Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Black July" in English language version.
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.
An explosive and as yet unproven allegation was the rape in mid-July of Tamil female students, two of whom subsequently committed suicide.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
