Tomorrow, July 23, will mark the 42nd anniversary of the anti-Tamil rioting in Colombo and throughout the country that led to the deaths of hundreds and the displacement of tens of thousands of Tamil citizens. The trigger for the anti-Tamil rioting that commenced in Colombo on July 23, 1983, was an LTTE ambush of an army patrol in Jaffna, in which 13 soldiers were killed. The truth about the week that followed in July is still difficult to uncover. Among the unresolved issues is the question of how many died during that week in mob violence when law and order broke down and the government appeared paralysed. Much violence was prevented due to protection given to their Tamil neighbors by Sinhalese and Muslim families. The question of responsibility and accountability for the crimes that were committed in July 1983, and not prevented even when they could have been prevented, echoes today’s concerns about the Easter Sunday bombings of 2019 and the Chemmani mass graves dating back to the late 1990s.