Sri Lankan Independence Day was not a day of celebration for Tamils given the ongoing plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka, the British Tamils Forum said in a statement.
“For the first three decades since “Independence”, the Tamil people have been clamouring through non-violent, democratic means for equal status and freedom from Sinhala domination and aggression. These demands were met with violence by the Sinhala dominated state which unleashed pogroms against Tamils repeatedly. This resulted in emergence of armed resistance to this Sinhala colonial aggression. This armed resistance and liberation movement which set to reinstate the independent sovereignty of the Tamil people was brutally crushed by committing genocide against the entire Tamil Nation, in a war that ended in May 2009,” stated BTF press release.
“Since then the Sinhala state has accelerated its colonial programme in which the Tamil Nations Homeland in the North East of the Island is being systematically decimated.”
BTF further stated their solidarity with ongoing mobilizations in the North-East during this time.
“As the Sri Lankan state celebrates “Independence” day, the Tamil people of Keppapulavu and Puthukkudiyiruppu, two of the many villages where the Sri Lankan military is occupying Tamil people’s land, are on a hunger strike, demanding return of their own land”
“We call upon the Tamil leadership in Sri Lanka, Tamil Nadu and the Diaspora to rally around these dispossessed people, so that land grabbed by the Sri Lankan state through its military, Sinhala Settlements and construction of Buddhist structures, are returned to their original inhabitants immediately. We call upon the international community to remain focused on Sri Lanka which continues with its violations against the Tamil people, with impunity.”