A closure for July 1983: A national day of mourning?

Another year has passed since the shame of July 1983. Tamils, and Sinhalese and Muslims still consider that period the saddest period in contemporary history of Sri Lanka. For many thousands of Tamils who lost their lives, their families and friends still mourn them and that fateful period.

For those who lost their homes and property, and for those hundreds and thousands who had to flee the country, they still recount with horror, the spectacle of hopelessness, and the loss of self respect and self esteem. For many Tamils, this was a repetition of several instances of similar, although much less vicious campaigns against them simply because of their ethnicity.

Perhaps it is the responsibility of the State and the Government to engage in that exercise first and foremost, and then all of us as the Nation, every citizen in this country should collectively accept the blame and make that apology to all of you here who are the representatives or the direct victims of that violence, and through you to all the other tens of thousands who suffered by those incidents. I would like to assign to myself the necessary task on behalf of the State of Sri Lanka, the Government and on behalf of all of us; all the citizens of Sri Lanka to extend that apology. It is late but I think it is still not too late. We cannot forget, we cannot blind ourselves to the mistakes we have made; we will have to accept collective guilt for the wrongs, and then move forward. - President Chandrika Kumaratunga in 2004, on the occasion of the 21st anniversary of July 1983.

The country they called home let them down, and this time with such ferociousness, many simply could not call Sri Lanka their home anymore. As has been since that day, there will be ongoing debate about what happened, why it happened, and who did what, or who did not do what they should have done.

Some Sinhalese will continue to maintain the view that this was an inevitable outcome of provocation. All that is pointless, and it diminishes us. It is an insult to the great teachings of Lord Buddha, Jesus Christ, Prophet Mohamed, and Hindu teachings. It is an insult to our culture which we proudly proclaim as one of the richest in the world. If the events of July 1983 are to be taken as our richness, then we are culturally poor than the poorest.

Some argue that despite worse provocation since then, the country has not repeated its dismal performance of July 1983. This is true. Only 13 soldiers were killed to light the spark in 1983. Since then thousands of soldiers have been killed by the LTTE. Thousands more innocent civilians have been killed by the LTTE, Buddhist priest have been murdered within hallowed precincts like the Sri Maha Bodhiya in Anuradhapura. The Temple of the Tooth in Kandy was attacked.

Hundreds of Muslims who were praying in a Mosque were massacred. No Tamils living amongst the Sinhalese and Muslims in Colombo or anywhere else have been killed or rendered homeless since July 1983, by anyone other than the LTTE.

If all the subsequent massacres by the LTTE were a payback for July 1983, then the country has paid a heavy price with compound interest. The Sri Lankan Armed Forces have killed thousands of LTTE cadres and many civilians have died in the cross fire. Some can take the view that all scores have now been settled with the elimination of the LTTE as a terrorist and military force.

The country now needs to have a closure of the dark days of July 1983 and all other dark days prior to that and after that. All people who died, suffered, lost their homes, have to be remembered and mourned. The country needs to say sorry to each other for atrocities committed on each other. The country needs a closure in order to move on, and we must move on. Perhaps a day or national mourning, a day when we all say sorry to each other might cleanse us to some extent of our remnant hatred and anger, and help us to look towards the future.

We need to bring Tamils back to the fold of Sri Lanka, into the main stream. They need to feel they are safe anywhere in the country, not just in the North or the East. The safety they have felt in Colombo since July 1983 has to be a permanent feature, a lasting feeling. They cannot be faulted for thinking violence may recur as has happened many time in the past before July 1983.

Tamil professionals and academics, and many skilled persons, who had to flee Sri Lanka, must be made to feel they can return and make a contribution to the country again. They too need to demonstrate they are also willing to work with the rest of Sri Lankans to make this happen. Divisive politics must end, if not for any other reason, because it didn’t work even with the most feared terrorist outfit in the world leading the campaign for division.

President Kumaratunga tried to bring about this closure and she spoke of what Sri Lanka lost as a consequence of July 1983. In her speech on the occasion of the 21st anniversary of July 1983, as reported in the Asian Tribune, she said.

“Amongst these we count some of the best qualified professionals of Sri Lanka; committed qualified professionals and decent people. In addition these incidents of 21 years ago have radically changed the entire fabric of Sri Lankan society. From the top, right down to the bottom, vertically, horizontally and entirely. Violence became a major tool of socio-political behaviour in this country since then. Violence has rulers, leaders and those who govern; and thereafter in consequence many others have learned to use this tool of violence as a form of resolution of all problems”.

She was the President when she said “Sri Lanka has thereby become famous or rather infamous as one of the world’s most violent countries; All this in 21 years. As we know all nations have great achievements which they are proud of, they also have moments in their history which they need to be ashamed of. Only very few nations seem to have had the courage or the right leadership to accept the blame for their moments of shame”.

Her statement that “ Maybe if all of us can collectively put behind us all the little pettiness that has bound us in shackles, free ourselves from those many and numerous hatreds, jealousies that make of us little men and women, then I’m sure we could move forward towards working, living as one nation in harmony, in a search for that very necessary unity within the diversity that is Sri Lanka, the diverse ethnic communities, the diverse religious communities, and various other social groups that live together in this country”, says it all.

It is a good summing up of who we are and who we can be.

The war has ended, and there is peace. For all those borne after July 1983, they are experiencing life without fear for the first time. Those carefree youngsters who used to play cricket in open fields in Jaffna or Killinochchi before 1983, they can recall those wonderful days and see their children or grandchildren doing the same now.

Those parents in Colombo who did not know whether they or their children would return home alive in the evenings, they can breathe in relief and have that comfort now.

What we now have is a new beginning. President Mahinda Rajapaksa has given that to the country. For those who are willing to grasp the opportunity, there is hope. For those who don’t, perpetual despair. Peace has come at a tremendous cost and there can be no dividends for some of those costs. The most significant ad valuable dividend will be to safeguard that peace and never allow another attack on Tamils similar to July 1983 or all prior attacks against the Tamils in Sri Lanka, or another LTTE to surface from the ashes of our blood stained history.

This can only be possible through a partnership amongst all citizens of all ethnicities, where all will be equal, where there will be law and order, and where there will be true democratic opportunities for self governance to the extent possible within a unitary, democratic framework.

- Asian Tribune -