Red Alert: Is a Black July being threatened through the state media?

Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka  
A spectre is haunting Sri Lanka: the spectre of Cyril Mathew. Are the Tamils of the Western Province regarded as potential hostages in the event of a TNA victory in the Northern Provincial Council and a legitimate assertion of Constitutional rights by that Council? Is a veiled threat being issued through the state media that Tamils in the Western Province will be targeted if the TNA and the Northern Provincial Council do not behave with due obsequiousness?

Day of mourning for all those who have suffered: the most suitable day for this would be (Black) July 23rd

 Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha M.P.
Perhaps the clearest test of a pluralistic outlook amongst Sri Lankans, to say nothing of basic decency too, is their response to the events of July 1983. Anyone fit to pass the test sees it as an aberration in Sri Lankan history, an outrage in which defenceless Tamils were systematically persecuted.
Those who offer excuses or play down the event seem to me morally repugnant. That is why, despite his comparative efficiency and honesty, I think Ranil Wickremesinghe would not be a suitable leader for Sri Lanka. His comments soon after the riots, when he played down their impact, and claimed that far worse things had happened to the Sinhalese because of the Bandaranaike policy of nationalization of businesses, were disgusting.