Sri Lanka, July 23 -- Sri Lanka on Wednesday (23) marked the 42nd anniversary of Black July, one of its darkest weeks in its post-independence history. What began as a reaction to the killing of 13 soldiers by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Jaffna in 1983 quickly spiralled into an orgy of anti-Tamil violence across Colombo and beyond. For days, mobs roamed the streets while law enforcement and the government stood by, paralyzed or complicit. The death toll remains disputed -some say hundreds, others say thousands. What is certain is that tens of thousands of Tamil citizens lost their homes, livelihoods, and sense of belonging in their own country.

Forty-two years later, the legacy of Black July still casts a long shadow. ...