<b>Black July- North-East Remembers, but South Forgets</b>

T.Sabaratnam

Colombo July 23: Today is the 19th anniversary of the 1983 ethnic holocaust, that transformed the serene Sri Lanka, into a violent island, bleeding with death and destuction.

This morning, Colombo was quiet and calm and everything was normal. Tamils, who kept indoors during the last 18 dreaded holocaust anniversaries, thronged the streets on Colombo, to celebrate the second day of the Vel festival.

The annual nerve-wrecking scene of the tightening of security in Colombo, by the setting up of additional road blocks and check points were today absent, and the relaxed police high-command said, they had sent their men to Kandy , to handle crowd at the perahera.

In the Tamil majority north-east, black flags were hoisted, to “remember the massacre” of the Tamils, that followed LTTE’s first brutal landmine attack on the army, that killed 13 soldiers.

“We cannot forget that premeditated attack on the Tamils,” read a statement issued by the political wing of the LTTE, which requested Tamils to hoist black flags in their houses and avoid festivities.

Army sources said, unlike in the past, they did not expect LTTE attacks and had not made any arrangements to meet such situations. In the past, army had kept its men on Red Alert, during the ‘Black July week – July 23-28.’

Attacks against the Tamils began in Jaffna, on the morning of July 24 1983, when soldiers went on rampage gunning civilians, in retaliation for the July 23 night ambush, at Tinnavely junction, Jaffna. The attack on the army patrol was led by LTTE leader Velupillai Pirabaharan. The soldiers shot and killed 51 civilians in the Peninsula.

Colombo burst into flames that night and Tamils were attacked the very next day - homes and business establishments were torched and civilians were mercilessly attacked and some killed. Nearly 35 Tamil detainees, at high security Welikade prison, were killed ruthlessly, on July 25 and two days later, another 18 Tamil detenuees held under anti-terrorism act, were killed again.

“Tamils want to remember it as it was the biggest stigma attached on their honor and dignity and the Sinhalese want to forget it,” commented Tamil National Alliance leader R. Sampanthan.