Sri Lankan riots of 1977

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The Sri Lankan riots of August 1977 were a series of attacks on Tamils by Sinhalese mobs in revenge for an alleged assault on policemen^{[citation needed]}

1 Background
2 Outbreak of riot
3 Government response
4 Aftermath
5 References
6 See also

[edit] Background

In the election of 1977, the Tamil districts voted almost entirely for the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF)^{[citation needed]}, the first political party in Sri Lanka to openly advocate separatism of the Tamil regions of the country.

For some years, there had been sporadic attacks on army and policemen in the Jaffna region, by militant Tamil youth groups advocating separation through violent means. The new prime minister, Junius Jayewardene, was convinced there was a link between the TULF and the militants, and wanted, rightfully to suppressed both.

[edit] Outbreak of riot

Policemen were usually allowed to enter public events such as carnivals without having to pay for tickets^{[citation needed]}. On August 12, 1977, a group of policemen were told to buy tickets for a Rotary Club carnival. One Tamil boy shot a policeman. Violence then broke out and gradually escalated. The Jaffna market was burned down on the 17th^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Government response

Questioned in Parliament by Amarthalingam, Prime Minister Jayewardene was defiant, blaming the riots on the TULF:

People become restive when they hear that a separate state is to be formed...Whatever it is, when statements of that type are made, the newspapers carry them throughout the island, and when you say that you are not violent, but that violence may be used in time to come, what do you think the other people in Sri Lanka will do? How will they react? If you want to fight, let there be a fight; if it is peace, let there be peace; that is what they will say. It is not what I am saying. The people of Sri Lanka say that.

Finally, on August 20, the government ordered curfews and deployed the military to quell the riots.

[edit] Aftermath

The government's official commission of inquiry stated that 100 people had died in the riots^{[citation needed]}.

Of the 1,500 people arrested, a number were well-known Sinhalese extremists, and some were members of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, which had been overwhelmingly defeated in the elections. This led to speculation that the SLFP had organized the riots to embarrass the UNP government^{[citation needed]}.

The riots radicalized Tamil youths, convincing many that the TULF's strategy of using legal and constitutional means to achieve independence would never work, and armed insurrection was the only way forward.

[edit] References

^ Seneratne, Jagath P. (1998). Political Violence in Sri Lanka, 1977-1990: Riots, Insurrections, Counter-Insurgencies, Foreign Intervention. VU University Press. ISBN 90-5383-524-5.

Sri Lankan riots of 1977

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contents

[edit] Background

[edit] Outbreak of riot

[edit] Government response

[edit] Aftermath

[edit] References

[edit] See also

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