THAT Monday 25th July 1983 in Colombo: Organized Violence within the Pogrom

Sugath Kulatunga .…. in item entitled “Black July Monday 25th” …. with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

In my last post on the 4th of March, I mentioned that the time I served under Lalith [Athulathmudali] was the golden era of my public service. But it did not occur to me that I had deliberately suppressed in my mind the ugliest and nastiest week in my life as well as of the nation. That was the week of Black July of the ghastliest communal riots. Let me recall my experience of that week.

On Monday the 25 of July 1983 the EDB was hosting a lunch for the largest delegation of prospective Japanese investors for whom a seminar was being held at the BMICH Colombo. This team was led by a Japanese war hero who was a President of one of the largest trading houses in Japan … (C Itoh?). It is also on record that it was on his recommendation that President Park of South Korea used the Korean Chaebols (trading houses) to steer the development of Korea on the model of the Japanese Sogososha. I left the EDB office at Kollupitiya at about 8.30 in the morning to join the seminar and also to look into the lunch arrangements. Although I received a phone call from my Secretary, Mrs. Chelvaraja, a Tamil lady, that she was not coming to office that day as she had heard that there were rumours of imminent communal riots, triggered by the aborted mass burial arrangement, at the Borella cemetery of the 13 soldiers killed in Jaffna, there was no signs of any trouble from Kollupitiya to BMICH. At about 10.30 I returned to the EDB office from the BMICH to take back some documents. I saw the first sign of trouble at the Liberty Round About where a Tamil establishment was on fire. Galle road was crowded with hundreds of men, women and school children trying to get back to their homes. They were stopping every vehicle traveling out of Colombo and pleading to take them in. There were also groups of young men who were forcibly stopping vehicles with some room, to take a few more passengers and overloading them with mainly women and children. Nobody was protesting as they were doing a good turn.

Black July (2) At the office, I learnt that there was serious rioting around Borella and it was fast spreading. I also learnt that schools were closed, and parents were allowed to take their children home. I decided that I should take out my daughter Anusha who was in Methodist College, Kollupitiya and let her stay in my office. As I was walking towards Methodist College past the Indo Ceylon Café, I saw some smoke coming out of the restaurant. I posed for a moment in front of the place when a black Morris Minor car coming from the direction of Bambalapitiya came to a screeching halt almost on the pavement of the road next to me and two tall and fair athletic looking young men who were seated in the rear seat threw opened the doors from either side and jumped out of the car, opened the car boot and took out some bottles which to me at the time looked like beer bottles. They rushed towards the Café and threw four bottles into the area from where the smoke was coming. Simultaneously a ball of fire broke out and, in a few moments, the whole building was on fire. The young men got back into the car which then sped towards Galle Face. The whole operation was carried out in less than a minute. My mind was on getting Anusha out of the school and I did not think of it too deeply at the time. The momentary impression I had was that there was military precision in the operation.

One other incident etched my mind was how a young Tamil mother who had fetched her small daughter from the Methodist lower school on Station Road, was rushing towards the Station. As I knew that it was very unlikely that she could safely get into a train I called her and walked towards them with the intention of asking them to stay in my office, [but] they did not even look back and fled towards the Station obviously thinking that I was a threat.

I came to my office and collected the documents I came for and gave permission to EDB personnel, particularly the ladies, to leave office as and when they wanted to. By this time which was about 11 am there was at least one police patrol car which was announcing that a curfew was being declared. Sadly,  I then went back to the BMICH and send a note to my Chairman, Victor Santiapillai and Chanmugam who were at the seminar to come out as I had an urgent message for them. When they came out, I briefed them on what was happening outside on which they did not have even a clue at the time. By that time, one could see plumes of smoke rising into the sky all around the BMICH. I told them that I will return to join the official lunch after I drop my daughter at my brother’s place in Narahenpita.

On the way to Narahenpita, just past the Kirulapona bridge there was a man and a boy on the center of the road signalling the car to be stopped. I slowed down and the pair got to the side of the road. As I came close to them, I swerved the car towards them making them jump into the drain. The man fell down, but the boy was nimble enough to pick a stone and throw it at the car. Fortunately, the stone was too big, the car was accelerating fast, and his aim was not that accurate. I reacted fast as I have had the experience of similar incidents during the 56 riots in Polonnaruwa. But the incident made me realize that the situation was getting out of control and the thugs and mobs were taking over.

I gave up the thoughts of getting back to the BMICH and drove home to Ratmalana. The roads were so congested, and crowds were so unruly that it took me over two hours to drive from the BMICH to Airport Road Ratmalana. I must have been stopped by mobs at over 10 places demanding petrol. Fortunately, I was driving a diesel car.

I was in the upstairs of a rented house in a lane to the South of the Airport and had a clear view of most of the runway. At about 2.30 PM I saw a crowd of around 100 to 150 people crossing the runway from North to South. They crept through the barbed wire fence near the Bata Factory and went down the lane by the side of Bata, shouting slogans which I could not clearly hear. Close to dusk I again heard the shouting when they were returning thorough the same lane. By that time, I was somewhat nervous about what was happening as we had a Tamil family in our house. There was a young pregnant mother with two small girls, her mother-in-law and an uncle who was an eccentric professor in an American University. The mother-in-law was a loquacious woman. In this background I was anxious to know what was happening and assess any immediate threat. At about 5.30 PM I got into my bicycle and rode to the junction where the lane referred to earlier joined the Airport Road. At this time there were few others known to me like Nari Jilla and Jayasena Ellawala, whose houses were close by gathered at the place. While we were there a group of about 20 men went past us and crept through the wire fence into the Airport area. The larger group of the mob of about 40 men came behind them and saw the earlier group already on the other side of the Airport fence. There were two or three obvious leaders in the larger group who shouted at the first group and called them back. When the whole group had gathered at the junction the leader pulled out a list of names and said that they had missed out one house which he announced as that of the Accountant of Carmart. The name made me quite concerned as it was the family of the Carmart accountant which was in my house.

At that time the mob did not appear to be aggressive and even made a friendly remark at the Bata employees saying that they had removed the Tamil menace and Bata is now free to go ahead with their business. In fact, their mood was such that I ventured to suggest that as they had already done their job and it is getting late, they should go back to their homes. The leader insisted that they are not the kind to go home without finishing the job that they started on. With that the whole group of about 60 to 80 men went towards the Kandawela housing scheme which was about 400 yards from my house which they had to pass. Although I was nervous, I joined the crowd riding my bike up to my house. The road to the housing scheme was at right angle to the entrance to my garden which was at the end of the lane.

After about half an hour I saw black smoke coming from a house about 100 yds from my place, and in a while the crowd came back in small batches. As dusk was approaching fast and as they were probably tired, they had not gone in search of the accountant’s house. The mob had to pass my house to get back to the Airport Road. One of the first lads to come pass my place was a young man who did not look like a typical thug. He came close to me and said “we have completed our duty and are going home. We are not thieves. We took some money from the house we burnt down. There were no people there. We took some money from the house out of which we bought kerosene oil to set fire to the house. Out of the balance we bought a bottle of Dettol and cigarettes for the comrades. I asked him why he bought Dettol and he explained that he was trying to overturn a refrigerator in another house they attacked, and it fell on his leg and bruised it.

The leader of the group came after a few minutes, and he also stopped at the junction waiting for others to catch up. He saw young boy of about15 years carrying something heavy on his head and hurrying in the opposite direction. The leader shouted at him using foul language and ask him to put down on the ground the radio set he was carrying. Then he took a table leg that another of his men was carrying as a club and smashed the radio and kicked it into the drain and gave a thundering slap to the boy shouting this is not a campaign to plunder but a national service to rid of the Tamils who demand an Eelam while enjoying all the benefits in the Sinhalese lands.

I mention these two incidents to indicate that this mob was led by a few persons motivated by an ideology and having a well worked out plan.

On Wednesday I went to the Trade Ministry and reported to Minister Lalith Athulathmudali what I had observed. He asked me how in a respectable housing scheme like Ratmalana Sirimal Uyana such acts of burning of houses could happen. I told him that the residents of Sirimal Uyana never resorted to such action, and they were helpless against crowds which came in vehicles from outside. I cited the example that when I with a number of youngsters stood in front of one of the few Tamil houses which had escaped attack a van load of thugs came down the lane and seeing our group turned away into another lane. I mentioned about the men who set the Indo Ceylon Café. He was surprised when I told him that the Head of RAW was in Colombo. Our intelligence apparatus was not aware of Saxena’s presence. The Indo Ceylon fire incident, the leave out of the island of N and the presence of RAW chief made me wonder if there was Indian involvement in the 83 riots. I expressed my concern to Lalith.

After a further chat Lalith said “go and look after your friend Jolly who is in the Airport refugee camp. He also asked me to tell Jolly that he could stay safely for any length of time at his estate house in Dambadeniya. I did not get back to office but went direct to the Ratmalana Airport and met Jolly. He was very calm and collected, but said that he is concerned about his sister and two young kids. I would have taken them to my place, but I already had the other family, and my landlord was getting jittery. When I asked Jolly whether there was anything that I could do, he gave me the keys to his car and asked me to remove it from his place in Mount Lavinia close to St. Thomas. He also said that he does not mind whatever happens to the house but the collection of his books will be impossible to replace and tasked me whether I could take away as much of the books.

I immediately proceeded to his place off de Saram Place in Mount Lavinia and when I inquired about the car from the security guards of the hotel opposite his house they said that another gentleman had come the same morning and removed it. Later I found out that a mutual colleague Kamalgoda had taken the car away. I was about to go in to the house to fetch the books when I saw a gang of about ten young men were coming down the lane from the side of the railway line. They were all drunk and there was something strange about them they were all drenched to the skin.

By that time a few tourists had also come out of the hotel and a few of the women were in their bikinis. One young fellow faced a bikini clad white women and pointed out to the smoke coming out of the roof of a house in the adjoining lane and said ”You know what? They tigers, we lions and we fight” and did a war dance. They noted Jolly’s house and one fellow whispered let us give it the works in the night.

Later I phoned our mutual friend Justin in the navy who had sent a navy patrol to keep an eye. Jolly’s house was not burned down, but he never went back to that house. Bradman had arranged for Jolly’ sister and the kids to get back to London.

The Japanese investors left the island in a hurry. They came to pay a debt to JR for his St. Fransisco stand. We lost another opportunity for Japanese industrialization.

This is the story of Monday. Friday was a tragedy and a calamity which has left its bloody stain in the record of our recent history.

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