You do not have permission to edit this page, for the following reasons:

This IP address has been blocked from editing Wikipedia.
This does not affect your ability to read Wikipedia pages.
Most people who see this message have done nothing wrong. Some kinds of blocks restrict editing from specific service providers or telecom companies in response to recent abuse or vandalism, and can sometimes affect other users who are unrelated to that abuse. Review the information below for assistance if you do not believe that you have done anything wrong.

The IP address or range 44.195.0.0/16 has been blocked (disabled) by ‪Blablubbs‬ for the following reason(s):

The IP address that you are currently using has been blocked because it is believed to be a web host provider or colocation provider. To prevent abuse, web hosts and colocation providers may be blocked from editing Wikipedia.
You will not be able to edit Wikipedia using a web host or colocation provider because it hides your IP address, much like a proxy or VPN.
We recommend that you attempt to use another connection to edit. For example, if you use a proxy or VPN to connect to the internet, turn it off when editing Wikipedia. If you edit using a mobile connection, try using a Wi-Fi connection, and vice versa. If you are using a corporate internet connection, switch to a different Wi-Fi network. If you have a Wikipedia account, please log in.
If you do not have any other way to edit Wikipedia, you will need to request an IP block exemption.

How to appeal if you are confident that your connection does not use a colocation provider's IP address:
If you are confident that you are not using a web host, you may appeal this block by adding the following text on your talk page: ((unblock|reason=Caught by a colocation web host block but this host or IP is not a web host. My IP address is _______. Place any further information here. ~~~~)). You must fill in the blank with your IP address for this block to be investigated. Your IP address can be determined here. Alternatively, if you wish to keep your IP address private you can use the unblock ticket request system. There are several reasons you might be editing using the IP address of a web host or colocation provider (such as if you are using VPN software or a business network); please use this method of appeal only if you think your IP address is in fact not a web host or colocation provider.

Administrators: The IP block exemption user right should only be applied to allow users to edit using web host in exceptional circumstances, and requests should usually be directed to the functionaries team via email. If you intend to give the IPBE user right, a CheckUser needs to take a look at the account. This can be requested most easily at SPI Quick Checkuser Requests. Unblocking an IP or IP range with this template is highly discouraged without at least contacting the blocking administrator.

This block will expire on 09:46, 11 January 2025.

Even when blocked, you will usually still be able to edit your user talk page, as well as email administrators and other editors.

For information on how to proceed, please read the FAQ for blocked users and the guideline on block appeals. The guide to appealing blocks may also be helpful.

Other useful links: Blocking policy · Help:I have been blocked
Your IP address is in a range that has been blocked on all Wikimedia Foundation wikis. The block was made by ‪AntiCompositeNumber‬. The reason given is Open proxy/Webhost: Visit the FAQ if you are affected .
- Start of block: 13:55, 18 August 2022
- Expiry of block: 13:55, 18 January 2025
Your current IP address is 44.195.68.6. The blocked range is 44.195.0.0/16. Please include all above details in any queries you make. If you believe you were blocked by mistake, you can find additional information and instructions in the No open proxies global policy. Otherwise, to discuss the block please post a request for review on Meta-Wiki. You could also send an email to the stewards VRT queue at stewards@wikimedia.org including all above details.

You can view and copy the source of this page:

((Short description|1983 anti-Tamil riots in Sri Lanka))
((Use dmy dates|date=November 2021))
((Infobox civilian attack
| title            = Black July
| partof           = [[riots in Sri Lanka]] and the [[Sri Lankan Civil War]]
| image            = Black July - from Commons.jpg
| image_size       = 
| alt              = 
| caption          = A Tamil youth stripped naked before being killed by Sinhalese rioters near Borella bus stand.<ref>((cite web|url=https://thuppahis.com/2011/10/29/visual-evidence-i-vitality-value-and-pitfall-borella-junction-2425-july-1983/|title = Visual Evidence I: Vitality, Value and Pitfall – Borella Junction, 24/25 July 1983|date = 29 October 2011))</ref><ref>((cite news|title=Black July 1983 remembered|url=http://www.tamilguardian.com/article.asp?articleid=11617|work=[[Tamil Guardian]]|date=23 July 2014))</ref><ref>((cite web|last1=Jeyaraj|first1=D. B. S.|author-link1=|title=Horror of a pogrom: Remembering "Black July" 1983|url=http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/1545|publisher=dbsjeyaraj.com|date=24 July 2010|access-date=18 October 2010|archive-date=27 October 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101027085627/http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/1545|url-status=dead))</ref>
| map              = LocationSriLanka.png
| map_size         = 
| map_alt          = 
| map_caption      = Location of Sri Lanka
| location         = [[Sri Lanka]]
| target           = Primarily [[Sri Lankan Tamil]]s
| coordinates      = 
| date             = ((Start date|1983|07|24|df=yes)) – ((End date|1983|07|30|df=yes))
| time             = 
| timezone         = [[UTC]]+6
| type             = [[Pogrom]], [[ethnic cleansing]], [[Mass murder]]
| fatalities       = 5,638 and 466 disappeared permanently (acc. to TCHR) <ref name="tchr.net">((cite web | url=http://www.tchr.net/50_year_arrest_kill.htm | title=Recorded figures of Arrests, Killings, Disappearances ))</ref>
| injuries         = 2,015 and 670 raped (acc. to TCHR) <ref name="tchr.net">((cite web | url=http://www.tchr.net/50_year_arrest_kill.htm | title=Recorded figures of Arrests, Killings, Disappearances ))</ref>
| victims          = Tamil civilians
| perpetrators     = Sinhalese mobs, [[Sri Lankan government]], [[United National Party|UNP]]; [[Sri Lanka Armed Forces]] and [[Sri Lanka Police]]
| weapons          = Axes, guns, explosives, knives, sticks
| numparts         = Thousands
| dfens            = 
| motive           = Anti-Tamil racism, pro-Sinhalese sentiment
))
((Anti-Tamil riots in Sri Lanka))

'''Black July''' (((lang-ta|கறுப்பு யூலை|translit=Kaṟuppu Yūlai)); ((lang-si|කළු ජූලිය|Kalu Juliya))) was an anti-[[Tamil people|Tamil]] [[pogrom]]<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=kGBBq-vmEyYC&pg=PA244 Community, Gender and Violence, edited by Partha Chatterjee, Pradeep Jeganathan]</ref> that occurred in [[Sri Lanka]] during July 1983.<ref>Rajan Hoole, Black July: Further Evidence Of Advance Planning https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/black-july-further-evidence-of-advance-planning/</ref><ref>Rajan Hoole, Sri Lanka’s Black July: Borella, 24th Evening https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/sri-lankas-black-july-borella-24th-evening/</ref> The pogrom was premeditated,<ref name="autogenerated2003">T. Sabaratnam, Pirapaharan, Volume 2, Chapter 2 – The Jaffna Massacre (2003)</ref><ref name="autogenerated1">T. Sabaratnam, Pirapaharan, Volume 2, Chapter 3 – The Final Solution (2003)</ref><ref>T. Sabaratnam, Pirapaharan, Volume 2, Chapter 4 – Massacre of Prisoners (2003)</ref><ref>T. Sabaratnam, Pirapaharan, Volume 2, Chapter 5 – The Second Massacre (2003)</ref>((refn|group=note|George Immerwahr, a United Nations civil servant and U.S. citizen, recounted the following regarding the riots:

“the most shattering report came from a [Sinhalese] friend who was a civil servant; he told me that he had himself helped plan the riots at the orders of his superiors. When I heard him say this, I was so shocked I told him I simply couldn't believe him, but he insisted he was telling the truth, and in fact he justified the government's decision to stage the riots. When I heard this, I telephoned an official in our own State Department, and while he declined to discuss the matter, I got the impression that he already knew from our Embassy in Colombo what I was telling him.”
<ref>A. Jeyaratnam Wilson, The Break-up of Sri Lanka: The Sinhalese-Tamil Conflict.  Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1988. p.173</ref>)) and was finally triggered by a [[Four Four Bravo|deadly ambush]] on 23 July 1983, which caused the death of 13 [[Sri Lanka Army]] soldiers, by the [[Sri Lankan Tamil militant groups|Tamil militant group]] [[Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam]] (LTTE).<ref>((cite news |last1=Nidheesh |first1=MK |title=Book review: The Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi by Neena Gopal |url=https://www.livemint.com/Leisure/vGvHn61alReQUEO4HV42EP/Book-review-The-Assassination-of-Rajiv-Gandhi-by-Neena-Gopa.html |access-date=1 November 2018 |newspaper=Live Mint |date=2 September 2016))</ref> Although initially orchestrated by [[Cyril Mathew|members]] of the ruling [[United National Party|UNP]], the pogrom soon escalated into mass violence with significant public participation.<ref>E.M. Thornton & Niththyananthan, R. – Sri Lanka, Island of Terror – An Indictment, (((ISBN|0 9510073 0 0))), 1984, Appendix A</ref>

On the night of 24 July 1983, anti-Tamil rioting started in the capital city of [[Colombo]] and then spread to other parts of the country. Over seven days, mainly [[Sinhalese people|Sinhalese]] mobs attacked, burned, looted, and killed Tamil civilians. Estimates of the death toll range between 400 and 3,000,<ref name=BBC230703/> and 150,000 people became homeless.((sfn|Aspinall|Jeffrey|Regan|2013|p=104))<ref name=BBC230708/> According to Tamil Centre for Human Rights (TCHR), the total number of Tamils killed in the Black July pogrom was 5,638.<ref name="tchr.net">((cite web | url=http://www.tchr.net/50_year_arrest_kill.htm | title=Recorded figures of Arrests, Killings, Disappearances ))</ref> Around 18,000 homes and 5,000 shops were destroyed.<ref name=PACT>((cite web|title=Peace and Conflict Timeline: 24 July 1983|url=http://pact.lk/24-july-1983/|publisher=Centre for Poverty Analysis|access-date=22 July 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130729121310/http://pact.lk/24-july-1983/|archive-date=29 July 2013|url-status=dead))</ref> The economic cost of the riots was estimated to be $300 million.((sfn|Aspinall|Jeffrey|Regan|2013|p=104)) The NGO [[International Commission of Jurists]] described the violence of the pogrom as having "amounted to acts of [[genocide]]" in a report published in December 1983.<ref>((cite web|title=ICJ Review no. 31 (December 1983)|url=https://www.icj.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/ICJ-Review-31-1983-eng.pdf|url-status=live|page=24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140328101610/http://www.icj.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/ICJ-Review-31-1983-eng.pdf |archive-date=28 March 2014 ))</ref>

[[Sri Lankan Tamil]]s fled to other countries in the ensuing years, and a large number of Tamil youth joined militant groups.<ref name=BBC230703/><ref name=BBC230708/> Black July is generally seen as the start of the [[Sri Lankan Civil War]] between the Tamil militants and the [[government of Sri Lanka]].<ref name=BBC230708/><ref>((cite book|first=Stanley Jeyaraja|last=Tambiah |title=Sri Lanka: Ethnic Fratricide and the Dismantling of Democracy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3V2xRnKcOEAC|publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]]|year=1986|isbn=0-226-78952-7))</ref> July became a period of remembrance for the [[Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora]] community around the world.<ref name="Black July '83">((cite web|url=https://www.blackjuly83.com/ |title=Black July '83 |publisher=Blackjuly83.com |date= |accessdate=2022-05-30))</ref>

==Background==
((Main|Origins of the Sri Lankan civil war))

During the period of [[British Ceylon|British colonial rule]], many Sri Lankan Tamils, particularly those from the [[Jaffna peninsula]], benefited greatly from educational facilities established by [[American Ceylon Mission|American missionaries]]. As a result, the colonial administration recruited many English-speaking Tamils to the civil service and other professions on a merit basis.<ref>M.R.R.Hoole, The Tamil Secessionist Movement in Sri Lanka (Ceylon): A Case of Secession by Default? http://www.uthr.org/Rajan/selfdet.htm</ref><ref>Ceylon Constitution 1945, 
https://ia600703.us.archive.org/24/items/CeylonConstitution-1945/CeylonConstitution.pdf pp.48-50</ref><ref>Wijeratne Mudiyanselage Don Dayananda Andradi, 1967, English educated Ceylonese in the official life of Ceylon from 1865 to 1883, PhD thesis, University of London https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/34090/1/11015906.pdf p.240</ref>  By 1956, 50% of clerical jobs were held by Tamils, although they were a minority of the country's population.<ref>Neil DeVotta, Ethnolinguistic Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka, p73</ref> Sinhalese leaders saw this imbalance as a problem that needed rectifying.((CN|date=February 2024))

In 1956, the [[Official Language Act (1956)|Official Language Act]], commonly known as the [[Sinhala Only Act]], was introduced.<ref name="Consolidated Acts">[http://www.commonlii.org/lk/legis/num_act/ola33o1956180/ Sri Lanka Consolidated Acts]</ref> Up until that time, [[English language|English]] was the country's [[official language]], despite being spoken by only five percent of the population. The use of [[Sinhala language|Sinhala]], spoken by 70 percent, and [[Tamil language|Tamil]], spoken by 30 percent,<ref name=stats>((cite web|title=Population by ethnic group, census years|url=http://www.statistics.gov.lk/abstract2010/chapters/Chap2/AB2-10.pdf|work=Statistical Abstract 2010|publisher=Department of Census & Statistics|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111113175023/http://www.statistics.gov.lk/abstract2010/chapters/Chap2/AB2-10.pdf|archive-date=13 November 2011))</ref> had been restricted by various policies during the colonial period. This new act replaced English with Sinhala as the nation's official language. Protests against the Sinhala-only policy by Tamils and by the nation's [[Sri Lanka leftist parties|leftist parties]] were met with mob violence that eventually escalated into the [[Sri Lankan riots of 1958|riots of 1958]].<ref>Vittachi, T. Emergency '58: The Story of the Ceylon Race Riots, pp. 7–8</ref> Political parties and groups representing Tamil Sri Lankans felt that the implementation of the Sinhala Only Act deprived the Tamil populations in the [[Northern Province, Sri Lanka|north]] and [[Eastern Province, Sri Lanka|east]] of the country of their right to fully participate in government and as an injustice against ethnic minorities.((CN|date=February 2024))

Throughout the 1960s, protests, and state repression in response, created further animosity. In 1972, the [[policy of standardization]], which restricted Tamils' entry into universities, strained the already tenuous political relationship between the elites of the Tamil and Sinhalese communities.<ref>Chelvadurai Manogaran, Ethnic conflict and reconciliation in Sri Lanka, University of Hawaii press, 1987, p116</ref><ref>A. Jeyaratnam Wilson, The Break-up of Sri Lanka
The Sinhalese-Tamil Conflict, Hurst Publishers, 1988, p131</ref><ref>C.R. Da Silva, The impact of Nationalism on Education: The school Take-over 1961 and the University Admissions Crisis 1970-1975, Collective Identities, Nationalism, and Protests in Modern Sri Lanka, pp.486</ref> The quota affecting political representation became another cause for contention between Sinhalese and Tamil people. There was also a series of [[Sri Lankan riots of 1977|anti-Tamil pogroms in 1977]], following the [[United National Party]]'s (UNP) coming to power, which further increased hostility.<ref>((cite journal|last=Rajasingham-Senanayake|first=Darini|title=Dysfunctional Democracy and the Dirty War in Sri Lanka|journal=AsiaPacific Issues|date=May 2001|issue=52|url=http://www.eastwestcenter.org/sites/default/files/private/api052.pdf|access-date=1 August 2006|publisher=[[East–West Center]]))</ref> In the 1970s, Tamil militant groups began taking form with notable incidents such as the [[Alfred Duraiappah|assassination of Alfred Duraiappah, the Mayor of Jaffna]] in 1975 and the [[Murunkan massacre|killing of Inspector Bastianpillai and his police team]] in 1978.<ref name="Dissanayaka">((cite book |last=Dissanayaka |first=T.D.S.A. |title=War Or Peace in Sri Lanka |year=2005 |publisher=Popular Prakashana |location=Colombo |isbn=9788179911990 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wfkLyH95m9MC&dq=Inspector+Bastiampillai&pg=PA35 |access-date=19 August 2021))</ref> In 1981, the renowned public library in [[Jaffna]] was [[Burning of Jaffna library|burnt down]] by a violent Sinhalese mob.<ref>Nancy Murray (1984), Sri Lanka: Racism and the Authoritarian State, Issue no. 1, Race & Class, vol. 26 (Summer 1984)</ref> Until 1983, there were similar incidents of low-level violence between the government and the mushrooming Tamil militant groups. There were many murders, disappearances, and cases of torture attributed to the Sri Lankan security forces, and several killings of policemen by Tamil militant groups.<ref>Amnesty International, Sri Lanka, File on Torture, No. 10, October 1985</ref><ref>Tamil Times, May 1983 - YOUTH WITH 35 INJURIES DIES IN ARMY CUSTODY, p14</ref><ref name="Dissanayaka"/>

==Prelude==
((main|1983 anti-Tamil pogrom in Trincomalee))
Organised violence by [[Sinhalese people|Sinhalese]] mobs and [[Sri Lanka Armed Forces|security forces]] commenced against [[Sri Lankan Tamils|Tamils]] in [[Trincomalee]] between June and July 1983.<ref name = "Murray" >Murray, N. (1984). The state against the Tamils. Race & Class, 26(1), 97-109. https://doi.org/10.1177/030639688402600107</ref><ref>[[Tamil Times]] vol 2, No.9, July 1983, Anti Tamil Pogrom 1983, p.2</ref> At least 27 Tamils (including women and children)<ref>[[The Guardian]], 4 July 1983, Frances Ashborn - Killings, arson and looting in Trinco, p.6</ref> were killed in the ensuing violence, with hundreds of Tamil homes and properties being destroyed.<ref name = "Hara" >Haraprasad Chattopadhyaya, Ethnic Unrest in Modern Sri Lanka, An Account of Tamil-Sinhalese Race Relations, 1994, Publisher: M.D. Publications , p.67</ref><ref name = "Murray" /><ref name = "TT883" >[[Tamil Times]], August 1983, Amithalingam, Last letter to president as leader of the opposition, pp.3-5</ref>

==Black July==
===Saturday, 23 July===
((main|Four Four Bravo))
On 23 July 1983 at around 11:30 pm, the rebel group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; also known as the Tamil Tigers) ambushed the [[Four Four Bravo]] military patrol in [[Thirunelveli (Sri Lanka)|Thirunelveli]], near Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|pp=63–64)) A roadside bomb was detonated beneath a jeep that was leading the convoy, injuring at least two soldiers on board. Soldiers travelling in the truck behind the jeep then dismounted to help their fellow soldiers. Subsequently, they were ambushed by a group of Tamil Tiger fighters who fired at them with [[automatic weapon]]s and hurled [[grenade]]s. In the ensuing clash, one officer and twelve soldiers were killed, with two more fatally wounded, for a total of fifteen dead. A number of the rebels were also killed.((sfn|O'Ballance|1989|p=21)) Col. [[Kittu (Tamil militant)|Kittu]], a regional commander of the LTTE, would later admit to planning and carrying out the ambush.((sfn|O'Ballance|1989|p=21)) This attack has been described as retaliation for the killing of one of the LTTE's founding members, [[Charles Lucas Anthony|Charles Anthony]], by Sri Lankan forces<ref>((Cite book|title = Encyclopedia of the World's Minorities|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=iSUKAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT3267|publisher = Routledge|date = 7 November 2013|isbn = 9781135193959|language = en|first = Carl|last = Skutsch|quote = "Tensions reached a breaking point on July 23, 1983 when the LTTE ambushed and killed 13 Sinhalese soldiers in retaliation for the murder of Charles Antony, the LTTE's second-in-command."))</ref> and for the allegation of<ref>((cite book |last1=Tambiah |first1=Stanley |title=Sri Lanka: Ethnic Fratricide and the Dismantling of Democracy |date=1986 |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago and London |page=16 |isbn=9780226789521 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KTjbyc-A-SoC&q=An+explosive+and+as+yet+unproven+allegation+was+the+rape+in+mid-July+of+Tamil+female+students%2C+two+of+whom+subsequently+committed+suicide.&pg=PA16|quote="An explosive and as yet unproven allegation was the rape in mid-July of Tamil female students, two of whom subsequently committed suicide."))</ref> abducting three Tamil school girls in Jaffna, raping them in their military camp.<ref>((cite web|title = The massacres in Sri Lanka during the Black July riots of 1983|url = http://www.massviolence.org/The-Black-July-riots-1983|website = Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence|date = 13 May 2008|access-date = 6 February 2016|language = en|first = Eleanor|last = Pavey|quote = "Even though the origins of the 1983 riots were widely attributed to the killing of 13 Sinhalese soldiers by Tamil rebels, many Tamils point out that it was the abduction and rape—by government forces—of three Tamil schoolgirls that led Tamil rebels to attack government forces. This incident took place in Jaffna during the week of July 18, 1983, following which one of the victims committed suicide."))</ref><ref>((Cite web|url=https://pearlaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/No-Trials-Only-Tribulations-for-Tamil-Victims-of-Sri-Lankas-CRSV-August-2022.pdf|title=PEARL|access-date=3 September 2022|quote = "according to The Times (UK), the LTTE’s ambush just before Black July was in retaliation for the SLA abducting three Tamil girls in Jaffna, taking them to their camp, and raping them.5"))</ref>

===Sunday, 24 July===

((main|Thirunelveli massacre))

In response to the ambush, truckloads of Sri Lankan soldiers left the Palaly camp at 4:30 AM, smashing all the shops on the way to [[Thirunelveli, Sri Lanka|Thirunelveli]]. Over 60 Tamil civilians in [[Jaffna]] were [[Thirunelveli massacre|subsequently massacred]] by the rampaging army in revenge.<ref name="Patricia Hyndman 1988 pp.8-10">Patricia Hyndman, Sri Lanka - Serendipity under Siege, Law Asia Human Rights Committee, Spokesman Books; First Edition (1 Mar. 1988) pp.8-10</ref><ref name="autogenerated2003"/> Whereas the prior killing of soldiers was reported instantly in the local Sri Lankan media, this subsequent massacre of civilians was not reported and remained unknown to the Sinhalese public.<ref name="Patricia Hyndman 1988 pp.8-10"/>

The Army—including its [[Commander of the Army (Sri Lanka)|commander]], [[Tissa Weeratunga]]—decided that the soldiers' funerals should not be held in [[Jaffna]] because of the high likelihood of disturbances at multiple locations.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=66))((sfn|O'Ballance|1989|p=21)) The decision was made to hold the funerals, with full military honours, at [[Kanatte Cemetery]], [[Colombo]]'s main burial ground, instead.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=66)) [[Prime Minister of Sri Lanka|Prime Minister]] [[Ranasinghe Premadasa]], fearing violence, was against holding the funeral in Colombo, but was overruled by [[President of Sri Lanka|President]] [[J. R. Jayewardene]].<ref>((cite book|last=Cooray|first=B. Sirisena|title=President Premadasa and I: Our Story|publisher=Dayawansa Jayakody & Company|year=2002|isbn=955-551-280-9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7nYhJAAACAAJ|pages=60–63))</ref> The president, the prime minister, and the rest of the [[Cabinet of Sri Lanka|cabinet]] were to attend the funeral, which was to take place at 5 pm on 24 July. This arrangement went against the standard procedure of handing over fallen soldiers to their families for burial in their home villages.((sfn|O'Ballance|1989|p=21))

Preparations were made for the funeral, including putting the riot squad at the police station in nearby [[Borella]] on standby; but by 5 pm the bodies hadn't arrived in Colombo.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=67)) The soldiers' families wanted the bodies handed over to them and to be buried according to tradition. Due to procedural issues, the bodies were still at Palali Army Camp near Jaffna.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=67)) The bodies were eventually moved from [[Palali Airport|Palali Air Force Base]] shortly after 6 pm. Whilst this was occurring, tensions were growing at Colombo General Cemetery because of the delay. A large crowd, including around 3,000 people from the Wanathamulla [[List of slums in Sri Lanka|slum]], started gathering at the cemetery, angered by news of the ambush, which was magnified by wild rumour.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=67))

The [[Avro]] plane carrying the bodies arrived at [[Ratmalana Airport]] at 7:20&nbsp;pm, by which time the crowd at the cemetery had swollen to more than 8,000.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=67)) The crowd wanted the bodies to be handed over to the families rather than to be buried at the cemetery. Violence broke out between the crowd and police, and the riot squad was summoned. The riot squad then fired [[tear gas]] at the crowd and [[Baton charge|baton-charged]] them before handing control of the situation over to the army. The president then decided to cancel the military funeral and hand the bodies over to the families.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=68)) The vehicles carrying the bodies had been driven away from Ratmalana at 8:30&nbsp;pm and the drivers were heading to the cemetery. Due to the situation, the bodies were then diverted to army headquarters, so that they could be handed over to the families. The crowd at the cemetery was informed of the president's decision at around 10 pm.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=68)) The crowd left the cemetery in a restive mood.

A section of the crowd marched up D. S. Senanayake Mawatha to [[Borella]], where they destroyed Tamil-owned Nagalingam Stores.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=68)) The mob—which by that time numbered around 10,000—attacked, looted, and set fire to any building near Borella Junction that had a Tamil connection, including Borella Flats and the [[Tamil Union Cricket and Athletic Club]].((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=68)) Tamil shops and houses were also burned with their furniture and goods destroyed.<ref name="Patricia Hyndman 1988 p.12">Patricia Hyndman, Sri Lanka - Serendipity under Siege, Law Asia Human Rights Committee, Spokesman Books; First Edition (1 Mar. 1988) p.12</ref> The police fired tear gas at the crowd; but after exhausting all of their stock, they were then forced to fire their rifles into the air.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=69)) The crowd then dispersed in the direction of [[Dematagoda]], [[Maradana]], [[Narahenpita]], [[Grandpass]], and [[Thimbirigasyaya Divisional Secretariat|Thimbirigasyaya]], where they attacked and looted Tamil properties and set them alight.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=69)) Members of criminal gangs came to join the ensuing chaos. Students from Buddhist schools also followed the first rioters, which included some Buddhist monks.<ref name="Patricia Hyndman 1988 p.12"/>

===Monday, 25 July===
President Jayewardene convened the country's Security Council at the [[President's House, Colombo|President's House]], at 9:30&nbsp;a.m. on 25 July. A hundred yards away, the Bristol building, and the Tamil-owned Ambal Cafe, was ablaze.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=69)) Also close by, on York Street, the Tamil-owned clothier Sarathas was ablaze as well.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=69)) Soon all the Tamil-owned shops on Baillie Street opposite the President's House were on fire. Every Tamil-owned business in the [[Fort (Colombo)|Fort]] area was on fire by the time the Security Council meeting finished.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=69)) The President ordered a [[curfew]] in Colombo from 6 pm.<ref>((cite news|title=Travellers warned on Sri Lankan strife|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=9fRKRCJz75UC&dat=19830726&printsec=frontpage&hl=en|newspaper=[[The Free Lance–Star]]/[[Associated Press]]|date=26 July 1983|page=11))</ref><ref name=TT260783>((cite news|title=Mobs burn shops in Sri Lanka|url=http://find.galegroup.com/ttda/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=TTDA&userGroupName=kccl&tabID=T003&docPage=article&searchType=BasicSearchForm&docId=CS17403130&type=multipage&contentSet=LTO&version=1.0|newspaper=[[The Times]]/[[Reuters]]|date=26 July 1983|page=1))</ref> The mob moved on to Olcott Mawatha, where they set fire to the Tamil-owned Ananda Bhawan food store, Rajeswari Stores, and the Ajantha Hotel.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=69))

The President's ministers were seen that morning in various parts of [[Colombo]] directing their thugs to attack Tamils and their properties.<ref name="autogenerated1"/> [[Cyril Mathew]] was seen in [[Colombo Fort]], [[Ranasinghe Premadasa|R. Premadasa]]’s trusted henchmen, mainly pavement hawkers, in [[Pettah, Colombo|Pettah]], Colombo Mayor’s thugs and municipal labourers and Transport minister [[M. H. Mohamed]]’s men in [[Borella]], District Minister [[Weerasinghe Mallimarachchi]]’s thugs in Colombo north and Deputy Minister [[Anura Bastian]]’s thugs in Colombo South.<ref name="autogenerated1"/>

By 10 am, the rioting had spread to the slums of Canal Bank, Grandpass, Hattewatte, [[Kirilapone]], [[Kotahena]], Maradana, [[Modara]], [[Mutwal]], Narahenpita, [[Slave Island]], and Wanathamulla. Mobs armed with crowbars and kitchen knives roamed the streets, attacking and killing Tamils.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=69)) [[Wellawatte]] and [[Dehiwala]], which contained the largest number of Tamils in Colombo, were the next target of the mob. Homes and shops were attacked, looted, and destroyed.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=69)) Tamil shops on Main Street and Bo Tree Junction were also attacked.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|pp=69–70)) The riots then spread to the middle-class residential areas of Anderson Flats, Elvitigala Flats, Torrington Flats, and Thimbirigasyaya. Tamil targets in the exclusive [[Cinnamon Gardens]] were also attacked, as were those in the suburbs of [[Kadawatha]], [[Kelaniya]], [[Nugegoda]], and [[Ratmalana]].((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=70)) The [[India House (Colombo)|residence]] of the [[India]]n [[High Commissioner (Commonwealth)|High Commissioner]] was also attacked and ransacked.<ref name=TT260783/> By lunchtime, virtually the entire city was on fire. The curfew was advanced to 4:00&nbsp;pm and then to 2:00&nbsp;pm, and it was extended to include [[Gampaha District]], due to the violence spreading as far as [[Negombo]].((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=70)) In [[Kalutara]], the TKVS Stores were set on fire. The owner jumped out of an upstairs window, but the mob threw him back into the fire.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=71)) The curfew was then extended to [[Kalutara District]].

The police being unable, or unwilling, to enforce the curfew,((sfn|O'Ballance|1989|p=23)) the army was called in to assist the police.
[[File:Tilly's Beach Hotel, Mount Lavinia.jpg|thumb|Tilly's Beach Hotel in Mount Lavinia, destroyed by rioters in Black July (picture from 2020)]]
The rioters started to use voter registration lists to target Tamils.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=71)) The possession of electoral lists by the mobs, which enabled them to identify Tamil homes and property, implied prior organization and cooperation by elements of the government.<ref>((cite web|title = The massacres in Sri Lanka during the Black July riots of 1983|url = http://www.massviolence.org/The-Black-July-riots-1983|website = Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence|date = 13 May 2008|access-date = 6 February 2016|language = en|first = Eleanor|last = Pavey|quote = "The systematic and well-planned nature of the attacks against the Tamils – to which the government itself later alluded – ruled out the spontaneous outburst of anti-Tamil hatred within the Sinhalese masses. Moreover, the possession of electoral lists by the mobs – which enabled them to identify Tamil homes and property – not only implied prior organization, for such electoral lists, could not have been obtained overnight, but it also pointed to the cooperation of at least some elements of the government, who had been willing to provide the mobs with such information."))</ref> As President Jayewardene would later admit in a statement, "a pattern of organization and planning has been noticed in the rioting and looting that took place."<ref>((cite web|title = The massacres in Sri Lanka during the Black July riots of 1983|url = http://www.massviolence.org/The-Black-July-riots-1983|website = Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence|date = 13 May 2008|access-date = 6 February 2016|language = en|first = Eleanor|last = Pavey))</ref> Eighty-one out of the 92 Tamil-owned flats at Soysa Flats were attacked, looted, and set on fire.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=71)) The mob attacked the industrial area of Ratmalana, which contained a number of Tamil-owned factories. Jetro Garments and Tata Garments on Galle Road were completely gutted.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=71)) Other factories attacked included Ponds, S-Lon, Reeves Garments, Hydo Garments, Hyluck Garments, AGM Garments, Manhattan Garments, Ploy Peck, Berec, and Mascons Asbestos.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=71)) Indian-owned factories such as Kundanmals, Oxford, and Bakson Garments were ((em|not)) attacked, giving credence to the suggestion that the mob was deliberately going after Sri Lankan Tamil targets.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=71)) Seventeen factories were destroyed in Ratmalana. Capital Maharaja, a Tamil-owned company, is one of Sri Lanka's largest conglomerates. Six of their factories in Ratmalana and their headquarters in Bankshall Street were destroyed.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=72))<ref>((cite web|title=The Group|url=http://www.capitalmaharaja.lk/index.php/the-group.html|publisher=Capital Maharaja|access-date=22 July 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130731233857/http://www.capitalmaharaja.lk/index.php/the-group.html|archive-date=31 July 2013|url-status=dead))</ref> The mob ended the day by setting fire to Tilly's Beach Hotel in [[Mount Lavinia]].((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=71)) The hotel is a burnt-out hulk to this day (image at right).

One of the most notorious incidents of the rioting took place at the [[Welikada Prison]] on 25 July.((sfn|O'Ballance|1989|p=23))<ref name=TH280783>((cite news|title=Sri Lanka ethnic riots kill at least 88 people|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=aEyKTaVlRPYC&dat=19830728&printsec=frontpage&hl=en|newspaper=[[Telegraph Herald]]/[[United Press International]]|date=28 July 1983|page=12))</ref> Thirty-seven Tamil prisoners, most of them detained under the [[Prevention of Terrorism Act (Sri Lanka)|Prevention of Terrorism Act]], were [[Welikada prison massacre|killed]] by Sinhalese prisoners using knives and clubs. Survivors claimed that prison officers allowed their keys to fall into the hands of Sinhalese prisoners; but at the subsequent inquest, prison officers claimed that the keys had been stolen from them.((sfn|O'Ballance|1989|p=23))

While a number of Tamils fled the city, many Sinhalese and [[Sri Lankan Moors|Muslim]]s saved the lives and properties of Tamils despite the activities of the gangs. Many Tamils were sheltered in government buildings, temples as well as Sinhalese and Muslim houses in the following days.((sfn|O'Ballance|1989|p=23))<ref>((cite book|last=Piyadasa|first=L.|title=Sri Lanka: The Holocaust and After|publisher=[[Zed Books]]|year=1986|isbn=0-906334-03-9))</ref><ref>((cite journal|title=Anti-Tamil Riots and the Political Crisis in Sri Lanka|journal=Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars|date=January–March 1984|volume=16|issue=1|pages=27–29|url=http://criticalasianstudies.org/assets/files/bcas/v16n01.pdf|access-date=1 August 2006|doi=10.1080/14672715.1984.10409780|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110811043739/http://criticalasianstudies.org/assets/files/bcas/v16n01.pdf|archive-date=11 August 2011|url-status=dead))</ref>

Outside of the [[Western Province, Sri Lanka|Western Province]], there was violence in [[Galle]], [[Kegalle]], [[Trincomalee]], and [[Vavuniya]].((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=74))

===Tuesday, 26 July===
The mob attacks continued in Wellawatte and Dehiwala on 26 July. There were 53 houses on Ratnakara Road. The 24 Tamil owned/occupied houses were burnt.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=72)) Three houses had Sinhalese owners but were rented by Tamils. The mob removed the property from these three houses out to the road and burnt it.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=72)) The three houses were not burnt down, neither were the 26 Sinhalese owned/occupied houses.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=72)) In many parts of the city, the Army merely looked on as property was destroyed and people were killed.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=72))

The violence spread to the country's second largest city, [[Kandy]], on 26 July.<ref name=TH280783/> By 2:45&nbsp;pm Delta Pharmacy on Peradeniya Road was on fire.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=74)) Soon afterwards, a Tamil-owned shop near the Laksala building was set on fire; and the violence spread to Castle Street and Colombo Street.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=74)) The police managed to get control of the situation, but an hour later a mob armed with petrol cans and [[Molotov cocktail]]s started attacking Tamil shops on Castle, Colombo, King's, and Trincomalee streets.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=74)) The mob then moved on to nearby [[Gampola]].((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=74)) A curfew was imposed in [[Kandy District]] on the evening of 26 July.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=74))

In Trincomalee, false rumours started spreading that the LTTE had captured Jaffna, that the Karainagar Naval Base had been destroyed, and that the Naga Vihare had been desecrated.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|pp=74–75)) About 130 sailors based at [[SLN Dockyard|Trincomalee Naval Base]] went on a rampage, attacking Central Road, Dockyard Road, Main Street, and North Coast Road.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=75)) The sailors started 170 fires and damaged 175 properties before returning to their base.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=75))<ref name="Patricia Hyndman 1988 p.13">Patricia Hyndman, Sri Lanka - Serendipity under Siege, Law Asia Human Rights Committee, Spokesman Books; First Edition (1 Mar. 1988) p.13</ref> The Sivan Hindu temple on Thirugnasambandan Road also was attacked.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=75)) One person was killed and several injured in the rampage.<ref name="Patricia Hyndman 1988 p.13"/>

The curfew was extended nationwide on 26 July as a precautionary measure. There were more outbreaks of violence and looting against Tamils in areas where various ethnic groups had coexisted.<ref name=TH280783/> By the evening of 26 July, the mob violence began to slacken as police and army units patrolled the streets in large numbers and began to take action against the rioters.((sfn|O'Ballance|1989|p=24)) The soldiers killed in the Thirunelveli ambush were quietly buried during the night curfew.((sfn|O'Ballance|1989|p=24))

===Wednesday, 27 July===
In the [[Central Province, Sri Lanka|Central Province]], the violence spread to [[Nawalapitiya]] and [[Hatton, Sri Lanka|Hatton]].((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=75)) [[Badulla]], the largest city in neighbouring [[Uva Province]], had so far been peaceful; but around 10:30&nbsp;a.m. on 27 July, a Tamil-owned motorcycle was set on fire in front of the clock tower.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=75)) Around midday an organised mob went through the city's bazaar area, setting shops on fire.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=75)) The rioting then spread to residential areas, and the homes of many Tamils were burnt down.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=75)) The home of one Mr Ramanathan, an [[Indian Tamils of Sri Lanka|Indian Tamil]] camphor dealer in [[Badulla]] was attacked by the [[Sri Lanka Army]] with the support of [[United National Party|UNP]] MP Vincent Dias' three brothers and a Sinhalese mob.<ref name=Badulla/><ref name=Badulla2/>  They shot and hacked to death Mr Ramanathan, his brother, his four sons (aged from 15-22), his crippled father, and brother-in-law. Mr Ramanathan was himself disembowelled and his head was staved in. Other Tamils killed included a tenant and the tenant's three-year-old daughter and brother-in-law. The army then caused the house and surrounding vehicles to be burnt down, throwing the 15 dead bodies into the flames.<ref name=Badulla2>((Cite news |last=Beresford |first=David |date=13 August 1983 |title=Survivor describes Sri Lanka massacre|work=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/259546763/))</ref> All Tamil shops and three Tamil schools were destroyed in [[Badulla]], and four Hindu temples were also looted and burnt.<ref name=Badulla>((cite book
	| last = Sampanthan
	| first = I.T.
	| author-link = 
	| date = 2009
	| title = Black July'83 : Indictment
	| url = 
	| location = London
	| publisher = Chuderoil Publication society
	| page = 230-244
	| isbn = 978-0-9555359-2-5
))</ref>

The mob then left the city in vans and buses that they had stolen and headed for [[Bandarawela]], Hali-Ela, and [[Welimada]], where they continued to set properties on fire.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=76)) The riot had spread to [[Lunugala]] by nightfall.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=76))

The daytime curfew in Colombo was lifted on 27 July, and the day began in relative calm. But then at [[Fort Railway Station]], a train heading for Jaffna was stopped as it was pulling out of Platform One after cartridges were found on the track. Sinhalese passengers on the train started attacking Tamil passengers, killing twelve.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=76)) Some Tamils were burnt alive on the railway tracks.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=76))

Following the riot at Welikada prison on 25 July, Tamil prisoners had been moved from the Chapel Ward to the Youth Offenders Building. On the evening of 27 July, Sinhalese prisoners overpowered the guards, armed themselves with axes and firewood, and attacked those Tamil prisoners. Fifteen Tamil prisoners were killed.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=76))<ref name=TH280783/>((sfn|O'Ballance|1989|p=25)) Two Tamil prisoners and a third prisoner were killed during a riot at Jaffna prison on the same day.<ref name=TH280783/><ref name=TT290783>((cite news|last=Hamlyn|first=Michael|title=Colombo acts to appease mobs|url=http://find.galegroup.com/ttda/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=TTDA&userGroupName=kccl&tabID=T003&docPage=article&searchType=BasicSearchForm&docId=CS18582781&type=multipage&contentSet=LTO&version=1.0|newspaper=[[The Times]]|date=29 July 1983|page=1))</ref>

===Thursday, 28 July===
Badulla was still on fire on 28 July, and the rioting spread from Lunugala to Passara.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=77)) There was also rioting in [[Nuwara Eliya]] and [[Chilaw]].((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=77)) But the violence had subsided in Colombo, Kandy, and Trincomalee.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=77))

President Jayewardene and his cabinet met in an emergency session on 28 July. Jayewardene then made a primetime televised address in which he appealed for an end to the violence.<ref name=TH280783/>((sfn|Wilson|2001|pp=113–114))((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=77)) Jayewardene blamed the violence on "the deep ill feeling and suspicion that has grown between the Sinhalese and the Tamil people" caused by the calls for an [[Tamil Eelam|independent Tamil state]] that began in 1976,((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=78)) when the [[Tamil United Liberation Front]], the largest political party representing the Tamils, had passed the [[Vaddukoddai Resolution]]. He blamed the violence committed by the Tamil militants for the way "the Sinhalese people themselves have reacted".((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=78)) Jayewardene vowed that the "Sinhalese people will never agree to the division of a country which has been a united nation for 2,500 years [sic]" and announced that the government would "accede to the clamour...of the Sinhalese people" and ban any party which sought to divide the nation.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|pp=78–79))<ref name=TT290783/>

[[Prime Minister of India|Indian Prime Minister]] [[Indira Gandhi]] called Jayewardene on 28 July and informed him of the impact the riots had had in India.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=79)) She requested that Jayewardene receive [[Minister of External Affairs (India)|Minister of External Affairs]] [[P. V. Narasimha Rao]] as her [[special envoy]].((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=79)) Jayewardene accepted, and a few hours later Rao arrived in Sri Lanka.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=79))

===Friday, 29 July===
Colombo was still calm on 29 July. Tamil residents visited friends and relatives who had taken refuge in the many refugee camps in the city. Around 10:30&nbsp;a.m. two Sinhalese youths were shot on Gas Works Street.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=80)) A large crowd gathered at the scene, and soon rumours started circling that the youths had been shot by Tamil Tigers from the Adam Ali building.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=80)) The building was surrounded by the army, navy, and police who proceeded to fire at the building using [[submachine gun]]s and [[semi-automatic rifle]]s.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=80)) A helicopter also fired at the building with a machine gun. The security forces stormed the building but found no Tamil Tigers, weapons, or ammunition inside.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|pp=80–81)) However, rumours began to spread around Colombo that the army was engaged in a battle with the Tamil Tigers.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=81)) Panicking workers began to flee in any mode of transport they could find. Mobs started gathering in the streets—armed with axes, bricks, crowbars, iron rods, kitchen knives, and stones—ready to fight the Tigers.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=81))((sfn|O'Ballance|1989|p=24)) The Tigers never came, so the mobs turned their attention to the fleeing workers. Vehicles were stopped and searched for Tamils. Any Tamil they found was attacked and set on fire.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=81)) A Tamil was burnt alive on Kirula Road.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=81)) Eleven Tamils were burnt alive on Attidiya Road.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=81)) The police found an abandoned van, on the same road, that contained the butchered bodies of two Tamils and three Muslims.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=81)) Police shot dead 15 rioters.((sfn|O'Ballance|1989|p=25)) At 2 pm on 29 July, a curfew came into force which lasted until 5 am on Monday 1 August.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=82))

Badulla, Kandy, and Trincomalee were calm on 29 July; but there was violence in Nuwara Eliya, beginning around midday. The Tamil-owned Ganesan and Sivalingam stores were attacked and set on fire.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=82)) The violence then spread to Bazaar Street and Lawson Road.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=82)) Violence was also reported in [[Kegalle District]] and [[Matara District]]. In Kegalle District the violence spread from Dehiowita to [[Deraniyagala]] to [[Avissawella]].((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=82)) In Matara District the worst affected areas were Deniyaya and Morawake.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=82)) There was violence in Chilaw as well.

Indian External Affairs Minister Rao held discussions with President Jayewardene and [[Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka|Foreign Minister]] [[A. C. S. Hameed]] before visiting Kandy by helicopter.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=79))((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=82))

===Saturday, 30 July===
Violence was reported in Nuwara Eliya, [[Kandapola]], Hawa Eliya, and [[Matale]] on 30 July.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=82)) The rest of the country was quiet. That night the government banned three left-wing political parties—the [[Communist Party of Sri Lanka]], [[Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna]], and the [[Nava Sama Samaja Party]]—blaming them for inciting the riots.((sfn|Dissanayake|2004|p=82)) A few leaders of other groups were arrested, as well.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20130327225538/http://archives.dailymirror.lk/2006/12/16/opinion/1.asp "Ramifications of banning political parties and organisations"]</ref>

==Government's response==
((See also|Human rights in Sri Lanka|State terrorism in Sri Lanka))

There had been growing tension between the Sinhalese and Tamil communities of Sri Lanka before the actual riots began. With the formation of rebel Tamil groups, there rose an anti-Tamil sentiment among the Sinhalese majority. Although the violence was first started by Sinhalese mobs who had gathered at the Colombo cemetery where the bodies of the soldiers were to be buried, they were later joined by elements associated with Sinhalese political activists involved in the organisation of the riots.((sfn|Hoole|Somasundaram|Sritharan|Thiranagama|1990)) During the early stages of the riots, it is alleged that the local police and military stood by and did nothing, or even assisted the mobs.<ref>((cite book|last=Swamy|first=M. R. Narayan|title=Inside an Elusive Mind: Prabhakaran|publisher=Literate World|year=2003|isbn=1-59121-003-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y39aPgAACAAJ))</ref> Numerous eyewitness accounts suggest that "in many places police and even military personnel joined the rioters".<ref name=":0" /> However, by 26 July the police and army were out in the streets taking some action against the mobs. The government extended the curfew to prevent violence from spreading to other parts of the country. A brief spate of rioting broke out on 29 July, when police shot and killed 15 Sinhalese looters.

The Sri Lankan government was accused from various corners of being complicit during the pogrom and of supporting and encouraging the Sinhalese mobs.<ref name="bbccom">((cite news | url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-23402727 | title=Remembering Sri Lanka's Black July | work=BBC News | date=23 July 2013 | access-date=16 April 2015))</ref><ref name="USTPAC">((cite press release | url=http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ustpac-remembers-30th-anniversary-of-black-july--a-state-abetted-pogrom-against-tamils-in-sri-lanka-216909361.html | title=USTPAC Remembers 30th Anniversary of "Black July"- A State-abetted Pogrom Against Tamils in Sri Lanka | publisher=PR Newswire | access-date=16 April 2015))</ref><ref>((cite web|title = The massacres in Sri Lanka during the Black July riots of 1983|url = http://www.massviolence.org/The-Black-July-riots-1983|website = Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence|date = 13 May 2008|access-date = 6 February 2016|language = en|first = Eleanor|last = Pavey|quote = "Government involvement in this mass uprising was highly suspected. Certain elements of the government in power were suspected of issuing copies of voters' lists to the mobs. In some instances, it is believed that the mobs were dropped off at particular points in vehicles owned by government establishments such as the State Timber Cooperation, the Cooperative Wholesale Establishment, the Ceylon Electricity Board and the Sri Lanka Transport Board (Senaratne 1997:45). In other instances, there were unconfirmed reports that buckets petrol was kept ready in white cans for the mobs at the Ceylon petroleum cooperation. Also, many reports indicate that certain members of the armed forces stood by and watched while much of the looting and arson were taking place (Meyer 2001:121-2). In some instances, security forces even took part in the riots. President Jayawardene himself would later admit that "[…] there was a big anti-Tamil feeling among the forces, and they felt that shooting the Sinhalese who were rioting would have been anti-Sinhalese; and actually, in some cases, we saw them [the forces] encouraging them [the rioters]" (Tambiah 1986:25)."))</ref> President Jayewardene has been accused of failing to condemn the violence or to express sympathy to the survivors, blaming Tamils for bringing it upon themselves,<ref name=":0">((Cite book|title = Contested lands: Israel-Palestine, Kashmir, Bosnia, Cyprus, and Sri Lanka|last = Bose|first = Sumantra|publisher = Harvard University Press|year = 2007|isbn = 978-0-674-02447-2|location = Cambridge, Massachusetts|page = 28|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=KKZcgOJPjVkC&pg=PA28))</ref> failing to take any meaningful measures to punish the perpetrators of the violence, and praising the mobs as heroes of the Sinhalese people.<ref>((Cite report |first1=Abdul |last1=Razak |first2=Mohamed| last2=Imtiyaz |title=Politicization of Buddhism and Electoral Politics in Sri Lanka |date=9 March 2010 |website=[[Social Science Research Network|SSRN]] |ssrn=1567618 <!-- |access-date=19 July 2022 --> |quote=The government neither condemned the violence that killed approximately two thousand Tamils, nor took any meaningful measures to punish the perpetrators of the violence. Instead, J.R. Jayewardene, then President of Sri Lanka, praised the mobs as heroes of the Sinhalese people.))</ref> In an interview with the [[The Daily Telegraph|Daily Telegraph]] on 11 July 1983, about two weeks prior to the riots, Jayewardene admitted to a reporter:

<blockquote>I am not worried about the opinion of the Jaffna (Tamil) people now. Now we cannot think of them. Not about their lives or of their opinion about us. The more you put pressure in the north, the happier the Sinhala people will be here... really, if I starve the Tamils, Sinhala people will be happy....<ref>((Cite book|title = Conflict and Peace in South Asia|last = Imtiyaz|first = A. R. M.|publisher = Emerald Group Publishing|year = 2008|isbn = 9780444531766|page = 136|editor-last = Chatterji|editor-first = Manas|chapter = ETHNIC CONFLICT IN SRI LANKA: THE DILEMMA OF BUILDING A UNITARY STATE|editor2-last = Jain|editor2-first = B.M.|chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=gTXexKylNqAC&pg=PA136))</ref></blockquote>

The finance minister [[Ronnie de Mel]] in an interview with [[The Economist]] on August 20th tried to justify the pogrom by claiming that "the Tamils have dominated the commanding heights of everything good in Sri Lanka", and that the "only solution" was to "restore the rights of the Sinhalese majority".<ref name="L.Piyadasa 1984, p.118">L.Piyadasa, 1984, Sri Lanka: The Holocaust and After, London:Marram books, p.118</ref>  This was despite his own [[Karava]] community being far overrepresented in leading positions in the economy, society, politics and the church.<ref name="L.Piyadasa 1984, p.118"/>

The government denied any involvement of its members and blamed the opposition for the riots and banned the Communist Party, the Nava Sama Samaja Party and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). The claims were disputed by the opposition and were not widely accepted.<ref>((cite news |last1=Weerasooriya |first1=Sahan |title=JULY 1983: TAMILS DO NOT BLAME SINHALESE PEOPLE |url=https://island.lk/july-1983-tamils-do-not-blame-sinhalese-people/ |access-date=10 September 2023 |date=26 July 2023))</ref> JVP which had entered democratic politics after first failed insurrection was forced to go underground resurfacing to launch its second insurrection in 1987.<ref>((cite news |title=The JVP from insurrection to democracy |url=https://archives1.dailynews.lk/2021/04/08/features/246151/jvp-insurrection-democracy |access-date=10 September 2023 |work=Daily News |language=en))</ref>

Even though some Tamil politicians accused the ruling UNP of not taking appropriate actions to prevent the riots, the government was adamant that it did take vital countermeasures from the very early stages to combat rioters and safeguard the Tamil community. Curfew was enforced immediately after the riots broke out. The attacks, according to the government, were carefully organised; and government properties such as trains, buildings, and buses were the initial targets. Prime Minister Premadasa formed a committee to organise shelter for, and feeding of, an estimated 20,000 homeless Tamils in Colombo. These temporary shelters were situated at five school buildings and an aircraft hangar. After the number of refugees increased to around 50,000, the government, with help from India, took measures to transport Tamils north on ships.((sfn|O'Ballance|1989|p=24))

==Eyewitness accounts==
Mobs armed with petrol were seen stopping passing motorists at critical street junctions. After ascertaining the ethnic identity of the driver and passengers, they set alight the vehicles, with the drivers and passengers trapped inside. Mobs were also seen stopping buses to identify Tamil passengers, who were subsequently knifed, clubbed to death, or burned alive. One Norwegian tourist saw a mob set fire to a minibus with 20 people inside, killing them all.((sfn|Hoole|Somasundaram|Sritharan|Thiranagama|1990))<ref>((cite web|title=History of Tamil struggle for Freedom in Sri Lanka: A Photo Album|publisher=Ilankai Tamil Sangam|url=http://www.sangam.org/FB_PHOTOHISTORY/ONE.htm))</ref> According to eyewitness testimony of a victim who survived the riots, Buddhist monks were among the rioters.<ref>((cite web|title = Black July '83 – Survivors|url = http://www.blackjuly83.com/Survivors.htm|website = www.blackjuly83.com|access-date = 6 February 2016|archive-date = 2 September 2016|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160902174510/http://www.blackjuly83.com/Survivors.htm|url-status = dead))</ref>

The ''[[Tamil Guardian]]'' lists more eyewitness testimonies from various sources:<ref>((cite web|title = Anatomy of a pogrom|url = http://www.tamilguardian.com/article.asp?articleid=735|website = www.tamilguardian.com|access-date = 6 February 2016))</ref>

London's ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' (26 July) wrote:

((blockquote|Motorists were dragged from their cars to be stoned and beaten with sticks. Others were cut down with knives and axes. Mobs of Sinhala youth rampaged through the streets, ransacking homes, shops and offices, looting them and setting them ablaze, as they sought out members of the Tamil ethnic minority. A mob attacked a Tamil cyclist riding near Colombo's eye hospital. The cyclist was hauled from his bike, drenched with petrol and set alight. As he ran screaming down the street, the mob set on him again and hacked him down with jungle knives.))

In his book, ''The Tragedy of Sri Lanka'', William McGowan wrote:

((blockquote|While travelling on a bus when a mob laid siege to it, passengers watched as a small boy was hacked 'to limb-less death'. The bus driver was ordered to give up a Tamil. He pointed out a woman who was desperately trying to erase the mark on her forehead—called a kumkum—as the thugs bore down on her. The woman's belly was ripped open with a broken bottle and she was immolated as people clapped and danced. In another incident, two sisters, one eighteen and one eleven, were decapitated and raped, the latter 'until there was nothing left to violate and no volunteers could come forward', after which she was burned. While all this was going on, a line of Buddhist monks appeared, arms flailing, their voices raised in a delirium of exhortation, summoning the Sinhalese to put all Tamils to death.))

The London ''[[Daily Express]]'' (29 July) wrote:

((blockquote|Mrs Eli Skarstein, back home in Stavanger, Norway, told how she and her 15 year old daughter, Kristen witnessed one massacre. 'A mini bus full of Tamils were forced to stop in front of us in Colombo', she said. A Sinhalese mob poured petrol over the bus and set it on fire. They blocked the car door and prevented the Tamils from leaving the vehicle. 'Hundreds of spectators watched as about 20 Tamils were burnt to death.' Mrs. Skarstein added: 'We can't believe the official casualty figures. Hundreds, maybe thousands, must have been killed already. The police force (which was 95% Sinhalese) did nothing to stop the mobs. There was no mercy. Women, children and old people were slaughtered. Police did nothing to stop the genocide.'))

''[[The Times]]'' of London reported on 5 August that "...Army personnel actively encouraged arson and the looting of Tamil business establishments and homes in Colombo", and that "absolutely no action was taken to apprehend or prevent the criminal elements involved in these activities. In many instances, army personnel participated in the looting of shops."

''[[The Economist]]'' of 6 August wrote: "...But for days the soldiers and policemen were not overwhelmed; they were unengaged or, in some cases, apparently abetting the attackers. Numerous eyewitnesses attest that soldiers and policemen stood by while Colombo burned."

''[[The Hindu]]'' reported that German holiday makers from Düsseldorf witnessed "hundreds of Tamils being murdered" and stated that their hotel waiter proudly told them "we have killed several of them."<ref>The Hindu, Madras, report from Oslo, July 29</ref><ref>Sivanayagam, S. Sri Lanka: Witness to History - A Journalist's Memoirs (1930-2004). 2005. p.255</ref>

Francis Wheelan of the [[New Statesman]] referring to the aftermath of the violence stated:

((blockquote|A few minutes after arriving in Sri Lanka last month, I was sitting on the pavement outside Katunayake airport, watching the birds and the dragonflies. A Sinhalese youth sat down beside me, apparently keen to talk about the recent violence against the country's Tamils. "Tamils all gone from Colombo now", he said, with a broad grin, "Tamil shops all burned. Perhaps all Tamil people will go to India now". His tone was gleefully triumphant. "Sri Lanka is for Sinhalese people", he concluded.'<ref>Sivanayagam, S. Sri Lanka: Witness to History - A Journalist's Memoirs (1930-2004). 2005. p.266</ref><ref>Racism triumphant - Francis Wheelan, New Statesman, 1983</ref>))

Paul Sieghart of the ''[[International Commission of Jurists]]'' stated in ''Sri Lanka: A Mounting Tragedy of Errors'', two months after the riots, that: 
<blockquote>"Clearly this (July 1983 attack) was no spontaneous upsurge of communal hatred among the Sinhala people – nor was it as has been suggested in some quarters, a popular response to the killing of 13 soldiers in an ambush the previous day by Tamil Tigers, which was not even reported in the newspapers until the riots began. It was a series of deliberate acts, executed in accordance with a concerted plan, conceived and organized well in advance".<ref>((cite web |title=Sri Lanka: a mounting tragedy of errors |url=http://www.icj.org/lanka-a-mounting-tragedy-of-errors-report-of-a-mission-to-sri-lanka-in-january-1984-on-behalf-of-the-international-commission-of-jurists-and-its-british-section-justice/ |date=1 March 1984 |website=[[International Commission of Jurists]] |access-date=4 May 2019))</ref></blockquote>

One Indian tourist Dharmalingam of [[Thuraiyur]] witnessed a Sinhalese mob in [[Kotahena]] entering a number of houses and butchering the Tamil occupants. He witnessed a one-year-old child being thrown about by the Sinhalese like a ball, before one of them squeezed its neck. The child was then trampled on. The parents of the child were also butchered.<ref>M.S Venkatachalam, 1987, Genocide in Sri Lanka, Delhi:Gian Publishing House, p.28</ref>

==Casualty estimates==
The estimates of casualties vary. According to the Tamil Centre for Human Rights (TCHR), its research showed that 5,638 Tamils were massacred, 2,015 had been injured, 466 had been missing for ever, 670 had been raped, and 250,000 were internally displaced.<ref name="tchr.net">((cite web | url=http://www.tchr.net/50_year_arrest_kill.htm | title=Recorded figures of Arrests, Killings, Disappearances ))</ref> While the government initially stated just 300 Tamils were killed,<ref name="Grant 2008 132">((cite book|last=Grant|first=Patrick|title=Buddhism and Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka|year=2008|publisher=[[State University of New York Press]]|isbn=978-0-7914-9353-3|page=132))</ref> various [[NGO]]s and international agencies estimate that between 400 and 3,000 people, believed to be [[Sri Lankan Tamils]] or [[Hill Country Tamils]], were killed in the riots.<ref name=BBC230703>((cite news|last=Harrison|first=Frances|title=Twenty years on – riots that led to war|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3090111.stm|newspaper=[[BBC News]]|date=23 July 2003|author-link=Frances Harrison))</ref><ref name=BBC230708>((cite news|last=Buerk|first=Roland|title=Sri Lankan families count cost of war|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7521197.stm|newspaper=[[BBC News]]|date=23 July 2008))</ref> Fifty-three political prisoners alone were killed in the [[Welikade prison massacre]].<ref name=DN260704>((cite news|title=We must search for unity in diversity – President|url=http://www.dailynews.lk/2004/07/26/fea01.html|newspaper=[[Daily News (Sri Lanka)]]|date=26 July 2004|access-date=22 July 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050220012054/http://www.dailynews.lk/2004/07/26/fea01.html|archive-date=20 February 2005|url-status=dead))</ref><ref name="Grant 2008 132"/>

More than 18,000 houses and numerous commercial establishments were destroyed, and hundreds of thousands of Tamils fled the country to [[Europe]], [[Australia]] and [[Canada]].<ref name=DN260704/><ref>((Cite news|url=https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2015/07/23/riots-helped-to-define-canadas-tamil-community.html|title=Riots helped to define Canada's Tamil community|last=Nadesan|first=Kumaran|date=23 July 2015|work=Toronto Star))</ref> Many Tamil youths also joined the various Tamil groups, including the Tamil Tigers.((citation needed|date=July 2020))

==Prosecutions and compensation==
A presidential commission appointed during the subsequent [[People's Alliance (Sri Lanka)|People's Alliance]] government estimated that nearly 300 people were killed and 18,000 establishments, including houses, were destroyed. The commission recommended that restitution be paid. Thus far no restitution has been paid nor have any criminal proceedings begun against anyone involved.<ref name=DN260704/>

==Genocide Recognition==
On August 14, 1983 late Indian prime minister [[Indira Gandhi]]  recognised the Black July pogrom as a genocide on Tamils.<ref>((cite web | url=https://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?artid=39138&catid=79 | title=TamilNet ))</ref><ref>((cite web | url=https://www.sangam.org/2010/07/Black_July_Revisited.php | title=Black July of 1983 Revisited ))</ref> However, she was not prepared to intervene or exert pressure on Sri Lanka.

In December 1983, The Review, a publication of the International Commission of Jurists said:<ref>((cite web | url=https://www.sangam.org/2010/07/Black_July_Revisited.php | title=Black July of 1983 Revisited ))</ref>

<blockquote>The evidence points clearly to the conclusion that the violence of the Sinhala rioters on the Tamils amounted to acts of genocide.</blockquote>

==Remembrance==

July has become a time of mourning and remembrance amongst the [[Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora]] around the world, which comes together to commemorate the loss of Tamils.<ref name="Black July '83"/> This has happened in countries such as [[Canada]], [[Switzerland]], [[Norway]], [[Denmark]], [[Germany]], [[France]], [[United Kingdom|Britain]], [[Australia]], and [[New Zealand]].

((Wide image|Black july 2009 panaroma.jpg|1400px|Panorama of the Black July's 26th anniversary remembrance day observed at [[Trafalgar Square]] in [[London]] in 2009))

==See also==
* [[Sexual violence against Tamils in Sri Lanka#1983 anti-Tamil pogrom]]
* [[List of attacks on civilians attributed to Sri Lankan government forces]]

==Notes==
((Notelist))
((Reflist|group=note))

==References==
((reflist|colwidth=30em))

==References==
((refbegin))
* ((cite book|editor1-last=Aspinall|editor1-first=Edward|editor2-last=Jeffrey|editor2-first=Robin|editor3-last=Regan|editor3-first=Anthony|editor2-link=Robin Jeffrey|title=Diminishing Conflict in Asia and the Pacific|year=2013|publisher=[[Routledge]]|isbn=978-1136251139|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aOFjCb7sJugC ))
* ((cite book|last=Dissanayake|first=T. D. S. A.|author-link=T. D. S. A. Dissanayake|title=War or Peace in Sri Lanka|publisher=Popular Prakshan|year=2004|isbn=81-7991-199-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wfkLyH95m9MC ))
* ((cite book|last1=Hoole|first1=Rajan|last2=Somasundaram|first2=Daya|last3=Sritharan|first3=Kopalasingham|last4=Thiranagama|first4=Rajini|author-link1=Rajan Hoole|author-link3=Kopalasingham Sritharan|author-link4=Rajini Thiranagama|title=Broken Palmyra|year=1990|publisher=[[University Teachers for Human Rights]]|url=http://www.uthr.org/BP/Content.htm ))
* ((cite book|last=O'Ballance|first=Edgar|author-link=Edgar O'Ballance|title=The Cyanide War: Tamil Insurrection in Sri Lanka, 1973–88|publisher=Brassey's (UK)|year=1989|location=London|isbn=978-0-08-036695-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H15uAAAAMAAJ ))
* ((cite book|last=Wilson|first=A. Jeyaratnam|author-link=A. Jeyaratnam Wilson|title=The Break up of Sri Lanka: The Sinhalese-Tamil Conflict|publisher=[[University of Hawaii Press]]|year=1989|isbn=0-8248-1211-5 ))
* ((cite book|last=Wilson|first=A. Jeyaratnam|author-link=A. Jeyaratnam Wilson|title=Sri Lankan Tamil Nationalism: Its Origins and Development in the 19th and 20th Centuries|publisher=[[Penguin Books]] India|year=2001|isbn=0-14-302789-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-SJkPwAACAAJ ))
((refend))

==External links==
((Commons category|Black July))
* [https://pearlaction.org/rememberingblackjuly/ Black July: Uncover the truth (1983 anti-Tamil pogrom)]
*[http://www.blackjuly83.com Black July '83 – Extensive survivor stories and documented history about Black July]
* [http://www.groundviews.org/remember Remember, Groundviews] Articles from Government Ministers and civil society on the 25th commemoration of Black July and the 50th commemoration of the anti-Tamil riots of 1958
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040703175814/http://www.priu.gov.lk/news_update/Current_Affairs/ca200307/20030723july_83.htm July still black after twenty years, The official website of the Sri Lankan government]
* [http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/1545 Horror of a pogrom: Remembering "Black July" 1983 by D. B. S. Jeyaraj] ((Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101027085627/http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/1545 |date=27 October 2010 ))

((Sri Lankan Civil War))
((Sri Lankan Civil War graphical timeline))
((Sri Lankan coups))
((Sri Lankan Tamil people))
((Authority control))
((coord missing|Sri Lanka))

[[Category:Black July| ]]
[[Category:1983 in Sri Lanka]]
[[Category:1983 riots]]
[[Category:Massacres in 1983]]
[[Category:July 1983 events in Asia]]
[[Category:1980s massacres of the Sri Lankan Civil War]]
[[Category:History of Sri Lanka (1948–present)]]
[[Category:Pogroms]]
[[Category:Sri Lanka and state terrorism]]
[[Category:Arson in Sri Lanka]]
[[Category:Arson in the 1980s]]
[[Category:Looting in Asia]]
[[Category:1983 fires]]

Pages transcluded onto the current version of this page (help):

Black July (edit)
Template:Abbr (view source) (protected)
Template:Anti-Tamil riots in Sri Lanka (edit)
Template:Authority control (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Blockquote (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Blockquote/styles.css (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:CN (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Catalog lookup link (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Category handler (view source) (protected)
Template:Citation needed (view source) (protected)
Template:Cite book (view source) (protected)
Template:Cite journal (view source) (protected)
Template:Cite news (view source) (protected)
Template:Cite press release (view source) (protected)
Template:Cite report (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Cite web (view source) (protected)
Template:Commons category (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Coord missing (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Coord missing/CheckCat (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Country data India (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Country data Sri Lanka (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:DMCA (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Dated maintenance category (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Dated maintenance category (articles) (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Delink (view source) (protected)
Template:Em (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:End date (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:FULLROOTPAGENAME (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Fix (view source) (protected)
Template:Fix/category (view source) (protected)
Template:Flagcountry (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Flagcountry/core (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Flagicon (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Flagicon/core (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Flagicon image (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Hlist/styles.css (view source) (protected)
Template:Horizontal timeline (view source) (semi-protected)
Template:ISBN (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Icon (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:If (view source) (protected)
Template:Infobox (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Infobox civilian attack (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Lang-si (view source) (semi-protected)
Template:Lang-ta (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Longitem (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:MONTHNAME (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:MONTHNUMBER (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Main (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Main other (view source) (protected)
Template:Navbox (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Nobold (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Nobold/styles.css (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Notelist (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Ns has subpages (view source) (protected)
Template:P2 (view source) (protected)
Template:Pagetype (view source) (protected)
Template:Plainlist/styles.css (view source) (protected)
Template:Refbegin (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Refbegin/styles.css (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Refend (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Reflist (view source) (protected)
Template:Reflist/styles.css (view source) (protected)
Template:Refn (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Replace (view source) (protected)
Template:Resolve category redirect (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:SDcat (view source) (protected)
Template:See also (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Sfn (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Short description (view source) (protected)
Template:Short description/lowercasecheck (view source) (protected)
Template:Side box (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Sidebar (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Simple Horizontal timeline (view source) (semi-protected)
Template:Sister project (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Small (view source) (protected)
Template:Smaller (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Sri Lankan Civil War (view source) (semi-protected)
Template:Sri Lankan Civil War graphical timeline (edit)
Template:Sri Lankan Tamil people (edit)
Template:Sri Lankan coups (edit)
Template:Start date (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Template other (view source) (protected)
Template:Use dmy dates (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Webarchive (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Wide image (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Wikidata (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Yesno (view source) (protected)
Template:Yesno-no (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:Yesno-yes (view source) (template editor protected)
Template:\ (view source) (template editor protected)
Category:Sri Lanka articles missing geocoordinate data (edit)
Module:Arguments (view source) (protected)
Module:Authority control (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Authority control/config (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Catalog lookup link (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Category handler (view source) (protected)
Module:Category handler/blacklist (view source) (protected)
Module:Category handler/config (view source) (protected)
Module:Category handler/data (view source) (protected)
Module:Category handler/shared (view source) (protected)
Module:Check for unknown parameters (view source) (protected)
Module:Check isxn (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Citation/CS1 (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1/COinS (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1/Date validation (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1/Identifiers (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1/Utilities (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1/Whitelist (view source) (protected)
Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css (view source) (protected)
Module:Delink (view source) (protected)
Module:Disambiguation/templates (view source) (protected)
Module:Exponential search (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Footnotes (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Footnotes/anchor id list (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Footnotes/anchor id list/data (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Footnotes/whitelist (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Format link (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Hatnote (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Hatnote/styles.css (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Hatnote list (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Horizontal timeline (view source) (semi-protected)
Module:Icon (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Icon/data (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Infobox (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Infobox/styles.css (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:InfoboxImage (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Labelled list hatnote (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Lang (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Lang/ISO 639 synonyms (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Lang/data (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Language/data/iana languages (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Language/data/iana regions (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Language/data/iana scripts (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Language/data/iana suppressed scripts (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Language/data/iana variants (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Namespace detect/config (view source) (protected)
Module:Namespace detect/data (view source) (protected)
Module:Navbar (view source) (protected)
Module:Navbar/configuration (view source) (protected)
Module:Navbar/styles.css (view source) (protected)
Module:Navbox (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Navbox/configuration (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Navbox/styles.css (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Ns has subpages (view source) (protected)
Module:Pagetype (view source) (protected)
Module:Pagetype/config (view source) (protected)
Module:Pagetype/disambiguation (view source) (protected)
Module:Pagetype/setindex (view source) (protected)
Module:Pagetype/softredirect (view source) (protected)
Module:Resolve category redirect (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:SDcat (view source) (protected)
Module:Side box (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Side box/styles.css (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Sidebar (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Sidebar/configuration (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Sidebar/styles.css (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:String (view source) (protected)
Module:TableTools (view source) (protected)
Module:Unicode data (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Unicode data/scripts (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Unsubst (view source) (protected)
Module:Wd (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Wd/i18n (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Webarchive (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Webarchive/data (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Wide image (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:WikidataIB (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:WikidataIB/nolinks (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:WikidataIB/titleformats (view source) (template editor protected)
Module:Wikitext Parsing (view source) (protected)
Module:Yesno (view source) (protected)

Return to Black July.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_July"