The 25th anniversary of the "black July", the worst ethnic killing in Sri Lanka

New Delhi, July 25, 2008. - The Tamils ​​around the world commemorate this day with plays, exhibitions and watches the 25 years since the worst massacres in Sri Lanka Ethnic recorded, seed of the current war-ravaged Indian Island.
"The 25 years deserved a review of the stories of what happened next. There are photographs of displaced women who have lost everything, "he says by phone EFE photographer Anoma Rajakaruna, Colombo presented in the exhibition" Life after 25 years. "
The powerful Tamil diaspora in the world these days you can attend theater in Toronto (Canada), book in Australia and India and vigils and demonstrations in the United States, with the common aim of commemorating the massacres of 1983.
"Some wonder why these events are remembered ritually every year every July. I think the only reason is to make sure something does not happen again, "he told Efe on the phone the Minister of National Integration, Dew Gunasekara.
Sinhalese (majority) and Tamils ​​had been locked in sporadic ethnic clashes since the 1970s, but definitely violence erupted in July 1983, the "Black July", with the arrival in Colombo of the bodies of 15 soldiers ambushed by guerrillas Tamil (LTTE).
"The soldiers were brought at once and people reacted with anger at the funeral. Furthermore, the Government took six days to call for calm, the silence encouraged the violent, "Gunasekara said from Colombo.
On the night of July 24, 1983, shortly after the burial, hordes of angry Sinhalese assaulted, raped and killed as many Tamils ​​in their path in the Ceylonese capital.
"I still remember how they stopped the car. Inside were four: a girl, a boy and his parents. Some questions with joy, not to make mistakes. And then took action. Sprinkle with gasoline and all that, "the poet writes Sinhalese Basil Fernando.
According to the chroniclers, the mob asked to motorists because of their ethnicity, and kill them if they happened to be Tamils, burned buses loaded with passengers and a crowd went into a criminal capital and slashed to 53 political prisoners in this community.
"He woke up one day in 1983 that changed the landscape and the family routine. Tamil burned every building in the city, including Pharmacy Uncle Joe. Days, weeks, months: he disappeared without trace, "says the photographer Rajakaruna.
The pogroms in Colombo later spread across the country with a balance chilling killed more than 1,000 Tamils ​​and it is estimated that 700,000 people left homeless, of which 400,000 left Sri Lanka and distributed worldwide.
Despite the silence government, the "Black July" also led to frequent acts of brotherhood between members of both communities, and documented many Sinhalese aid provided during the pogroms on Tamils.
But violence stifled cooperation between the two ethnic groups and gave prominence to the militant group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which was financed with money from the diaspora and took power in the northern third of the island .
The war, Gunasekara, marked the de facto division of Sri Lanka and has since caused the deaths of nearly 100,000 people, with damage "incalculable" for mutual trust between the Buddhist Sinhalese and the Tamils, the Hindu religion.
The LTTE still fighting for an independent "Tamil Eelam", the areas with more presence, the Tamil north and east, and where are the front lines, although in recent months the Army has made ​​significant progress.
"What meant the 'black July'? The beginning of the era of guns, disappearances, child soldiers, the destruction of democracy. And the conflict is still going on, "says the minister.
Despite the country's wartime plight and suffering of hundreds of thousands of people, during a discussion of Rajakaruna has been a small cause for rejoicing: the return of Uncle Joe, twenty years after his disappearance.
Uncle Joe at the pharmacy, and with 77 years Rajakaruna told that someone told him about the exhibition and then asked to bring him to her, who lost everything but came out later, that his son tamil married, happily, with a Sinhalese girl.

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