Black July- The heroic actions of women at the time

Immigration solicitor Mr. V.P Lingajothy shares stories of how female final year medical students stepped up to help rape victims during Black July, a period of mass rioting in 1983.

When the LTTE bombed an army truck, riots broke out across the country which left Tamils in Colombo in a particularly vulnerable position.

‘The smell of flesh and petrol filled the air because people were being burned alive, I couldn’t handle it.’

Unaware of the situation, he went into college and was met with stunned Sinhala students who asked him why he came in.

"I didn’t know what was happening because I walked to college along a quiet road where the International Embassies were. I got to the top floor of college and looked out of the window, Colombo looked like a war zone."

Luckily, racism was rare among students, his female friends rounded up a group of Sinhala men who tried to sneak him and a few other Tamils out in a truck, they were stopped by thugs who were burning Tamil people alive.

Pretending to be on the side of the thugs, his friends responded by shouting ‘Victory!’ in Sinhala.

When the students couldn’t give them petrol, they were turned away and had to drive back to college, the attempt to sneak Lingajothy away had failed, but with the help of a few contacts, his friends obtained a pass from a General Agent to drive during curfew hours.

"With navy cars in front and police cars behind, my Sinhala friends drove five or six of us Tamils in two cars and brought us to a Hindu College to hide out, it was the most terrifying time of my life."

For months law students and medical students had created a make-shift refugee camp within the College for people to hide out.

Students put structures in place so people could hide out, talk to students about their fears and receive medical supplies.

"My friends brought me food, clothes, medicine and they even managed to sneak me out so I could shower" he said.

He stayed in the camp for fourteen days and left after the fighting had died down to his home in the North, but his experiences in that make-shift camp changed his life.

During that time he developed a skin disease, couldn’t wash and often went hungry but was moved by the actions of his female fellow students who made up more than half of the volunteers.

"The heroes of that time were the women, especially because of the way they helped rape victims who came to the make-shift camp" he said.

Rape victims were delirious after their experiences according to Lingajothy but some of them confided in the women helping out in the Hindu College hide-out.

According to him, some of the female students would appear and start crying suddenly because of the emotional stories they had heard and that’s when everyone would know someone was raped.

‘The saddest thing about the whole situation was the number of rape cases we heard about, we didn’t know how to handle it but the female students somehow got victims to open up to them, the men were helpless.’

Lingajothy said after rumours spread of a possible LTTE attack greater numbers of rape cases and murders took place.

‘I’m hypersensitive and I can’t handle rape and murder, I’ve read about these things in the past but I’d never thought I’d have to witness any of it, I left for England a few months later.’ he said.

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