The riots of July 1983

On Saturday 23 July thirteen soldiers were killed in an ambush in Jaffna. The newspapers next day gave prominent coverage to this without mentioning that the armed forces had promptly gone on the rampage where the incident had occurred, and killed over forty people. In fact this was never reported in the Sri Lankan press, although the President was to acknowledge the incident later in an interview to a foreign correspondent. What was reported therefore created the impression in the south of the country that Sinhalese youngsters were dying unavenged, and that something had to be done about this.

In addition to media presentation of the incident, the management of the funeral arrangements also contributed to what ensued. The bodies were not disposed of in Jaffna, which would have been the least inflammatory course of action. The alternative of handing over the bodies to relatives at different places in the country was also not considered. Instead it was decided to have a mass funeral at the general cemetery in Colombo on the evening of 24 July.

If all this can be attributed to insensitivity rather than deliberate policy, what happened next is even less easy to excuse. Demonstrations at the cemetery were followed on the night of the 24th by fires in the area round about, in view of the President's residence. The government took no action.