Elorukkum vanakkam. Good afternoon everyone. My name is Gary Anandasangaree, member of parliament for Scarborough, Rouge Park in Canada. I’m very pleased to join you for this 10th year Commemmoration of the genocide in Mullivaikkal taking place at Trafalgar Square organised by the British Tamils Forum.
For the past 10 years, the tamil community around the world has been engaged in a struggle for obtaining accountability and justice for those who died at Mullivaikkal. We know that first and foremost, the people who survived Mullivaikkal and those who did not, deserve justice. They need answers, they need truth. And I want to honour them, I want to honour their memory, and to make sure that we never forget what they went through. As a collective diaspora we have been working very hard with the international community to advance the issues of accountability. We know that accountability is an essential tool for any form of peace or reconcilliation to take place. Thats why Canada along with Great Britain and other countries have been instrumental in advancing resolutions at the United Nations Human Rights Council.
This past March Canada was part of the core group aoong with Great Britain in advancing 40/1 of the Human Rights Council Resolution. Going forward, we still have a great deal of work to do. We know that justice has evaded Srilanka, and those perpetrators of these injustices and violations of international law, including War Crimes, Crimes against Humanity, and Genocide are still on the loose. On this solemn day, we need to commit collectively to ensure that we will fgight for justice as we go forward. I want to thank the parliamentiarins in the United Kingdom, as well as all of those who have been working very hard including the British Tamils Forum who have been working very hard, who I have had the pleasure of working with for the last 10 years to advance this issue.
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