In May 2023, the ICPPG and TGM launched an international campaign to urge the British Government to recognise Sri Lanka’s Genocide against Tamils.

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, May 11, 2023/EINPresswire.com/ -- In May 2023, the International Centre for Prevention and Prosecution of Genocide (ICPPG) and Tamil Genocide Memorial (TGM) launched an international campaign to urge the British Government to recognise Sri Lanka’s Genocide against Tamils. The Federation of Global Tamil Organization (FGTO) and Ottawa Tamil Association (OTA) joined the campaign, and several other organisations are expected to join. The initial copy of the petition with over 750 signatures is sent to the Prime Minister and the signature campaign is to be continued.

Mrs Ambihai K Selvakumar, director of ICPPG said “Signing this petition in huge numbers will not only pressure the UK Government to recognise the Genocide of indigenous Tamils by successive governments of Sri Lanka but also would minimise the ongoing Genocide.”

“The recognition of genocide committed against the Tamil people is an important step in the right direction. While thanking the Canadian parliament, we request all countries especially the United Kingdom to follow Canada’s position and help achieve justice for the victims of the Tamil Genocide. This petition provides a way to support it by individuals” said Tamil Genocide Memorial.

BELOW, PLEASE FIND THE EXTRACT OF THE PETITION:

The Sri Lankan government has officially denied and withdrawn from the United Nations-mandated hybrid court (international tribunal) to investigate war crimes committed by its forces. A case-in-point is that last February, the US State Department imposed a travel ban on Sri Lanka’s military chief Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva, over war crimes and extrajudicial killings at the last phase of the war. Canada imposed a travel ban on two former presidents of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapakse and Gottapaya Rajapakse. (https://tinyurl.com/globalAffairs)

In 2022, the Canadian parliament recognized Tamil Genocide and Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day on May 18 in a unanimous motion. (https://tinyurl.com/tamilgenocidemotion)

If a tribunal is required to officially recognise, please set it up either internally or jointly with other countries.

Further, it highlighted some actions the other jurisdictions or international organisations have taken:

1. On March 27, 2013, in India, the Tamil Nadu Assembly unanimously adopted the resolution urging the Centre to slap an economic embargo on Colombo till the “suppression” of Tamils was stopped and those responsible for “genocide and war crimes” faced an international probe. (https://sangam.org/tamil-nadu-assembly-passes-resolution-sri-lanka/)

2. On December 10, 2013, in Bremen, Germany, the Second Session of the Peoples’ Tribunal on Sri Lanka concluded with the presentation of its verdict. The panel of eleven judges unanimously found Sri Lanka guilty of the crime of genocide against the Eelam Tamil people, and that this crime continues today.

3. On February 10, 2015, the Northern Provincial Council passed the Tamil Genocide resolution seeking a UN inquiry to investigate the genocide of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka by successive Sri Lankan Governments (https://tinyurl.com/npcgenocide)

4. On May 7, 2018, in Ottawa, Canada, after two days 2nd International Tamil Conference on Tamil Nationhood and Genocide in Sri Lanka passed a resolution endorsed by 21 world Tamil organizations and student unions. Passed a resolution reads “Only an independent international investigation into the charge of genocide can be acceptable”.

5. On May 12, 2021, Tamil Genocide education week Bill-104 became law in Ontario. (https://tinyurl.com/tamilgew)

6. On May 18, 2022, the Canadian parliament unanimously passed a motion to recognize May 18th as Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day. (https://tinyurl.com/canparmotion)

7. On Nov 9, 2022, in the UK House debate, MPs called on the Government to take the vital step of finally recognising the crimes committed against the Tamil population as Genocide. Only once that has been achieved will the UK be truly honouring our human rights commitments. (https://tinyurl.com/ukdebate)

The Tamil genocide commenced immediately after the country's independence from the British when the Sinhala chauvinist polity began subduing its Tamil nation with its political power. As a result, the Sri Lankan government, led by the Sinhala Buddhist majority, attempted to alienate the Tamil population, physically, politically, and economically. They implemented a series of anti-Tamil legislation, hoping to deteriorate the influence of Tamils on the island. They condoned and orchestrated anti-Tamil pogroms and violently suppressed peaceful Tamil demonstrations between 1948-1983. The demand for equality was neglected by the state and opposed through genocidal means.

The burning of the Jaffna library, one of the biggest and finest in Asia, on the night of May 31st, 1981 is an act of cultural genocide of Eelam Tamils. In July 1983, also called Black July, a pogrom was well organised and government MPs were inciting the attacks and providing the Sinhalese mobs with voter lists in order to identify houses and shops owned by Tamils. Sri Lankan president JR Jayawardene's statement in 1983 stated that "if I starve the Tamils out, the Sinhala people will be happy." reported by the British press.

During the war, the Sri Lankan Army pioneered the use of rape, torture, kidnappings, indiscriminate firing, shelling, and bombings against innocent Tamil men, women, and children, resulting in the deaths of thousands of innocent Tamil civilians. The United Nations estimated at least 40,000 of them were killed between March 28th - May 18th, 2009, when the Sri Lankan army forced 300,000+ Tamils to take refuge in internationally recognized “NO FIRE ZONES” and then proceeded to shell them with artillery and other heavy weaponry. Many Tamils believe over 70,000 Tamils were unaccounted for.

Governments of the United Kingdom have rightly recognised the genocides such as the Holocaust (1933–1945), the Rwandan Genocide (1994), and the Bosnian Genocide (1995). The latest in the list is the Uyghurs Genocide which was recognised by the United Kingdom in 2021.

It is upsetting that the British did not take the moral high ground to recognise the Tamil Genocide or put together steps to set in motion the required process to recognise it despite the fact that the United Kingdom is the home to the majority of the Tamils outside Sri Lanka.

We undersigned humbly request, Hon. Rishi Sunak and members of parliament officially recognise the genocidal acts committed against them by the Sri Lankan government as Genocide at the earliest possible.

https://www.change.org/p/united-kingdom-to-officially-recognize-sri-lanka-s-genocide-against-tamils

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Professor Francis Boyle on Sri Lanka's genocide against the Eelam Tamils