MEDIA IMMEDIACY: ASIA ONLINE

tamilnation.org www.tamilnation.org
One of a number of sites that attempt to preserve a culture and language on the Web.

"...a large group of police (estimated variously from 100-200) went on rampage on the nights of May 31-June 1 (1981) and June 1-2 burning the market area of Jaffna, the office of the Tamil Newspaper, the home of the member of Parliament for Jaffna and the Jaffna Public Library... The destruction of the Jaffna Public Library was the incident which appeared to cause the most distress to the people of Jaffna. The ICJ observer heard many comments from both Sinhalese and Tamils concerning the senseless destruction by arson of this most important cultural centre in the Tamil area.

    The Movement for Inter-racial Justice and Equality sent a delegation to Jaffna to investigate the June occurrences. The delegation’s report, in referring to the arson of the Public Library, stated, ‘If the Delegation were asked which act of destruction had the greatest impact on the people of Jaffna, the answer would be the savage attack on this monument to the learning and culture and the desire for learning and culture of the people of Jaffna... There is no doubt that the destruction of the Library will leave bitter memories behind for many years.’...  The 95,000 volumes of the Public Library destroyed by the fire included numerous culturally important and irreplaceable manuscripts...

Local Asia Online:
 Bangladesh |  Burma  |  Cambodia  |  China  |  India  |  Indonesia  |  Japan  |  Korea
Laos  |  Malaysia  |  Mongolia  | Nepal  |  Pakistan   |  Singapore  |  Sri Lanka  |  Taiwan
Thailand  |  The Philippines  |  Tibet  |  Timor  |  Vietnam