Motorists
were dragged from their cars to be stoned and beaten with sticks during
racial violence in Colombo, the Sri Lanka capital yesterday (24 July).
Others were cut down with knifes and axes. Mobs of Sinhala youth
rampaged through the streets, ransacking homes, shops and offices,
looting them and setting them ablaze, as they sought out members of the
Tamil ethnic minority... A Sri Lankan friend
told me by telephone last night how he had watched horrified earlier in
the day as a mob attacked a Tamil cyclist riding near Colombo's eye
hospital, a few hundred yards from the home of Junius Jayawardene, the
nations 76 year old President. The cyclist was hauled from his bike,
drenched with petrol and set alight. As he ran screaming down the
street, the mob set on him again and hacked him down with jungle
knifes.." (London Daily Telegraph, 26 July 1983)
