Genocide '83 - Prologue

INDICTMENT AGAINST SRI LANKA: Genocide '83

Prologue

On 10 April 1983, a young Tamil from Trincomalee died in police custody after having been held without charge for two weeks. At the post mortem 25 external injuries and 10 internal injuries were found. At the judicial inquest into his death on 31 May, the Jaffna Magistrate returned a verdict of homicide. Three days later, on 3 June 1983, a new Emergency Regulation was brought into effect permitting the police to bury or cremate bodies without a post mortem or an inquest.

On 9 June 1983, Amnesty International cabled President Jayawardene expressing concern that such a Regulation could give rise to the gravest violations of human rights and appealed to him to rescind it. But the Regulation was not rescinded. On the contrary, Tamils in Trincomalee faced increasing Sinhala violence during June 1983.

''And there was a definite pattern in it. The objective sought to be achieved was to drive the Tamils out of Trincomalee, for the Government was anxious to get a Sinhalese majority population there as the Tamils have been holding out Trincomalee as (their) future capital ...
The pattern of violence was such that the police/army/navy/airforce joined the Sinhalese people in unitedly attacking the Tamils. In early June, two Hindu temples were burnt. The house of the (Tamil) MP for Trincomalee was attacked and bombs thrown...
On 25 June, at Sivayogapuram, 20 Tamil houses were burnt by Sinhalese people in the presence of the police. On 26 June the 'Nescafe Hotel' owned by a Tamil was attacked and several Tamils were injured. One of the Sinhalese attackers was caught and handed over to the police, who released him.
On the 27 June a coach from Trincomalee to Jaffna, with Tamil passengers, faced a road block by the Sinhalese people. They shot at the coach and 4 passengers were injured. The coach was thereafter set on fire with all the passengers inside.
12 passengers, including a child sustained severe burn injuries. One Thirunavukkarasu, a Tamil helped the victims in the coach and despatched some of them to the hospital. On that very night, Thirunavukkarasu his wife, Seetha and a 4 year old daughter were killed by the Sinhalese at Kithul Uthu in Trincomalee... By the end of June, in Trincomalee, 214 houses, 24 shops, 8 Hindu Temples, 1 Catholic Ashram were burnt...'' (Satchi Ponnambalam, Memorandum to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights submitted on behalf of Concerned Eelam Tamil Scholars, February 1984)

Tamil organisations protested against these attacks by the Sri Lankan security forces and one such protest telegram addressed on 1 July 1983 to 17 foreign embassies in Colombo read: ''Tamils experiencing pathetic situation in Trincomalee. Killing, looting and arson are now taking place. State security forces are behind violence. We seek immediate intervention by friendly nations to help stop genocide of Tamils.''

It was against the backdrop of these events that in early July 1983, the elected President of Sri Lanka gave expression to the policy of his government in respect of a people whom he claimed as a section of his electorate.

President Jayawardene, vested by the Sri Lankan Constitution with the executive power of the State, declared in an interview with Ian Ward of the London Daily Telegraph:

"I have tried to be effective for sometime but cannot. I am not worried about the opinion of the Jaffna (Tamil) people now." He said at one time his party had been anxious to apply policies in the northern region in such a way as to attract popular support there. "Now, we cannot think of them. Not about their lives or of their opinion about us.'' He went on: "The more you put pressure in the north, the happier the Sinhala people will be here.. really, if I starve the Tamils out, the Sinhala people will be happy.."

President Jayawardene's comments were tantamount to a public refusal by the Executive Head of the Sri Lankan State and the Commander in Chief of its Armed Forces to protect the lives of the Tamil people at a time when they were crying out for help.

Some may have regarded his comments not only as a license but also as an invitation to kill.

In the perception of the Sri Lanka government, the claims of the Tamil people for the basic right of self determination had assumed a dimension that demanded a response - but, strangely, a response which did not have regard for the lives of the Tamil people or for that matter, their opinion.

On 22 July, in the Sri Lanka Parliament, a Tamil Parliamentary leader referred to President Jayawardene's statement and said:

''I only hope that what was published would be contradicted by the President... I hope to God that the article which was an interview was wrong as it was stated that the President did not care for the lives of the people of Jaffna.''

But no contradiction was ever made.

Two weeks after President Jayawardene's interview with Ian Ward in the Daily Telegraph, a vicious widespread attack was launched on the Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka. ...continued....