Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day (May 18, 2024) Commemoration in Ottawa and Cary

Tamil Organizations plans to commemorate Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day in Ottawa and Cary on Saturday, May 18, 2024

OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, May 11, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Tamil Genocide Memorial (TGM) released a statement: Tamil Organizations in Ottawa plan to commemorate Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day at Walter Baker Sports Center on Saturday, May 18, 2024, at 7 PM. Tamil Organizations in North Carolina plan to hold the Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day event at Herbert C. Young Community Center, Cary, NC at 5 PM on May 18, 2024.
In 2022, the Canadian Parliament recognized the Genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka and established May 18th of each year as Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day. On May 18, 2023, the Prime Minister of Canada declared the first Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day and all party leaders and parliamentarians statement also stated it. Tamils in Tamil Eelam, Tamil Nadu and worldwide commemorate this solemn event and continue to demand to bring the government of Sri Lanka to global court for its crimes of genocide against Tamils.

A ceremony of holding a lamp, as a symbol of Tamil resilience, will take place. Mullivaikkal Kanji will be provided as it marks a moment in the history of Tamil people who were forced to rise up and fight for justice and for a life of dignity. During the months days of the war in 2009, the Sri Lankan state weaponized food, water, aid, and access to medicines by denying the supply of these goods into the No-Fire-Zones. Kanji, a mixture of rice, salt, and water, was the only meal available to these Tamils, and only if they could find the latter, amidst the Sri Lankan army’s drone-based attacks on queues for Kanji.

On Feb 14, 2020, The United States has blacklisted Sri Lanka‘s army chief, Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva, over accusations of human rights violations including extrajudicial killings during the country’s civil war. He is no longer allowed to enter the US.

On January 10, 2023, Canada imposed sanctions on former Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Mahinda Rajapaksa was President, and his brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa was the defense minister, during the final onslaught of Sri Lanka’s war on Tamils in 2009. The sanction on the former presidents of Sri Lanka is another step forward. Tamil Diaspora urges the G7 and other nations to take actions similar to Canada.

On February 20, 2017, women-led families of disappeared Tamils, abducted and/or extrajudicially killed by the Sri Lankan military and state sponsored paramilitires, began protesting by the roadside in Kilinochchi to demand answers regarding the fates and locations of their loved ones. Most of their children and family members were handed over to the Sri Lankan military at the end of the war in 2009, and they still do not know the whereabouts of their family members.

The “Tamil Genocide Education Week Act,” passed by the government of Ontario, proclaims the seven-day period in each year ending on May 18 as Tamil Genocide Education Week. This acknowledgment not only seeks to honor the lives that were lost with the Tamil Genocide but also gives a sense of hope to those who have suffered life-long intergenerational trauma and represents the first step to healing and reconciliation. By recognizing the Tamil Genocide, we affirm our collective desire to maintain awareness of this genocide and other genocides to prevent such crimes from happening again.

In 2012, a United Nations panel report of the Secretary-General's Internal Review Panel on United Nations Action in Sri Lanka (https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/737299) reported war crimes and the failure of the UN in genocide investigation. The Tamil Diaspora has been calling for a Nuremberg-like Tribunal to prosecute the leadership of the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) accountable for the crime of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity and also requesting Canada to help bring the Sri Lankan state to the International Court of Justice (ICJ ) for Sri Lanka’s genocide against Tamils.

In February 2015, the Northern Provincial Council in Sri Lanka passed a resolution that demanded a UN inquiry to investigate the genocide of the Tamil people by successive Sri Lankan governments.

In May 2018, the Second International Conference on Tamil Nationhood and Genocide in Sri Lanka was hosted in Ottawa by Canadian Tamil organizations. A resolution released at the end of the conference resolved that only an independent international investigation into the charge of genocide can be acceptable.

While the international community continues to delay and deny justice for the mass atrocities and acts of genocide committed by the Sri Lankan state, it continues to silence and suppress Tamil diaspora voices through criminal counter-terrorism led by extending the listing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as a terrorist organization. This continuous listing, which has persisted for over a decade since the end of the war in 2009, undermines and infringes upon the fundamental civil liberties of Tamils in the diaspora communities. Delisting the LTTE as a terrorist organization is key to protecting Tamil civil liberties, including the right to advocate for Eelam Tamils' right to self-determination under international law.

Tamils urge the United States and the international community to advocate for and protect the political rights of the Eelam Tamil nation and work toward a permanent political solution based on their right to self-determination that is democratically and peacefully approved by them through a universally accepted process of independence referendum.

Sri Lanka’s occupation of the Tamil homeland has led to the continuation of human rights violations against Tamil civilians. Sri Lankan armed forces’ intimidation and surveillance of Tamil journalists and activists are rampant. Cemeteries of Tamil war heroes have been destroyed, and commemoration events are impeded. The Sri Lankan government simultaneously builds Buddhist stupas in the Tamil homeland as part of its cultural genocide of the Tamil nation.

We urge the international community to follow the right actions by Canada to work towards a broader recognition of the Tamil Genocide and play an active role in supporting investigations to bring the Sri Lankan state and its officials to the ICJ to dispense justice to the Eelam Tamil community.

Tamil Genocide Memorial (TGM)
a registered non-profit organization in Canada www.tamilgenocide.com

FGTO
Federation of Global Tamil Organizations
+1 647-875-7354
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Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day event on May 7, 2024 at the Parliament, Ottawa