Whilst Sri Lanka celebrate 76th year of Independence Day, Tamils mourn their loved ones killed by the Sri Lankan State.
For 76 years Tamils in Sri Lanka have endured oppression and discrimination by the Sri Lankan State with its genocidal agenda. In 2008, the British Tamils Forum held an Exhibition in the UK Houses of Parliament highlighting genocide of Tamils.
The British left Sri Lanka in 1948 having made a grave error in handing over power in the hands of Sinhala majority. Sri Lanka had been ruled by unscrupulous, racist and corrupt politicians since 1948. They have passed racist legislations like ‘the Sinhala Only Act’, organised pogroms against Tamils, killing and destroying their businesses and livelihood, burning libraries with irreplaceable Tamil books with historic significance, killed thousands of innocent civilians including children in the pretext of fighting terrorism and introduced shameful discriminatory standardisation in education.
When Tamils protested for the injustices suffered by them, unfortunately the Sinhala majority stayed silent and supported their leaders to continue various forms of oppression against Tamils. Then albeit late in the day, they realised their unscrupulous leaders were robbing from the public purse. Such despicable act brought down Sri Lanka to its knees destroying the economy and made Sri Lanka bankrupt with mounting debt and no foreign exchange reserves. As Sri Lanka could not service the huge debts built up by unscrupulous leaders for their own benefits, current Sri Lankan leaders started visiting countries with their begging bowls and brought shame on the country. This is what Sri Lanka has achieved in the 76 years of independence. Is it time for celebration or commiseration?
The current President, Mr Ranil Wickremasinghe in 2015 co-sponsored the UN Human Rights Council resolution to create a hybrid mechanism with foreign and commonwealth, investigators, prosecutors and judges to investigate atrocity crimes committed in Sri Lanka, a ploy to deceive the international community to grab the international process and drive the justice process to be a failure. Now having become the President through the back door, he has been on international media saying that he will not allow international investigators into the country. Mr Wickremasinghe who is determined to protect war criminals refuses to publish the names of people including children who were taken into detention by the Sri Lankan army in 2009.
Tamils requested Princess Royal, who visited Sri Lanka recently to ask the President for the list of children in the custody of the Sri Lanka army, in her capacity as the patron of Save the Children.
International community that has been ineffective for the last 15 years should use all available leverages to reformulate the state to ensure non recurrence of violence in Sri Lanka that has a history of cycle of violence.
Britain in particular as the pen holder of UN Human Rights Resolution should not invest in Sri Lanka and encourage trade. That would give a wrong signal to the world leaders. UK, the US and countries supporting democracy and upholding human rights should continue to take the lead in United Nations to find justice for the victims in Sri Lanka.
The international community collectively must refer Sri Lanka to International Criminal Justice Mechanism. Finding a permanent solution satisfying legitimate aspirations of the Tamils will lead to prosperity and peaceful co-existence.
Genocide against Tamils continues while Sri Lanka celebrates 76th year of independence
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