Tamils gathered in front of the Jaffna Public Library this week to commemorate the 43^rd anniversary of the treasured institution being set ablaze by Sri Lankan security forces and state-sponsored mobs.

At midnight on May 31, 1981, the Jaffna Public Library, the crucible of Tamil literature and heritage, was set ablaze by Sri Lankan security forces and state-sponsored mobs. The burning has since been marked by Eelam Tamils as an act of genocide.

Dozens of people gathered in front of the library this week, to commemorate the burning.

Over 97,000 unique and irreplaceable Tamil palm leaves (ola), manuscripts, parchments, books, magazines and newspapers, housed within an impressive building inspired by ancient Dravidian architecture, were destroyed during the burning. Some texts that were kept in the library, such as the Yalpanam Vaipavamalai (a history of Jaffna), were literally irreplaceable, being the only copies in existence. It was one of the largest libraries in Asia.

Candles were placed in front of the library entrance to mark the anniversary of the arson. Library staff members were joined by local activists and Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) MP S Kajendran.

The destruction took place under the rule of the UNP at a time when District Development Council elections were underway, and two notorious Sinhala chauvinist cabinet ministers - Cyril Mathew and Gamini Dissanayake - were in Jaffna.

Earlier this year, Sri Lanka’s president Ranil Wickremesinghe attended an event to honour Dissanayake.

Ahead of Sri Lanka’s upcoming presidential election, the Tamil People’s National Front, has begun its campaign to call on Eelam Tamils to boycott the elections.

TNPF commences campaign in Jaffna calling on the Eelam Tamil nation to boycott Sri Lanka's Presidential election. pic.twitter.com/CRHYobya43

— Tamil National People's Front (@TnpfOrg) June 1, 2024

According to the TNPF’s leader, Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, to participate in the upcoming elections would be “an acceptance of that state machinery”; when the reality is that “the entire government machinery is anti-Tamils”.

The TNPF’s leader’s position is in sharp contrast to the leader of the Tamil Makkal Thesiya Kuttani (TMTK) party, C.V. Wigneswaran, who has publicly announced his intention to participate in the upcoming Presidential election.

Read more here: Wigneswaran announces presidential bid

Earlier this year, the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) leader and former parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran told reporters that the Democratic Tamil National Alliance were liasing with the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi and Tamil Makkal Thesiya Kootani to field a common candidate who would represent Tamil aspirations, including a political solution the Tamil national question.

'We need a Tamil presidential candidate to represent Tamil aspirations' says EPRLF leader

^{Illustration by Keera Ratnam / wavesofcolour}

Recent weeks have seen several senior politicians from the two leading opposition parties in the UK, reiterate the importance of ensuring Sri Lanka is referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Keir Starmer, the man widely tipped to become Britain’s next prime minister, called on the ruling government to push through a referral two years ago. Support for such a move has since grown. As Starmer released a statement to commemorate the Tamil Genocide, Ed Davey of the Liberal Democrats committed his party to sending Sri Lanka to the ICC, “so at long last there can be accountability for the genocide committed against Tamil people”. No matter who occupies Downing Street next month, steps must be undertaken to ensure the situation in Sri Lanka is swiftly sent to The Hague. Justice for atrocities must finally be delivered.

The ICC is the world’s highest legal body that investigates and prosecutes the gravest of crimes. The atrocities inflicted on the Tamils, which have left more than 160,000 people still unaccounted for, more than meet the threshold to demand international attention. As is being increasingly recognised, it was a genocide. But the complete failure of Sri Lanka’s domestic accountability mechanisms to hold perpetrators to account, alongside the continued unwillingness of repeated Sri Lankan governments to do so, means that only an international process gives any glimmer of hope that justice will be served. All avenues have been exhausted and the ICC is the court of last resort. For decades now, Tamil victim-survivors have demanded an urgent referral.

That call was heard not just on the island. In 2019, over 17,500 Brits signed a petition demanding Sri Lanka be referred to the ICC, prompting an official government response. At the time, the UK limply requested that faith be kept in the UN Human Rights Council process. But a further five years on from that British reply, there has been no progress. Though more resolutions are slated to be introduced in Geneva this year, after more than a decade of similar moves it has become clear to all that the Human Rights Council is toothless. Sri Lanka continues to deny that a genocide took place, whilst perpetrators including rapists and murderers, still roam free. Indeed, those accused of leading the genocide may even run for office again this year. The UN Human Rights Council process has fallen flat.

This is evident even to UN Human Rights chiefs, who have called on member states to consider referring Sri Lanka to the ICC. Though Sri Lanka is technically not party to the Rome Statute, a referral is not impossible. There are other innovative avenues that can be explored, such as how the case of Myanmar was brought to the court, for example. Sri Lanka could also be raised at the UN Security Council in New York. Even if it fails at this stage, through a Russian or Chinese veto, the fact that 15 years on from the genocide the atrocities are still being discussed at the world’s highest body would send a powerful message to Sri Lankans and beyond on the importance of accountability and justice. The massacres cannot, and should not, be allowed to be simply forgotten.

For all its flaws, the ICC is still a powerful body. As the recent request for arrest warrants on Israeli and Palestinian leaders shows, their decisions have a significant impact around the world. But, at the same time, there also needs to be movement beyond the court. A referral alone will not lead to the progress that the island desperately needs. There must be sanctions and travel bans on accused war criminals. States that value human rights and transparency must re-evaluate the bilateral trade and military ties they hold with Colombo. And there must be a concerted effort to ensure Tamil people can exercise their right to self-determination and a long-lasting peaceful solution is finally found. Only then can the abuses and violence that continue to plague the island be halted. It must be a priority for the next British prime minister, no matter which party they come from.

A senior Sri Lankan official told reporters in Colombo that several US Congress members have been “bought over with money” by the Tamil diaspora and called for an extension of a ban on several US-based groups.

Sarath Weerasekera, the Chairman of the Sectoral Oversight Committee on National Security and former Public Security Minister told reporters in Colombo that members of Congress had been “bought” after a resolution was introduced calling for self-determination for Eelam Tamils and a democratic independence referendum.

“Even though we defeated one of the most ruthless terrorist organizations in the world, that several countries around the world had proscribed, we can see that the American government is partnering with them to give their cause legitimacy,” he said.

“There are three LTTE fronts in the US; the Tamil Americans United Political Action Committee, PEARL - People for Equality and Relief in Lanka and Federation of Global Tamils,” he continued. “They are breakaway groups from the LTTE. I have asked that these three organizations be banned in Sri Lanka.”

Reading out the resolution introduced in US Congress, which includes recognising the genocide committed by the Sri Lankan state, Weerasekera said that these proposals show how “far congressmen have been bought over by money”.

“This is a dangerous issue,” he said calling on his government to take steps to combat it. “We are totally against such moves.”

Commenting further on the sanctioning of individuals by several countries, Weerasekera questioned if denying a visa is how countries around the world wish to show their support to Sri Lanka.

“The LTTE is an organization that many countries have proscribed has been defeated by us, so is this how the international community supports our efforts, by denying us visas?” he asked. “It is wrong. It goes all efforts to defeat terrorism.”

Weerasekera also went on to claim that the Geneva Convention adding that Protocol III does not empower countries to impose sanctions and deny visas to individuals. “The protocol does not make provisions for individuals who waged wars to be charged with crimes,” he said. “We should ask the UNHRC if they are flouting the regulations which they must abide by.”

The resolution, which was introduced into US Congress last month, was brought as Tamils around the world prepared to mark 15 years since the Mullivaikkal genocide.

The resolution calls for the “nonrecurrence of past violence, including the Tamil Genocide, by supporting the right to self-determination of Eelam Tamil people and their call for an independence referendum for a lasting peaceful resolution”.

It goes on to detail historic Tamil support for independence and how “similar conflicts have successfully been democratically, peacefully, and legally resolved by exercising the right to self-determination by the people in countries such as South Sudan, Montenegro, East Timor, Bosnia, Eritrea, and Kosovo via independence referendums with support from the United States and other countries”.

Tamil media workers across the North-East held remembrance events to mark 20 years since the assassination of Tamil journalist Aiyathurai Nadesan.

Nadesan, commonly known as ‘Nellai Nadesan,’ was shot dead in Batticaloa by a paramilitary group when he was on his way to his office in 2004. Nadesan was a profile journalist and a columist for local Tamil dailies and international news agencies. In the months leading up to his killing, Nadesan had been threatened and harassed by military personnel. On June 7 2001, he was summoned by the army for an inquiry where he was warned to cease reporting on human rights abuses.

Although 20 years have passed, no one has been held accountable for his murder. 
 

Jaffna

Vavuniya

Mullaitivu

The Sri Lankan government officially announced a ‘day of mourning’ for the Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi earlier this month, with Colombo’s foreign minister leading a high level delegation to Tehran to attend the funeral.

The announcement of the “national mourning day” on May 21, came just three days after the North-East marked Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day. Commemoration activities to remember the Tamil war dead were marred by Sri Lankan police attempting to intimidate, disrupt and even arrest Tamils.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe signing a book of condolences at the Iran embassy in Colombo wrote that “the people of Iran lost a strong leader and Sri Lanka lost a good friend.” 

Sri Lanka is deeply shocked and saddened by the tragic death of President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Amir Abdollahian and other senior Irani officials. I express my deepest sympathies and sincere condolences to the bereaved families, the government and the people of Iran.…

— Ranil Wickremesinghe (@RW_UNP) May 20, 2024

Raisi’s unexpected death came weeks after he visited Sri Lanka, where he met with Ranil Wickremesinghe, just hours after the United States warned that it could impose sanctions on countries engaging in trade with Iran. Raisi was in Sri Lanka to inaugrate the Uma Oya Hydro Power project which Iran funded for a tune of USD10 Billion.  "It is indeed a tremendous honour to be involved in such a symbol of unity, one that deepens the bond between our nations," Raisi said.

“It is worth noting that this project stands as a testimony to the friendship shared between Iran and Sri Lanka,” he added.

“I assure you that Iran is eager to forge a strong partnership with Sri Lanka, poised to contribute to its growth and development. Iran stands prepared to offer technical and engineering services for significant development initiatives in Sri Lanka.”

The Iranian president has been sanctioned by US over the “executions of individuals who were juveniles at the time of their crime and torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment of prisoners in Iran, including amputations”.

He passed away in a reported helicopter crash, alongside Iran’s foreign minister.

Sri Lanka’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Sabry who attended the state funeral in Iran referred to the qualities of Iran’s Foreign Minister Dr. Amir Abdollahian as someone whose notable quality was “his charisma, which attracted and influenced many."

Hon. Ali Sabry, the FM of Sri Lanka, emphasized the characteristic of Dr. Amir Abdollahian at the funeral ceremony and said: "one of the notable qualities of AmirAbdollahian was his personal charisma, which attracted and influenced many."@alisabrypc@MFA_SriLanka https://t.co/AkqqpTamOM

— Embassy of I.R. Iran in Sri Lanka (@IRANinSriLanka) May 27, 2024

Sri Lanka has close ties with Tehran, which supplied $150m worth of arms to Sri Lanka in 2005, barely weeks after the Indian Ocean tsunami devastated the island. In 2007, weeks after LTTE commandos smashed Anuradhapura airbase in ‘Operation Ellalan’, Colombo approached Iran for a loan to replace destroyed aircraft.

Earlier this year Sri Lanka recently paid of USD 251 million in dues for crude oil imports via tea exports to Tehran. Sri Lanka signed a deal in December 2021 to offset the export of tea to Iran against the legacy oil credit owed by state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation to the National Iranian Oil Company, without busting US sanctions.

May 31, 1981 marked not only the burning of the Jaffna Public Library, but the beginning of a week-long rampage of violence by Sri Lankan security forces and Sinhala mobs which devastated the peninsula.

The violence and devastation was largely ignored by the island’s mainstream press, and even in Tamil Nadu reports did not reach the media for many days, as a result of the shutdown of press throughout the North and general censorship imposed by the Sri Lankan government. Notably, the office and presses of Eelanadu, a prolific Tamil daily coming out of Jaffna since 1959, were burnt to the ground by the mobs. The famous Poobalasingam Book depot was also burnt.

Looking through archives of Tamil and English language newspapers return large gaps in most publications around the time of the pogrom.

Today we republish snippets of press coverage published days and even weeks after the atrocity.

All newspaper clippings from Noolaham.

‘Terrorism unleashed by the UNP regime’

Between May 31 and June 7, terrorism rampaged through the Jaffna peninsula. Violence such as murder, looting, arson, assault, mugging, vandalism took place as a result of this well-planned terrorism. There cannot be any doubt that the State and the UNP was behind these events.

As a result of this terrorism unleashed on the peninsula, many lost their lives to the ammunition rounds of the armed forces. In Jaffna town and surrounding towns, businesses were looted and set alight. Only stone pillars have survived in the Jaffna central market. The invaluable Jaffna public library was barbarically set alight. The office of the Jaffna daily newspaper Eelanadu was completely burnt. A Jaffna parliamentarian’s house was also set on fire. Many houses were broken, their fences burnt, and the buildings damaged.

Several motor vehicles were stopped on the roads and burned. People were assaulted by armed forces without rhyme or reason. Many were arrested. The fates of some youths are completely unknown. Every barbaric act that would be committed by occupying forces on an occupied land took place for a week, right in front of the people’s eyes. At the peak of these events, June 4, a district council election took place which completely exposed the farce of capitalist democracy.

Who was responsible for these acts of terror? The regime is trying to show it to be the actions of a few rogue policemen. Tamil leaders are talking as if they will accept this. But this cannot be the truth. The people believe that these events were well planned and executed by the highest levels of the government and the UNP. The armed forces and goons imported from outside were used to carry out these acts of terrorism. Some drunk police thugs who smashed and looted a liquor store did not carry out all this violence, as some have claimed.

These events were done with the guidance of the State and the UNP. If the State or the UNP did not have a drop of involvement in these events, they could have put an end to the violence on the day that it started. The people must thoroughly understand what it means that the chaos of the armed forces could burn through Jaffna while senior officials who implement government orders, commanders who control the armed forces, and some other ministers were all stationed in Jaffna itself.

From Sempathakai – Monthly paper of the Ilankai Communist Party (Left)

‘Jaffna Town burns again’

• Homes and shops burnt
• Public library completely damaged by fire
• ‘Eelanadu’ newspaper office set on fire
• Pharmacies burnt

Image captions: Top - burnt library; bottom - a section of burnt businesses

From Tharkkeekam – monthly paper of the Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students (EROS)

From The Morning Star – a Jaffna based Christian weekly

From the Times of London

^{Cover art by Sagi Thilipkumar}

At midnight on May 31, 1981, the Jaffna Public Library, the crucible of Tamil literature and heritage, was set ablaze by Sri Lankan security forces and state-sponsored mobs. The burning has since been marked by Eelam Tamils as an act of genocide.

Over 97,000 unique and irreplaceable Tamil palm leaves (ola), manuscripts, parchments, books, magazines and newspapers, housed within an impressive building inspired by ancient Dravidian architecture, were destroyed during the burning. Some texts that were kept in the library, such as the Yalpanam Vaipavamalai (a history of Jaffna), were literally irreplaceable, being the only copies in existence. It was one of the largest libraries in Asia.

The destruction took place under the rule of the UNP at a time when District Development Council elections were underway, and two notorious Sinhala chauvinist cabinet ministers - Cyril Mathew and Gamini Dissanayake - were in Jaffna. Earlier on in the day, three Sinhalese police officers were killed during a rally by the TULF (Tamil United Liberation Front).

Nancy Murray, a western author, wrote at the time ''uniformed security men and plainclothes thugs carried out some well organised acts of destruction”.

"They burned to the ground certain chosen targets - including the Jaffna Public Library, with its 95,000 volumes and priceless manuscripts…no mention of this appeared in the national newspapers, not even the burning of the library, the symbol of Tamils' cultural identity. The government delayed bringing in emergency rule until 2 June, by which time the key targets had been destroyed."

The burning continued unchecked for two nights.

Homes and shops across Jaffna town were also set alight by the mob, including the TULF headquarters and the offices of the Eelanadu newspaper.

Virginia Leary wrote in Ethnic Conflict and Violence in Sri Lanka - Report of a Mission to Sri Lanka on behalf of the International Commission of Jurists, July/August 1981, that “the destruction of the Jaffna Public Library was the incident, which appeared to cause the most distress to the people of Jaffna."

The Movement for Inter-racial Justice and Equality said in a report, after sending a delegation to Jaffna,

"If the Delegation were asked which act of destruction had the greatest impact on the people of Jaffna, the answer would be the savage attack on this monument to the learning and culture and the desire for learning and culture of the people of Jaffna... There is no doubt that the destruction of the Library will leave bitter memories behind for many years."

The scholar and community leader, Reverend Father David reportedly died from shock days after the incineration of his beloved institution. While his statue in the library courtyard is surrounded now by the spirit-soothing greens of local flora, his demise epitomises the loss suffered by every member of the Tamil nation alive on that day, and each generation born afterwards: the irrevocable loss of memories, of the lives and deaths of our predecessors, of the beauty they created as well as of the destruction they may have wreaked.

In 2001, then mayor of Jaffna Nadarajah Raviraj stated that the burning “is in my memory”. ''Still I feel like crying after 20 years,'' he said. Mr Raviraj was assassinated in Colombo in November 2006. Still no-one has been held accountable for his murder.

‘Ray of Hope’, a documentary detailing the journey of former Canadian MP for Scarborough- Rouge River, Rathika Sitsabaiesan, to Sri Lanka’s and the island’s troubled history with genocide and accountability, was screened for at the Frontline Club in London on Tuesday night.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils organised the event, in collaboration with the Tamil Guardian and the British Tamil Alliance. The documentary screening was followed by a panel discussion with Ms Sitsabaiesan, the interim Executive Director of People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL), Madura Rasaratnam, and co-director for Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research, Dharsha Jegatheeswaran.

The documentary detailed the horrors of the Tamil genocide and focused on the plight of Tamil Families of the Disappeared who, 15 years after the end of the armed conflict, are continuing their struggle to find out what happened to their loved ones. It also outlined the failures of the Office of Missing Persons (OMP), which the UN High Commissioner, has detailed “has not been able to trace a single disappeared person or clarify the fate of the disappeared in meaningful ways”.

The documentary also details how Ms Sitsabaiesan was detained and interrogated by Sri Lankan police during the recording of her documentary.

During the panel discussion, Rasaratnam detailed how the underlying roots of the conflict have not been addressed and how Sinhala nationalism continues to animate politics on the island. Reflecting on the latest economic crises, she detailed how this toxic nationalism continued to produce an economic model which is not only non-viable, but has left the island in perpetual debt and reliant on international bailouts.

Jegatheeswaran spoke on the panel about the need to continue pressure on governments to bring Sri Lanka into compliance with its international human rights obligations. In the lead-up to the UK election, “right now we must ask more of our politicians,” she noted. She further lamented the fact that the UK has failed to impose sanctions on any senior Sri Lankan civil military official implicated in human rights violations.

Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) parliamentarian Kulasingam Thileeban has reportedly allocated nearly Rs 1 million in aid of development activities that will allow Sinhalese settlers to relocate to the army-sponsored Nandimithragaama in Vanni. 

The Nandimithragama is a housing complex, funded by the Sri Lankan military and built by troops attached to the Security Force Headquarters – Wanni. According to the Sri Lanka army, the scheme has 309 houses.

To this end, Kulasingam was seen taking part in Buddhist religious rituals during the foundation-laying ceremony for a new building. In addition to the funding of Rs. 1 million for this building, Dhileepan had also allocated Rs.1.9 million more for another Sinhalese settler village. The EPDP political party is headed by Douglas Devananda who is Sri Lanka's fisheries minister and government-aligned paramilitary leader.

The EPDP functioned as a paramilitary group aligned with the Sri Lankan state and stands accused of a host of human rights abuses, including murder, extortion, kidnapping, international child trafficking and running child prostitution rings for Sri Lankan soldiers.

Read more, including from a leaked 2007 US embassy cable on the activities of the EPDP, here and here.

Marking 15 years since the end of the armed conflict, Tamil Families of the forcibly Disappeared staged a protest in Mannar demanding an international investigation to shed light on the fate of the thousands forcibly disappeared by the Sri Lankan military.

The Mannar's Association of the Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared held a protest today in front of the Mannar District Secretariat under the leadership of Manuel Udaya Chandra, the president of the assocation.

“We have been fighting for 15 years in search of our missing family members. The government has not given us a solution. This government is acting in a manner that is further aggravating the situation causing Tamils to become irate,” demonstrators told reporters. “We ask that the international community intervene to lead an investigation into the enforced disappearances.”

The demonstrators further stated:

“We have no faith in the Sri Lankan courts, we demand an international investigation. We have no faith in Ranil Wickremesinghe, Sajith Premadasa, or Anura Kumara Dissanayake. It’s been 15 years, if they couldn't do anything in this period, they will never do anything even after coming into power.”

These protests follow the arrest of Tamil activists for distributing kanji during Mullivaikkal memorials. The Mannar's Association of the Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared held a memorial to commemorate Mullivaikkal where they distrbuted kaji. Kanji is often served at these memorials as a reminder of the only food source Tamils had during the last phase of the armed conflict when Sri Lanka’s security forces shelled and bombed the government-declared No Fire Zone. 

Responding to meetings between Tamil politicians and Sri Lanka’s President, during his visit to the Northern Province last week, Tamil Families of the Disappeared have protested the action of Tamil politicians and for not raising their issues.

protesting #SriLanka president’s visit to the north, Sivananthan Jenita, leader of Association for Relatives of Enforced Disappearances (ARED) in #Vavuniya, slams #Tamil politicians who went up on his platform by ignoring the plight of Tamils to “pick up bones thrown at them”. pic.twitter.com/ntxAsctJsS

— LankaFiles (@lankafiles) May 30, 2024

Sivanathan Jenita, leader of the Association of the Relatives of the Enforced Disappeared for Vavuniya, expressed to reporters her disappointment. She was joined by other demonstrates who carried black flags to mark the occasion.

“For the sake of their lavish life, these politicians are joining hands with the President without taking notice of the misery of the Tamil people and have closed their eyes to the oppression against the Tamils. We are being subjugated and jailed and unable to protest on the streets demanding justice. Those politicians who don’t question these are Tamils themselves”.

She further compared these politicians to dogs willing to scrounge of the bones thrown to them by the government in Colombo.

Jenita also questioned their engagement with Rajapaksa stating:

“Those who support the development plans of the state are extending their support for the killers. Hence, this president is enacting his dubious drama with an eye on the next Presidential election. A President who came to power without the people’s mandate is now trying to secure that mandate. Our politicians and ministers are supporting him”.

According to Sri Lanka’s President’s Media Division, former state minister Vijayakala Maheswaran, Cabinet Minister Douglas Devananda, Parliamentarians Tharmalingam Sitharthan, M.A.Sumanthiran, Charles Nirmalanathan, Kulasingam Thileepan, S.Noharathalingam, Selvam Adaikkalanathan and former chairman of the Northern Province CVK Sivagnanam participated in public meetings with the President.

The black flag protests followed crackdowns by Sri Lanka’s police on memorial activities marking the Tamil genocide. Jenita noted that the contrast of the police’s actions in preventing the distribution of kanji during the memorials, which was violently opposed under guise of sanitation, whereas during the Vesak celebrations police permitted the distribution of food and ice cream. 

“Seeing this it is evident that there are two sets of laws in this Country, one for the Tamils and the other for the Sinhalese”.

Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam supported the Families of the Disappeared protest and urged Tamils across the homeland to boycott the upcoming Presidential election. He maintains that the elections are inconsequential for Tamils as whoever assumes the Presidency will be in service of the Sinhala majority.

Speaking to reporters, Jenita stated:

“I am asking these politicians and ministers. Are you shameless? Don’t you have self-respect? Are you the people who are going to seek justice for the Tamils? If you people seeking justice think about us who are in the streets. Ask the President what happened to our relatives whom we handed over. Ask him who came here for Pongal. It is from him you are seeking developments and what next?”

Tamil Protests block an attempted land grab as the Sri Lankan Navy looks to survey four acres for military camp construction.

Leader of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK), Sivagnanam Shritharan raised objections over the Sri Lankan Navy’s land grab at Ponnalai in Thiruvadi Nilai alleging that although the land acquisition was temporarily halted due to public protest, it should be stopped permanently. 

Shritharan highlighted the matter during the Jaffna District Coordination Committee meeting.

He told the members of the committee that although the land acquisition was temporarily halted, permission should not be granted at all. 

Earlier this month, land survey officials were forced to abandon their work after residents in the Alampil area handed a letter to them expressing their opposition. However, even after the surveyors left the area, Sri Lankan police officers stayed at the site and filmed the residents - a common tactic used by the state's forces to intimidate Tamils.

The Sri Lankan military continues to occupy a majority of lands in the homeland, that have been used by them for their camps, recreation facilities, and holiday inns. Tamils across the homeland have resisted numerous attempts by Sri Lanka to acquire land which forms part of the state's efforts to alter the demography of the North-East.

^{Photograph: A Sinhalese mob beats a Tamil passenger after pulling him out of his car. 1958. (Courtesy Victor Ivan)}

On 27 May 1958, the Sri Lankan state declared a state of emergency after Sinhala mobs had began attacking, raping and murdering Tamils across the island on 22 May 1958. The series of violence was to become another in a series of deadly anti-Tamil pogroms.

Estimates range from between 300 and 1,500 Tamils murdered in the days of violence which resulted in many more injured and the arson, looting and destruction of Tamil homes and businesses.

The pogrom took place just two years after the island’s first ethnic based pogrom against Tamils in 1956. The violence reportedly started in Polonnaruwa on 22 May 1958, as Sinhala mobs looked to attack Tamils who were on their way to the Federal Party convention in Vavuniya.

Violence then spread across the whole island. A Hindu priest was burnt alive in Colombo, whilst mobs roamed the streets  of Colombo checking whether passers-by could read Sinhala newspapers. Those who could not were beaten or killed. The government waited five days before declaring an emergency.

Velupillai Prabhakaran, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, cited the 1958 pogroms as being instrumental in shaping his political outlook.

See excerpts from a March 1984 interview with Prabhakaran below.

“The shocking events of the 1958 racial riots had a profound impact on me when I was a schoolboy. I heard of horrifying incidents of how our people had been mercilessly and brutally put to death by Sinhala racists. Once I met a widowed mother, a friend of my family, who related to me her agonising personal experience of this racial holocaust. During the riots a Sinhala mob attacked her house in Colombo. The rioters set fire to the house and murdered her husband. She and her children escaped with severe burn injuries. I was deeply shocked when I saw the scars on her body. I also heard stories of how young babies were roasted alive in boiling tar. When I heard such stories of cruelty I felt a deep sense of sympathy and love for my people. A great passion overwhelmed me to redeem my people from this racist system. I strongly felt that armed struggle was the only way to confront a system which employs armed might against unarmed, innocent people."

Writing on the pogrom in “Emergency '58: The Story of the Ceylon Race Riots”, Tarzie Vittachi noted,

News trickled out from Queen’s House that the Governor-General had announced, off-the-record at a press conference, that the riots had not been spontaneous.

What he said was: ‘Gentlemen, if any of you have an idea that this was a spontaneous outburst of communalism, you can disabuse your minds of it. This is the work of a Master Mind who has been at the back of people who have planned this carefully and knew exactly what they were doing. It was a time-bomb set about two years ago which has now exploded.’

Vittachi concluded,

The broad picture is now complete. Race-relationships which had endured for generations were breaking up under the pressure which is inevitable in a country in which economic development had not kept pace with modern needs and the high rate of population increase. Labour relations were cracking under the strain of the new social forces which the MEP had released. This second change, no doubt, was necessary and irresistible.

Unfortunately the Government made the mistake of throwing the baby away with the bath water. While repressive legislation and irksome, outmoded attitudes which had kept the masses in thrall had to be hurled away without delay, it was vital for the peace and order of the country, especially in times of rapid social change, to preserve and strengthen the rule of law and the authority of the officers who enforce the law. This salutary rule was ignored and even spurned in the extravagant mood of enthusiasm in which the Government tried to meet the massive problems that challenged its capabilities.

The terror and the hate that the people of Ceylon experienced in May and June 1958 were the outcome of that fundamental error. What are we left with? A nation in ruins, some grim lessons which we cannot afford to forget and a momentous question: Have the Sinhalese and the Tamils reached the parting of the ways?