Black July
#)Hai friends in this article let us discuss about an incident called Black July which happened in Sri Lanka
#)The main motto of this article is that after reading this article we should the cruel face of violence and terrorism and we shoul always support PEACE adn enjoy this beautiful world with Peace and Love towards all people and all community
What is Balck July?
#)Black July is the term which is commonly used as a name for the anti-Tamil attacks which was carried out by Sinhala mobs in Sri Lanka starting on July 23, 1983.
#)The estimation report says that around between 400-3000 innocent Tamil people were killed,more than 25,000 people injured and tens of thousands of houses were destroyed, and as a result of this a wave of Sri Lankan Tamils left for other countries as refugees to other countries
#)This riots occurred because of the deadly ambush by a Tamil militant organization which is known as Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam which killed 13 Sri Lanka Army soldiers and this was responsible for the incident of Black July.
#)This Black July incident is generally seen as the start of full-scale armed conflict between Tamil militants and the government of Sri Lanka and it has become a day of remembrance for the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora around the world.
How did the war start in Srilanka?
#)The reason goes way beack during the British period where many Sri Lankan Tamils, particularly those from the Jaffna peninsula, took advantage of educational facilities established by missionaries, and the Singhalese were frustuated by this as Tamils were minority in Sri lanka.
#)This problem becom worse When Sri Lanka became independent in 1948,where a majority of government jobs were held by Tamils and the elected leaders saw this as the result of a British stratagem to control the majority Sinhalese.As a result of this,in 1956 "Sinhala Only Act" was passed by th eGovernment, which initially restricted the fair use of Tamil and English languages.
#)But there was protests against this policy by the Tamils and this resulted in mob violence that eventually snowballed into the 1958 riots and the picture below shows the curfew imposed during the 1958 riots.
#)During 1960s,there were protests and in 1971, the policy of standardization that was implemented strained the already tenuous political relationship between the Tamil and Sinhalese communities.
#) In 1977 there were series of violence took place.But it reached his extreme,in 1981, the renowned public library in Jaffna was burnt down by a violent mob(Some eyewitness say that this was carried by Lankan Police with Government support as this was a vital place for Tamil) which resulted in 97000 volumes of books destroyed.
#)The picture below shows the view of the library
#)The Jaffna Library was well known at the time as a nexus of Tamil activity with various Tamil groups vying for control.
#)There were similar incidents of low level violence between the government and the mushrooming Tamil militant groups with a significant number of murders until 1983
What happened on July 1983?
#)The main responsible for the Black july incident was when Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) organization ambushed a military convoy in the North of Sri Lanka on the evening of July 23, 1983 outside the town of Jaffna in the North of Sri Lanka which killed 15 Sril Lankan soldiers.
#)This incident happened when the soldiers were traveling in a truck, which was following the jeep dismounted to help their colleagues, where they were ambushed by a group of Tamil Tiger fighters, who fired at them with automatic weapons and hurled grenades at them.
#)Kittu,(also called as Krishnamkumar) a regional commander of the LTTE later admitted to planning and carrying out the ambush and the picture of Kittu is shown below
#)But the government decided to quietly bury the bodies of these soldiers at the Kanatte cemetery in Colombo in order to avoid a violent backlash from the population due to the ambush.
#)It was On July 24, the day when the 15 servicemen were to be buried, some Sinhalese civilians who had gathered at the cemetery, angered by news of the ambush, which was magnified by wild rumor and this resulted in formin of mobes and the mobs started attacking, and assauled Tamils, while looting and burning their properties in retribution for what happened.
#)The picture below shows where Tamils shopw were looted by the rioters
#)Using this members of the underworld criminal gangs also joined in and the mobs were equipped with voter registration lists, thereby giving credence to an organized attack with support at government level, and they started burning and attacked mainly Tamil residences and business, while army and government officials were deployed late.
#)This resulted in Tamils to flee the city.
#)The picture below shows how the Tamils were tortures in Borella Bus stand by the rioters, this picture may be disturbing and the moderator can remove if they feel it does'nt required
#)Inspite of these mob activities, many of the goodhearted Sinhalese and Muslim people tried to save the lives and properties of Tamils despite the activities of the gangs.
#) Many Tamils were sheltered in government buildings, temples and Sinhalese and Muslim houses during the following days.
#)This resulted in the government declaring an emergency curfew in Colombo on the evening of the 24th, yet, the police were unwilling, or unable to enforce the curfew.
#)Then the Government called the army to help th epolice.
#) Still the violence continued the next day, and began to spread all across the country, engulfing areas with sizeable Tamil populations, including cities like Kandy , Matale, Nawalapitiya, Badulla and Nuwara Eliya.
#)The mob burnt the Vehicles on the streets and they also dragged tamil people from the car and they were beaten to deat of injured by the mob.
#)The image below shows how the mob burnt a car that belonged to a Tamil
#)Apart from this,one of the most notorious single attacks of the riots took place at the Welikada high security prison on July 25 where 37 Tamil prisoners, most of them detained under the Prevention of rebels Act, were killed by Sinhalese prisoners in that jail itself using knives and clubs.
#)Some of the survivors of that riot claimed that the prison officers allowed the keys to fall into the hand of the Sinhalese prisoners,and the officers said that the key was stolen to escape from the situation.
#)On July 28,again a second riot at the prison took place which resulted in the death of 15 Tamil prisoners.
#)By July 26,the curfew was extended nationwide as a precautionary measure so as to stop the violence.
#)Again the riot boke out on 29th but this time police shot 15 rioters and a 24 hours curfew was imposed
#)The July 24, or Black July Day, has become a day of mourning and remembrance amongst the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora around the world and the Canadian Tamil Congress sponsored an event in downtown Toronto on July 24, 2009, for Tamil-Canadians to gather and thank Canada for granting them asylum and similar kind of events were held in Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, France, Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand by the Tamil people
#)Lets pray that these kind of incidents will never happen again in any part of the world and lets pray for PEACE all over the world......
LOVE PEACE
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