Canadian Tamil Congress strongly condemns Sri Lankan authorities for destroying Tamils Remembrance monuments

Calling on the Canadian government to express its strong condemnation of Sri Lanka’s despicable actions

 Toronto, January 9, 2021 – The Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC) strongly condemns the Sri Lankan government for destroying Tamil’s remembrance monuments at Jaffna University. This is a blatant attack on the Tamil community’s right to memorialize their dead.

 The Mullivaikkal memorial pays tribute to the tens of thousands of Tamils massacred by the Sri Lankan armed forces during the last stages of the war (in 2009). Tamil people have suffered enormously during the war, with more than a million people leaving the country and more than two hundred thousand losing their lives out of a population of four million. Not a single Tamil family has escaped the loss of a loved one and memorialisation and remembrance are fundamental aspects of grieving and reconciliation for them.

Rajapaksa government after winning the war in 2009 bulldozed all memorials in the North-East of Sri Lanka commemorating Tamil victims and built in their place monuments celebrating war victory by the Sri Lankan armed forces. The present Rajapaksa government is following in the same path – took every possible step to prevent remembrance events and now started destroying even one or two remaining remembrance monuments.

Desecrating memorial monuments erected to remember people who have died is simply barbaric and has no place in the modern, civilized world. It is important that the latest developments should be called for what they are and condemned by all right-thinking citizens of Sri Lanka and the international community.

Sri Lankan government has chosen to marginalize its minority communities, even by playing politics with their dead – by forcing Muslims and Christians to cremate their dead if suspected to have been infected with the coronavirus and by denying Tamils’ their fundamental right to memorialization. Such blatant disregard for minority rights and sentiments undoubtedly will sow the seeds of hatred among communities and could even trigger future conflicts.

CTC urges the Canadian government and the international community to send a strong message to the Sri Lankan government calling it to end these actions immediately and to desist from taking further initiatives disregarding basic rights and aspirations of the minority communities.

For media inquiries, contact Canadian Tamil Congress: (416) 240-0078.