This Saturday morning (18th), a Mullivaikal commemoration event took place in Batticaloa-Gandhipunga. The event was jointly organized by the Tamil communities of the North and East.
The commemoration was attended by survivors of the Mullivaikal War and other massacres in the North and East. Participants carried white flags and raised slogans around Gandhi Park. Civil activists, journalists, human rights activists, and clergy were also present.
Tributes were paid to those who lost their lives in the Mullivaikal War and to relatives killed in the northern and eastern regions. A main bonfire was lit, and floral garlands were laid in their memory.
A significant number of people from the Trincomalee, Batticaloa, and Amparai districts attended the event.
Notably, M. Issadeen, the Batticaloa Regional Coordinator of the Human Rights Commission, was present and was handed a letter during the commemoration.
Statement on the Tamil Genocide Memorialization Day MAY 18th
On this day of May 18th of 2024, We the war affected marginalized people of North East Sri-Lanka, grassroot civil societies and human rights activists have come together to observe our loved ones who were killed in the war. As a minority ethnic community of this island, we Tamils of North and East suffered by the ruthless war waged against us by the state for three decades.
In 2009, the last stages of the war civilians including infants, pregnant women and elderly people were killed by continuous shelling and areal bombings. Civilian locations were targeted. Sri-Lankan state used chemical bombs and heavy weapons against civilians who were caught inside the “no fire zone” in Mullaitivu district. According to sources more than 40,000 civilians were killed in the last stages of the war. Several thousands were injured, lost their limbs, distorted and several of them are still living with shrapnel and bullets in their bodies.
As food and medical supplies were obstructed, starvation and hunger prevailed. People were served rice kanji (porridge) without salt. When children had gone to collect kanji, they were caught in to shelling. When women, pregnant women, children, and elders stood in line to collect food stuff they were bombarded. People left the corpses of their loved ones to save their lives.
End of the war thousands of men and women were detained by the state military. Families handed over their children to the military trusting that they will be sent back. But several of them who were surrendered or arrested by the military yet not returned and no message whereabouts them. Tamil community is still suffering with collective trauma.
The collective sufferings and the mass murder of more than 40,000 Tamils during the last stages of the war has still not recognized as genocide by the international community or by the successive Sri-Lankan governments. Therefore, we call upon the international community and the Sri-Lankan government to recognize Tamil Genocide.
Further we recommend for:
- A dignified political solution for North and East Tamils.
- Truth and justice for enforced disappeared .
- Accountability for war crimes .
- Immediately release all political prisoners and persons who are detained under PTA.
- End militarization in North and East.
- Immediately stop all types of land encroachments.
- Immediately stop encroaching minority religious and cultural sites and etc.
- Repeal PTA and OSA
Civil Societies, Community Based Organizations, Representatives from Women’s Society and Fishing Organization, Human Rights Activist and Human Rights Defendors,
North East In Sri Lanka,
May 18, 2024 .