Why did Black July happen?
Sri Lanka’s history since its independence shows a steadily intensifying trend of maintaining populist support for the government at the expense of minorities. Two of the cabinet ministers in the government were outspokenly racist in favour of Sinhalese and against Tamils, and these ministers are well-known to have instigated and planned the riots. Unfortunately, even today, many news reports continue to incorrectly cite the killing of 13 Sri Lankan soldiers as the cause for Black July. Even a quick look at the events surrounding Black July provides a proper context. Every eye-witness, international journalist and fact-finding investigator agreed that the violence was well planned and organised. Many of them also state that, given what they had seen or heard, the soldiers’ deaths was used as an excuse by the government to launch the riots. Since Sri Lanka gained independence, its history has seen frequent anti-Tamil violence, but Black July differs greatly in its scale and the intensit
