Ethnic Conflict and Violence in Sri Lanka: Report of a Mission to Sri Lanka in July–August 1981 on behalf of the International Commission of Jurists

Professor Leary's fact-finding mission report, commissioned by the ICJ and conducted in July–August 1981 (weeks after the burning), is the most authoritative near-contemporaneous institutional record. It documents communal violence against Tamils including the destruction of the Jaffna Public Library, police inaction and complicity, and the failure of the Jayewardene government to investigate. Leary writes directly that "the destruction of the Jaffna Public Library was the incident which appeared to cause the most distress to the people of Jaffna." The 1983 second edition adds an ICJ staff supplement covering the 1981–1983 period. Essential primary source for all political-accountability claims.