“The matters presented here in ‘Black July 1983: the Charge is Genocide’ constitute, at the lowest, prima facie evidence, sufficient to warrant an indictment for genocide against the Sri Lanka authorities for the crimes committed against the Tamil people in June, July and August 1983.
Paul Sieghart Q.C. in his Report of a Mission to Sri Lanka on behalf of the International Commission of Jurists and its British Section, Justice, March 1984, concluded: “Clearly this was not a spontaneous upsurge of communal hatred among the Sinhala people.. It was a series of deliberate acts, executed in accordance with a concerted plan, conceived and organised well in advance. But who were the planners?… Communal riots in which Tamils are killed, maimed, robbed and rendered homeless are no longer isolated episodes; they are beginning to become a pernicious habit.” [see 1956, 1958, 1961, 1974 and 1977]
The International Commission of Jurists Review declared in December 1983 – “Under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, acts of murder committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group as such are considered as acts of genocide. The evidence points clearly to the conclusion that the violence of the Sinhala rioters on the Tamils (in June/July/August 1983) amounted to acts of genocide.”
