Dr Siva Vasanthan
Auckland, May 13, 2019
May 18, 2019 would mark the 10th Anniversary of the Genocide of Tamil minority in Sri Lanka at a scale unprecedented in the modern history of the world.
The Sri Lankan government, in the name of fighting terrorism, killed over 80,000 innocent civilians in Mullivaikkal, a coastal town of North-East of Sri Lanka in May 2009.
The United Nations and the International Community called it, “A blood bath on the beach” and “A War without witness.”
Assault on humanity
Yet, none of the Global institutions or Governments intervened to stop this assault on humanity.
The Sri Lankan government indiscriminately used heavy weapons, cluster bombs and chemical weapons on civilians as well as the Tamil Tigers.
Widespread use of unconventional war tactics such as embargo on food and medicine, shelling of schools and hospitals, killing of prisoners of war and widespread use of torture and rape all amounted to war crimes by the government forces and high ranking officers.
Once the Tamil Tigers were defeated, the remaining 280,000 civilians in the final battle zone were imprisoned into several internment camps similar to World War II holocaust camps. Systematic torture and rape continued in these camps which were under the control of Sri Lankan military. Many thousands disappeared without a trace from these camps.
No progress on probe
In 2015, United Nations, under its UNHRC started a process called ‘Accountability’ to investigate possible war crimes of the Sri Lankan government.
After four years, Sri Lankan government has not still made any significant progress on this accountability issue and buying more time.
With the ongoing militarisation and state sponsored land grab and Colonisation of the occupied Tamil homeland in the North & East of Sri Lanka, Tamils both in Sri Lanka and overseas have taken up the peaceful political struggle for our ‘Right to self determination’ and lobbying the UN and the International Community.
A vigil has been organised on the 18th May 2019, from 12.00 to 4.00 pm at the Aotea Square, Auckland to commemorate the 10th Anniversary of the ‘Tamil Genocide Day.’
Dr Siva Vasanthan is the Coordinator of the Federation of Tamil Associations of New Zealand (FTANZ). He lives in Auckland.
