Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Sivagnanam Shritharan has demanded that the Sri Lankan government grant permission for the Tamils to commemorate those who perished in the Mullivaikkal genocide.
Speaking to the press last Friday, Shritharan said, “The government must grant permission to commemorate May 18, the Mullivaikal massacre day, a day in which Tamil people remember by shedding tears those who lived amongst us and died.”
“If permission is denied, it would be a great injustice to the Tamil people. They (the Sri Lankan government) can identify themselves as human beings only by apologising for the genocide that was perpetrated and allowing us to remember and pay respect to those who perished,” Shritharan continued.
“Preventing the commemoration of one of this century’s great extermination of humanity is not something that those who follow Buddhism and worship Buddha will do,” he added.
Shritharan pointed out that the government had previously given permission to commemorate those who died in the Easter Sunday attacks and appealed for a similar permission for the Mullivaikkal remembrance.
“This government must give permission for Tamils to remember their relatives who were killed, just as it permitted the commemoration of victims of the Easter Sunday attacks.”
May 18, also known as 'Tamil Genocide Day' will mark 12 years since tens of thousands of Tamils were killed in a military offensive by the Sri Lankan state during the final months of the armed conflict.
Sri Lanka has escalated it's clampdown on Tamil public memorialisation and over the last year, it has used the Covid-19 pandemic as a guise to prohibit remembrance events, issuing court orders to block events and ramping up surveillance and intimidation of Tamils and Muslims.
