The Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research highlighted the lack of accountability for the killings that took place during the pogrom of Black July 1983.
In a statement that marks 35 years since the massacre, ACPR said, "35 years have passed and to date, there has been no accountability for this horrific week of genocidal violence, nor even an attempt at an official apology or comprehensive reparations to the Tamil community for the insurmountable losses it suffered and continues to suffer."
"1983 was a symptom of the deeply Sinhala Buddhist state. A systematic answer to 1983 should have led us to a retransformation of the state along plurinational lines. But the contrary was true. As we speak about ‘transitional justice’ today it is important to remember that no one has been brought to book for the 1983 atrocities. No accountability, no truth telling, no reparations and hence recurrence at a genocidal scale. The Sri Lankan government’s continued failure to address the atrocities of Black July is symbolic of its larger failure to address impunity, the Tamil question, and the root causes of the conflict."
"As we remember the thousands of victims of this horrific pogrom this week, we re-affirm our commitment to seeking justice for the atrocity crimes committed that week and throughout the conflict."
Read full statement here.
Eye witness reports described mobs chasing Tamils down the street with knives and setting them alight alive. Many hundreds of women were raped. Tamil political prisoners locked up in Welikada jail, deep within the island's south, were also targeted as prison guards allowed Sinhala inmates to slaughter them.
Read more here.
