THE ONLY REMEDY FOR MULLIVAIKAL GENOCIDE IS AN INDEPENDENT TAMIL STATE - RUDRAKUMARAN

• Only Reparations in the form of a sovereign and independent state can ensure a safe and secure living without subjecting the Tamil people to genocide.

COLOMBO, SRI LANKA, May 20, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ --

On May 18th, 2025 Mr. Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran issued the TGTE’s annual National Mouring Day Message, marking the culmination of the Mullivaikal Genocide in 2009.

Rudrakumaran opened by saying,

“May 18th is the day for the Tamil people to join together and recall the painful memories that left an indelible scar upon the Tamil People across the world”[…]”in order to ensure ‘Never Again.’

Below is a summary of key points from his speech.

• Like the previous Sri Lankan governments, the present JVP/NPP rulers who claim to be free of racism are also asserting that there was no genocide. The hands of the present rulers of Sri Lanka were in fact there in the carried-out genocide.

• The painful history of the Mullivaikal atrocities must be preserved—it should not be denied, erased, nor hidden. Memorial lectures and monuments on the Mullivaikal Genocide are essential to prevent future genocide. Of note is the recent unveiling of the Tamil Genocide Memorial monument in Brampton, Ontiario, with efforts led by Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown, the National Council of Canadian Tamils, and the Brampton Tamil Association.

• The UN Special Rapporteur Francisca Albanese's report on the human rights situation in Gaza highlights acts of genocide, echoing the atrocities faced by the Tamil people.​The acts cited by Albanese which demonstrate that Gazans are victims of genocide are the same as those committed by the Sri Lankan state against the Eelam Tamils during the armed conflict.

• On April 29, 2011, the TGTE sent a letter to the UN Sec. General stating that even though the 2011 UN Expert Panel Report on Sri Lanka did not use the label “genocide” in the report, it included the elements of genocide and calls for an international investigation.

• The Government of Sri Lanka sought to cover the genocide like the “justification” employed by the Ottoman Empire/Serbia with respect to the Armenian genocide and the genocide in Kosovo. by claiming that its military campaign was against “terrorism”.

• International powers were well-aware of the magnitude of the massacre of the public by the state of Sri Lanka, but in order to prevent the emergence of a new power center in the Indian Ocean they turned a blind eye. Gareth Evans called for the employment of R2P in 2005.

• It is now 16 years since the Mullivaikal Genocide, yet not a single person has thus far been arrested with respect to the genocide. The crime of genocide is not even in the Sri Lankan penal code.

• The Tamil Members of Parliament should move a bill to include the crime of genocide in the Sri Lankan Penal Code. This will make accountability an issue in the Sinhala domestic polity.

• Tamils’ status as victims of genocide has not yet been fully leveraged domestically towards a political resolution.

• Rather than talking about “Iykia Rajia” or Federalism, Tamil political leaders should focus on a political resolution based on genocide. They talked about Federalism for 75 years—nothing happened, nothing will happen.

• Unlike the Russian oligarchs, Sri Lankan military and political leaders do not hold assets in or travel to Western countries. Thus, asset freezes and travel bans have no effect on them re: accountability.

• The call for prosecution under Universal Jurisdiction has no teeth since the perpetrators are not in the foreign soil.

• Given the fact that internationally sanctioned Sri Lankan genocidaires living carefree in Sri Lanka (not even stigmatized domestically) the UN Human Rights Council’s call for a domestic mechanism or a hybrid mechanism is meaningless.

• The Core Group led by Britain should move for a draft resolution in the upcoming September session of the Human Rights Council (HRC) committing the situation of Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court via UN Security Council.

• Given that China did not use veto to block the referral of Sudan and Myanmar to the International Criminal Court, calling for Sri Lanka’s referral to the ICC is not “unrealistic.”

• Even if referral to the ICC, and legal action before the International Court of Justice, are “unrealistic,” such calls would harm the reputation of third countries which support Sri Lanka.

• Being aware of the fact that confining genocide within the judicial process will trivialize the horror and suffering of the victims, we call for reparations for the Tamil Genocide.

• The 2015 UN Human Rights Council resolution 50/1 also calls for reparations. The victims are not looking for monetary reparations. They demand moral reparations; they demand political reparations.

• Only Reparations in the form of a sovereign and independent state can ensure a safe and secure living without subjecting the Tamil people to genocide.

Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran
Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE)
+1 614-202-3377
r.thave@tgte.org
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