese and the Tamils. These two communities have not always been in conflict with each other. In fact over the more than two thousand years of shared history there has been a great amount of interaction, of sharing, of amicable cohabitation on the island. The current conflict between the two communities originated in the colonial period, with the rise of nationalism and consequent sharpening of distinctions between communities. This article discusses this development and the deterioration of the relationship between Tamils and Sinhalese up to 1986.
Historians of Sri Lanka often start books by observing that a central fact of the history of the island is its connection with India, separated from it only by a narrow stretch of water (Ludowyk p. 19; Mendis p.1; Wriggins p. 12). Right throughout its history India has left a deep impression on Ceylon - the India of the Buddha, Asokan India, the India of the Guptas, and much nearer home British India too’ (Ludowyk p. 19). For thousands of years there have been movements of people between India and Sri Lanka and there has been in Sri Lanka an awareness of India’s proximity. This is worth bearing in mind.
It is not known whether the original inhabitants of the island came from India, but the fifth-century AD Buddhist chronicle, the Mahavamsa, records the legend of the first arrival of Sinhalese people. It is uncertain which part of India these people originated from - some accounts suggest Kalinga, or Orissa, others suggest Bengal; however, it is certain they came from an Indo-Aryan area of north India. Seven hundred Sinhalese arrived, led by Vijaya, who has become known as the father of the Sinhalese race. Vtjaya took as his wife one of the indigenous Sri Lankan women, described as a yakkhin~ who assisted him in founding a kingdom by “betraying the people of her father’s city”. (Ludowyk, p.37). She bore Vile pa two children, but he did not regard her as worthy enough to be his queen, and so he sent for a bride from a royal family in India. When his Indian bride arrived he sent away his local wife, and their children ‘fled to the mountainous central region from them, according to the chronicle, the wild jungle tribes of Ceylon trace their descent’. (Ludowyk, p.38)
There are two points worth emphasising in this story: firstly, when the Sinhalese arrived in Sri Lanka there were other people living there. The Sinhalese looked down on these people, and referred to them as yakkhas and yakkhinis, of demons, but there was inter-marriage between the two groups. Secondly, from the earliest times, the Sinhalese leaders preferred to marry a bride from an Indian royal family, and this was a way of enhancing their status. This practice of obtaining a bride from India continued over the centuries, with most of the women coming from south Indian kingdoms. These points clearly illustrate that the Sinhalese ‘race’ is not a separate race at all, but a mixture of various peoples, some originally from India and some the aboriginal people of Sri Lanka. What distinguishes them is not racial features, but their Sinhalese language, which over the centuries many other people have adopted.
The earliest Sinhalese speakers probably came to Ceylon about 500 BC from the west and the east coasts of India in merchant vessels that travelled along the Indian coast (Mendis p.8). They established agricultural settlements, in the northern, south-eastern and eastern plains of the island. Their language is of the Indo-Aryan family spoken throughout north India.
The languages of south India, the Dravidian linguistic group, are completely different; of the Dravidian languages the oldest is Tamil. Tamil-speaking people have lived on Sri Lanka from early times, although it is impossible to give a precise date of their arrival. Ludowyk says it is likely Tamils had settlements in Sri Lanka before the second century BC (Ludowyk p.57).
Tamils traded with Sri Lanka, and Tamil women were married into Sinhalese families. Many Tamils adopted the Sinhalese language and many Sinhalese must have spoken Tamil also.
In the second century BC adventurers from South India are said to have invaded Ceylon twice and ruled for some time over the island. The second of these invasions was made by a Tamil named Elara (145-101 BC) who ruled over the northern region till he was put to death by Dutugemunu (Mendis p.30). Dutugemunu is remembered by the Sinhalese as a great hero who freed the island from Tamil rule and this legend is important to remember/n explaining Sinhalese perceptions of Tamils.
Early in the history of Sri Lanka, Buddhism was brought from India and established there. During the third century BC, when Asokan was emperor in north India, he sent as a missionary his relative Mahinda to the court of Devanampiya Tissa, ruler of Anuradhapura. Mahinda taught the teachings of the Buddha to king Tissa, ‘court officials, and common people’ (Ludowyk p.45). The king gave the Buddhists park land to establish themselves; sacred relics and a branch of the sacred Bodhi tree were brought from India; thus Buddhism was instituted as the state religion.
Though the Tamil-Sinhalese conflict in recent years has been seen as partially religious, religious differences have not always existed between the two groups. In the early centuries of the Christian era the Tamils from south India who settled in Sri Lanka were not necessarily Hindu. At that time Buddhism and Jainism were widespread in south India and many Tamil rulers were patrons of Buddhism. “Brahmins were officials in the court of Sinhala kings, and the gods of the Hindu pantheon were respected by Hindu and Buddhist alike (Ludowyk p.58). There was a mixing, a cross- fertilisation of religions, as there was with other social institutions, like language and caste.
From about the sixth century AD onwards, in south India there rose to power the Pailava dynasty who ruled there for several centuries. During their reign occurred an important development in the history of Hinduism - the growth of the bhakti or devotional religious movement. This personal/sod form of religion revived Hinduism at the expense of other religions, and Buddhism in south India more or less disappeared. With the spread of bhakti devotional/sm there was a surge of temple building in south India, which also spread to Sri Lanka. Temples for the worship of S/va were set up at Manthai and Trincomalee probably by Tamil settlers (Mendis p.75)
In the nineth century another south Indian power, the Pandyas, invaded Sri Lanka and according to the Chulavamsa, ‘local Tamils ... the invaders to capture the capital, Anuradhapura’ and plunder its treasures (Spencer p.48). In retaliation the next Sri Lankan ruler invaded south India, and with the assistance of the Pallavas captured the Pandyan capital Madurai~ and in turn plundered its treasure.
With the rise to power of the Chola empire in south India, the history of invasion and counter invasion, and mutual involvement in each other’s affairs, continued. Up until the ‘mid-tenth century, south Indian military expeditions to Sri Lanka had been brief, ad hoc affairs, designed to facilitate short-term gains with minimal involvement and followed by withdrawal to the mainland’ (Spencer p.50) . However, the Chola ruler Rajaraja I was more ambitious, and hearing that the Sri Lankan king was facing a revolt by his Indian mercenary troops, he decided to invade. The Chola army ransacked Anuradhapura, the site of both the royal treasury and the religious treasures at the monastic centre. Chola forces stayed in Sri Lanka, establishing their capital at Polonnaruwa and in the wake of their incursions, Indian merchants extended their commercial activities across northern Sri Lanka (Spencer pp.53-58). The Cholas attempted to consolidate their rule in Sri Lanka, and built temples and collected taxes, but they never ruled the southern parts of the island. In the mid-eleventh century an ambitious Sinhalese prince, Vijayabahu I, established himself in the south and tried to defeat the Cholas. After a prolonged struggle of raids and counter-raids, Vijayabahu captured Polonnaruwa, and the Cholas withdrew to India.
This is a very brief sketchy account of Sri Lankan history, but it illustrates a point. For centuries before the coming of Europeans to Sri Lanka, there had been close contact between Tamils and Sinhalese. The recorded history tends to list only battles and conflicts which were certainly numerous. However, there was contact at other levels also. Tamils and Sinhalese lived together as neighbours, at least in the coastal trading areas. There was inter-marriage between the two groups and many shared religious beliefs and customs. The Dravidian kinship system of preferred cross-cousin marriages is common amongst Sinhalese as well as Tamils. Many Tamils spoke Sinhalese and many Sinhalese spoke Tamil. Tamils fought in Sri Lankan armies and Sinhalese fought in south Indian armies. Although in some areas the one group was predominant, in areas where both groups lived, Tamils and Sinhalese were hardly distinguishable.
With the sixteenth century came European colonisation to Sri Lanka. In 1505 the Portuguese made a treaty with the king of Kotte, granting ‘protection’ in return for cinnamon and thus began 150 years of Portuguese involvement in the island. In their search for trade and wealth they extended their control over the western provinces and Jaffna; traders were followed by missionaries who started schools and won converts. Today there are still many Portuguese sounding Sri Lankan names which originate from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when converts to Christianity adopted Christian (Portuguese) names.
The Portuguese rulers were hated and resisted by many Sri Lankans, Sinhalese and Tamil, and when the opportunity arose, the Kandyan king entered into a treaty with another European sea power, the Dutch, ‘giving them certain trading rights in return for help in ridding Ceylon of the Portuguese’ (Ludowyk p. 127) After many baffles, the Dutch finally captured the last Portuguese stronghold in 1658 and Dutch colonial rule replaced Portuguese. As a Sinhalese proverb says, “We gave pepper and in exchange got ginger. There was little difference between them; both eaten raw are hot in the mouth (Ludowyk p. 102).
During the Dutch rule of one hundred and thirty-eight years, they brought Tamils from south India to Sri Lanka, labourers to work as slaves and weavers to establish a weaving industry (Ludowyk p.127). Dutch immigrants married both Sinhalese and Tamils, and their descendants became known as Burghers.
The Kandyan kingdom remained beyond European control and from 1739 the Kandyan kings belonged to a south Indian dynasty from Madurai (Ludowyk p.130). The Dutch in turn were replaced by the English, who took over the Dutch possessions in 1796 and/n 1802 they were made an English colony. Within a quarter of a century the English had annexed the Kandyan kingdom, and Sri Lanka was unified under colonial rule.
British rule brought many changes to Sri Lanka, but one of the most important, in the history of relations between Tamils and Sinhalese, was the introduction of a plantation economy. The economy was transferred in the 1830s by large-scale coffee plantations, and when the coffee industry was destroyed by disease in the 1870s, it was replaced by tea. The plantations needed labour, and the ‘labour problems were solved in much the same way as the kings of ancient Ceylon had solved theirs, when in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries there was cinnomon to be in the royal domains. They had settled their difficulties by the importation of a labour corps from India’ (Ludowyk p. 195).
According to official records, between 1843 and 1903, almost five million Tamil labourers crossed the sea from India to Sri Lanka, to work on the plantations. Almost three and half million of them returned to India, but one and a half million Indian Tamils remained in Sri Lanka (Hjejle p.103). Many of them died soon after arrival~ from one of the many prevalent diseases - cholera, small-pox, dysentery and malaria. “Hardly any attention was paid to the sick coolies and they were generally turned off the plantations and died on the roads. A great many also died on the journey in Ceylon where they had to walk about 150 miles from the coast to the plantations. One of the most frequent routes led through desolate and malaria-ridden country’ (Hjejle p.104). However, many also survived - a grim survival, certainly - a police superintendent for Kandy wrote that the Tamil labourers lived ‘in a much worse condition than the Negro slaves were described to be in the West Indies’ (Hjejle p.105) - but they survived and their descendants today still live in the Sri Lankan central highlands.
Most of these Tamil labourers were of low caste, many had been slaves in south India before they left. “The hardships and dangers to which the immigrant labourers had to submit in the early years of plantation cultivation make it extremely unlikely that anyone other than untouchables would be prepared to undertake the risks” (Hje/le p. 106). This group of people, driven by desperate poverty to take employment in a strange land across the sea, provided the labour for Sri Lanka’s prime industry, economic growth and foreign exchange earnings.
High in the mountains, far from areas where Sri Lankan Tamils lived, speaking a different language from the surrounding population, they remained unintegrated aliens in Sri Lankan society. They are known as plantation, estate, or Indian Tamils, and are separate, and in many ways different from the earlier Tamil settlers in Sri Lanka, known (to differentiate them) as Sri Lankan or Jaffna Tamils. They speak the same language and follow the same religions (majority Hindu, minority Christian), but there are many differences. They are concentrated in the mountains around Kandy, the plantation areas; whereas the Sri Lankan Tamils, scattered throughout the country, are concentrated in the northern and eastern provinces. They are low-caste, and generally poorly educated; the Sri Lankan Tamils are predominantly high-caste and generally well- educated, as a result of the spread of schools established by missionaries in the colonial period. The estate Tamils are generally poor; many Sri Lankan Tamils are comfortable or wealthy in comparison. The Sri Lankan Tamils are natives of the country, having lived there for centuries; the estate Tamils are relative new-corners, having lived there only a few generations. With independence in 1948, the estate Tamils were increasingly perceived as an unwanted problem.
Another result of European colonial rule was the introduction of an education system and a bureaucracy. The British needed educated Sri Lankans to work in the bureaucracy; missionaries established schools and colleges. Through a combination of historical accidents, a greater proportion of Tamils than Sinhalese obtained an English education, and joined the government bureaucracy. Most schools were built in Colombo and Jaffna, which favoured Tamils, but denied access to the rural population, predominantly Sinhalese. The Tamils generally were not large landowners, so entering government service or a profession was seen as the ‘only avenue for economic survival and social advancement’. (Emergency Sri Lanka p.12). After independence the fact that there was a disproportionate number of Tamils In the civil service and education industry was seen by some as evidence that Tamils were a privileged minority. Privileged minorities (or minorities perceived as privileged) often arouse resentment.
Independence and the Growth of Nationalism
In the nineteenth century there had been revival movements amongst both Sinhalese and Tamils, looking back at their history, rediscovering their culture and attempting to define themselves against the colonial European rulers. These movements influenced the thought of many people this century, and helped form a bas/s for the development of nationalism. However, it was not a unified nationalism; amongst the Sinhalese it was a patriotism that stressed Buddhism and Sinhala identity. Tamils both in south India and in Sri Lanka proudly re-discovered Hinduism and Tamil culture. This development heightened the sense of ‘differentness’ of the other community and furthered mistrust and suspicion between them.
The mistrust between the communities was also strengthened by the constitutional and political events leading to independence. The Tamils and other minorities - Muslims and Burghers - were apprehensive of being governed by a Sinhalese majority and pressed for representation according to community. However, in 1931 the principle of communal representation was rejected in favour of universal adult franchise.
independence came very easily in 1948 for Sri Lanka (then Ceylon). Unlike many other colonies there was no struggle for independence, no nationalist movement that had to unity the people and forge national solidarity against repression. There was a constitutional process that peacefully transferred power from the English to the English-educated elite. This elite comprised both Sinhalese and Tamils, for whom western education provided an identity that crossed ethnic and linguistic boundaries.
The governing United National Party (UNP) led by D.S.Senanayake, included Tamils in the Cabinet, and in the early years of independence it seemed that this party would support Tamil interests as well as Sinhalese. This impression was shaken in 1949 when legislation deprived of citizenship and disenfranchised the estate Tamils. The government made it extremely difficult for them to register as Sri Lankan citizens, and India was reluctant to receive them back. They became stateless and voteless, and although later an agreement was reached for some of them to be repatriated to India, and over 400,000 of them have obtained Sri Lankan citizenship since the 1950s, several hundred thousand are still stateless.
In the early 1950s there was an increase in the development of patriotism; Sri Lanka was a newly independent nation, and the people were increasingly feeling pride in their culture, their history, their language and their place in the world. Unfortunately amongst the Sinhalese this feeling was such that it excluded the Tamils and other minorities. Their place in the world they felt was unique as the Dharma Dee pa, the island of Buddhist teaching, doctrine, or morality. Their culture and language was Sinhalese. The shared history of Sinhalese and Tamils was forgotten in the enthusiasm of a Buddhist Sinhalese nationalism. At that time the official language was English, and the nationalist movement took up the catchery ‘Swabasha’ or ‘one’s own language’. Language separated the two main communities, and this campaign widened the gap between them. The campaign’s emphasis changed, from promoting ‘Swabasha’ to demanding ‘Sinhalese only’.
In 1951, a cabinet minister in the UNP government, S.W.R.D.Bandaranaike, resigned and formed the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). Over the next five years the SLFP campaigned for the establishment of Sinhalese as the official language. It grew in strength in the provinces, gaining support from the Sinhalese educated teachers, ayurvedic (medical) practitioners and Bhikkus (Buddhist monks). As this campaign grew in strength, Tamils reacted against it, and communal feelings were roused. The unfortunate irony was that both communities saw themselves as a minority. The Tarnils saw themselves as a minority Tamil-speaking community in Sri Lanka who would be disadvantaged if Sinhalese was the only official language. The Sinhalese saw themselves as a minority in the shadow of India; India had (in the early SOs) roughly 30 million Tamils, compared to only 7 million Sinhalese-speakers in the whole world, concentrated in Sri Lanka. The ‘Sinhala only’ campaign in the south led many Tamils in the north to support the Federal Party, which aimed for a Federal Union of States.
This campaign culminated in the 1956 general election. Up until this time many Tamils and Sinhalese had collaborated together in the UNP, but on the eve of the election the UNP ‘broke its tradition of inter communal cooperation and, by yielding to pressures from the southern part of the island, adopted a policy of advocating Sinhalese as the only state language’ (Wriggins p. 147). Thus arose the ridiculous and tragic situation of the two major parties both fighting the election on the ‘Sinhala only’ platform. This contributed significantly to the alienation of the Tamil community from the democratic process.
The 1956 election was an overwhelming victory for a coalition of the SLFP and other smaller parties, led by Mr. Bandaranaike, and resulted in a transfer of power from the English educated, middle class elite, to the Sinhalese educated representatives of the masses. The Coalition won 51 seats, the Federal Party won 10, the UNP only won 8. it was a far-reaching transfer, and the new parliament reflected the nationalist values - Sinhalese music opened parliament ‘instead of the western fanfare. Yellow- robed Buddhist priests occupied seats in the visitors’ gallery, symbolising their important role in the recent campaign. Large numbers of village and lower-class people thronged the public galleries as they had never done before’ (Wriggins p.328). For the first time since independence, Tamils were not included in the cabinet.
The first legislation of the new government was to make Sinhala the sole official language. Tamils felt insulted, and that the government was denying them their cultural identity. They also realised that the Act would deprive thousands of Tamils of employment in the public service. Tamils held a peaceful demonstration against the legislation near parliament, which was violently disrupted. The violence spread, and rioting broke out in other areas; ‘between 20- 200 people were killed depending on which side was doing the tallying’ (Wriggins p.36 1). This was the first serious communal riot between Tarnils and Sinhalese. It arose out of specific historic circumstances - the post-independence growth of Sinhalese patriotism and the consequent alienation and sense of becoming a persecuted minority amongst the Tamils. It was a new development in the relations between the two main Sri Lankan communities.
Under the new government led by Mr.Bandaranaike moves also began to change the language of instruction in schools from English to Sinhalese. in response the Federal Party confirmed their objective of establishing an ‘autonomous Tamil linguistic state within a Federal Union of Ceylon as the only way of protecting the ‘cultural freedom and identity of the Tamil- speaking people’. They also urged all Tamils to refuse to learn or to speak Sinhalese (Wriggins p.264). They warned the government that unless a Federal Union was formed by August 1957 they would undertake a ‘Satyagraha’ - a Gandhian-style non-violent direct action campaign. The Prime Minister was willing to ensure a proper place for the Tamil language, and entered into discussions with the Federal Party leaders. The agreement reached, known as the Bandaranaike - Chelvanayakam Pact, recognised Tamil as a national minority language, and provided for Tamil to be used in administration in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, where Tamils are in a majority. Legislation was also proposed to establish regional councils, which might have met the Tamil demand for regional autonomy. The Satyagraha campaign was called off, but extremists, both Sinhalese and Tamils, were unhappy with the pact. Buddhist monks in the south of the island organised a campaign to boycott Tamil shops; Tamils in the north defaced Sinhala lettering on government buses, replacing it with Tamil script. Many Buddhist monks ‘participated in a mass sit-down demonstration in front of the prime minister’s residence (Wriggins p.267) and under pressure Bandaranaike abrogated his agreement with Chelvanayakam.
There was also tension in the country resulting from other causes - serious floods and strikes - and ‘an atmosphere of imminent public disorder developed as police and then the army patrolled Colombo’ (Wriggins p.267). The tension erupted in June 1958, with an outbreak of communal violence. Tamils were attacked, humiliated, killed, their homes were ransacked and burned, ‘there were lootings, burnings and savagery on such a scale as had not been known before’ (Ludowyk p.295). Thousands of Tamils fled their homes in the south to find safety in the north; about 300-400 people were killed. The government responded by declaring a state of emergency. During the emergency legislation was passed allowing Tamils to continue to educate and correspond with the government in Tamil, but if fell short of the Federal Party’s requirements. In September 1959 the Prime Minister, Mr.Bandaranaike, was assassinated by a Buddhist monk, and after elections in 1960 his wife, Mrs. Bandaranaike, became the first woman Prime Minister of a country, leading a government formed by the SLFP.
Relations between the two communities have continued to deteriorate. The Tamils felt increasingly frustrated as their attempts at negotiation never reached a satisfactory conclusion. The extremist Buddhist-Sinhala groups in the country, including some Buddhist monks, have been a continual pressure group on the government, urging that no concessions should be made to Tamils. Each of the two major parties - the UNP and the SLFP - have used this extremist Buddhist-Sinhala pressure group for their own political advantage. When in opposition they have attacked the government for betraying the Sinhalese people, using emotional scare tactics, and made it extremely difficult for the government to negotiate with Tamil leaders. Government policies have discriminated in favour of Sinhalese entering colleges and government service, making these avenues of employment increasingly difficult for Tamils to enter. The government claims it is attempting to redress the disproportionate number of Tamils in these areas; the effect has been to increase the number of educated, unemployed, frustrated young Tamils.
The Rise of Tamil Militancy
In the 1970s these frustrated young Tamils began to conclude that the only means by which Tamils could attain justice and equality in Sri Lanka was to fight for it - militarily. Militant groups formed in the north, with the aim of establishing a separate Tamil state - Eelam. Attempts at negotiation for regional autonomy had been going on for decades, and achieved nothing. The Sri Lankan government had increasingly shown itself willing to use armed force against minorities - the response to the 1971 uprising by the left-wing (mainly Sinhalese) party, the JVP in which several thousands were killed was yet another example of this. Tamil youth increasingly realised they had to fight armed repression with arms, and began their campaign by sporadically attacking state institutions, army and police.
This rise of Tamil militancy continued the polarisation of the two communities. Buddhist-Sinhala extremists used Tamil militancy to argue that no concessions should be made to the Tamils. The militancy aroused fear in the Sinhalese already suffering a persecuted minority complex.
By 1976, the Federal Party had been replaced by the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) as the representative of the moderate Tamils, who were trying to improve the Tamils’ position through the democratic process. In the 1977 elections the TULF campaigned for a separate state for Tamils and won the support of large sections of the Tamil population in the Northern and Eastern provinces (Tamils are a majority in the Northern province, and form about half the population in the Eastern province, the other half comprising Muslims and Sinhalese). This election was won by the UNP, led by Mr.J.R.Jayewardene, who has been the country’s leader since then. The TULF became the main opposition party.
For some time it seemed the Jayewardene government was going to deal justly with the Tamils - a new constitution in 1978 recognised Tamil as a ‘minority language’. However, this impression did not last. The promise to give some regional autonomy and transfer power to district councils was broken. Responding to increasing acts of violence by the militant Tamils in the north against the government, the UNP government brought in the Prevention of Terrorism Act in 1979.
The Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) gives far-reaching powers to the government and armed forces, to imprison people without charging or trying them, or even to notify their families. Many Tamils have disappeared in this way. The PTA has been likened to the 1967 Terrorism Act of South Africa, and has been condemned by the International Commission of Jurists and Amnesty International. Amnesty has reported that torture is widely used by the army and the police, against Tamils and also against Sinhalese members of opposition parties, particularly the JVP and the SLFP (Emergency Sri Lanka pp.34-35). Under the PTA, police and army officers, are immune from any legal action. Brought in as a temporary measure, the PTA has become permanent.
As government actions became more repressive towards Tamils, and there was no progress in addressing Tamil grievances through negotiation, the militant Tamil groups grew in numbers. In 1981, serious communal rioting broke out again, and army and police participated in burning down the Jaffna public library, the repository of many thousands of irreplaceable Tamil manuscripts. The army and police, predominantly Sinhalese, had assumed the character of an occupying enemy force in Jaffna. For them to participate in anti-Tamil riots meant that Tamil civilians could no longer be guaranteed safety by the government.
In 1983, communal violence erupted again, the worst the island had experienced. It was sparked off by Tamil militants ambushing and killing 13 Sinhalese soldiers in the north. Violence exploded in Colombo, where entire Tamil business and residential districts were set on fire and looted. Violence spread to provincial towns and plantation areas, and everywhere the same pattern was repeated - only Tamil shops and houses were attacked. it was a systematic attack on the Tamils carried out by organised gangs in government vehicles, sometimes accompanied by Members of Parliament and members of JSS, the trade union arm of the government party. In many cases they carried electoral rolls, to distinguish Tamil houses. Tamil civilians were assaulted, raped, robbed and killed; the police did nothing to protect them. (Manor 84, p.164). Thousands of Tamils fled their homes in Colombo and other parts of the south, and went to the north, where in a Tamil majority area they would be safer. They camped in temples, schools and make-shift refugee camps. Thousands of them have not returned to their former homes.
The one hope for the situation is that the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil militant leaders and the Indian government will realise that they have to negotiate with each other. They have to make more effort to find a political solution to the conflict.
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