Sri Lanka It's Happening

July 24, 2004

July 23, 1984 is Sri Lanka's day of greatest shame. On that day began a cycle of violence against the minorities, the after effects of which can still be felt twenty years later.

I was just a small kid growing up in Galle at the time. Galle and several other small towns didn't see the same levels of violence as was seen in Colombo and it's suburbs and do not have any first hand experience of what took place. Most of what I know is what I have gathered from speaking to Tamil friends what from published material.

In it's day of darkest shame the then UNP government stood by allowing the goons to carry out their killings unabated. The government only stepped in after hundreds of innocent tamils had been killed. Even then it wasn't until the Indian Prime Minister had a few nasty things to say to the Sri Lankan president.

There was a news blackout at the time, but if the Prime Ministers of India knew what was happening from thousands of mile away, it's hard to believe the the Sri Lankan counterpart didn't see the flames from his residence which is was a few kilometers away from the epicenter of the violence.

All these events just goes to show that Sinhala Buddhists are simply clueless about what the Lord Buddha Preached. The crimes commited against the tamils at the time are unforgivable.

Posted by raditha at July 24, 2004 3:17 AM