SriLanka, May 24 -- The burning of the Jaffna Public Library in 1981 by United National Party (UNP) affiliated mobs pushed the country deeper into ethnic conflict. The Tamil community saw this as an attack on their dignity and belonging.

The burning of the library and Black July of 1983 convinced many young Tamils that parliamentary politics could not protect them. Four decades later, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake was in Batticaloa to open a library that had once stalled, alongside a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP and a bitter critic of the administration.

The library opening took place a few days after Sri Lanka marked the 17th anniversary of the end of the war. Sri Lanka had just passed another week of divided remembrance. Sev...