A point of departure
July 1983 was a turning point for many Sri Lankan Tamils to leave the motherland, and seek refuge in various countries including India, Australia, United Kingdom, Canada, United States of America, France,…
Remember the Riots
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Photo by Nazly Ahmed (@nazly) I walk at Independence Square a couple of evenings a week. A friend who walks with me, asked why the Buddhist Flag was hoisted on the flag…
30 years ago: A time for reflection
Image taken from Jaffna Photo Gallery I write this as a response to Concerned Citizen’s comments on the public lecture and discussion on the Burning of the Jaffna Public Library led by…
Black July – My Story
It was July ’83. I was seventeen, which you’ll be surprised about if you’ve seen my youthful appearance and I was in Sri Lanka on one of those “extended” studenty type of…
‘Baaldhiya’ or ‘Vaaldhiya’: Two Wor(l)ds Separated by a Consonant
I don’t think I had the slightest inkling of a problem between the sinhala and tamil people in Sri Lanka, until July 1983. But I should have. In the heady days of…
Memories of a Black Moon – the 1983 riots in Sri Lanka
More than two and a half decades later, one of my friends has asked to interview me about the ’83 riots. I was ten years old. My family was from the Sinhala…
Mano Ganesan on his experience of the anti-Tamil riots in July 1983
Member of Parliament and Convener of the Civil Monitoring Committee, Mano Ganeshan, speaks about his experiences during the anti-Tamil riots in July 1983. For more articles on July 1983, please click here.
Some Reflections arising from Ethnic Riots
by Somapala Gunadheera Off and on, I write short stories, never anecdotes. But now I have to oblige Sanjana. He wants stories about our ethnic riots, the one that raged before he…
Some Gruesome Experiences: Memories of July 1983 by DEW Gunasekara, Minister of Constitutional Affairs and National Integration
 I had my own gruesome experience of the Black July. It was 29th July at midnight that I received a telephone call from my friend and party comrade AJMO Dr. Indra…
Pricking the conscience on reminiscences of ‘Black July’
by Austin Fernando In July 1983, my Accountant Mr. Vallipuram at the Cooperative Department lived off Castle Street where his neighbour was a notorious Sinhalese thug. Until ‘Black July’ Vallipuram once told…
July 1983: Looking back in anger and despair 25 years on
Photo by Chandragupta Amarasinghe ONE What happened in mid-1983 and in the last week of July 1983 was obscene, a monumental atrocity, a disaster for Sri Lanka. In a context marked by…
My name is Cedric. Do you remember me?
July usually passes me by without too much notice, beyond the vague worry that there might be a Tiger attack on Colombo, and a few flashbacks to that weekend in 1983. But…
TNA MP Mr. R. Sampanthan remembers the events of July 1983
Tamil National Alliance MP Mr. R. Sampanthan speaks of the anti-Tamil riots of July 1983. Speaking of the “terrible experience for all Tamil people in Sri Lanka” he says that the riot…
AFLAME – Remembering Black July, 1983
AFLAME – Remembering Black July, 1983 What is a poem to a man hiding in the cellar of his neighbor’s house, breathing the way his hostess spices lentils and mutton, while son…
Plus 25: Things we can’t do because of “National Security” in Sri Lanka
25 years after Black July, the term “National Security” is used to thwart lot of things. V from the movie ‘V for Vendetta’ said . At least he had that. We don’t.…
