'This will waken things up' - Scottish MSP on Tamil genocide recognition

As the atrocities committed in the final months of the armed conflict are increasingly being recognised as genocide, Tamil Guardian spoke with Scottish National Party MSP Bill Kidd about a motion he lodged at the Scottish Parliament calling for formal recognition of the Tamil genocide and support for Tamil self-determination.

Kidd lodged the motion in October 2025, noting the continuing calls for an international investigation into the Mullivaikkal genocide, which saw the massacre of tens of thousands of Tamils trapped in so-called No Fire Zones. Though the motion has since lapsed, Kidd told Tamil Guardian he remained committed to building support for genocide recognition amongst his colleagues at Holyrood.

A United Nations panel estimated that between 40,000 and 75,000 Tamils were killed between January and May 2009, whilst data compiled by the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) found that as many as 169,796 Tamils are unaccounted for and presumed dead.
In early 2009, 300,000 Tamils were trapped in the Vanni and were subjected to genocidal acts by Sri Lanka and its security forces. The government created "No Fire Zones" and encouraged civilians to seek shelter there before deliberately shelling them. Hospitals and food distribution lines were deliberately shelled, whilst access to food and medical supplies was deliberately restricted. Tamil women were raped and sexually mutilated in the Vanni, and Tamil men and women detainees were physically and sexually tortured.

Speaking to Tamil Guardian at the Scottish Parliament, Kidd said he was "looking for the support of as many members of the Scottish Parliament as we can."

"We want to ensure that we can get the message out of the circumstances which Tamil people have found themselves in over very many years, but it's ongoing even now and it's something which really isn't being given the coverage which it genuinely should have," he said.
Kidd said he had secured backing from across the chamber, having "spoken to a number of colleagues from different political parties who have said that they will definitely be giving their support."

He also thanked the Tamil community "for coming along to the Scottish Parliament, being here, speaking openly and addressing any questions which any of our members of the Scottish Parliament may have."

The SNP politician said he hoped the push for recognition would resonate beyond Scotland, with "other parliaments in other countries" willing to take note.

"[They will] be willing to invite Tamil communities to come along to their parliaments and build people's knowledge of the circumstances which the Tamil nation people find themselves [in], and that we'll be able to change what has happened and make an impact about moving things on with self-determination," he said.

Kidd drew a parallel between the situation facing Eelam Tamils and that of other oppressed peoples, noting that the situation in Gaza and Palestine "developed a huge response amongst people here in Scotland in support of people who are oppressed."

"What we need to do is make sure that that is the feeling and the knowledge base which Scottish people will have about Tamil[s] as well," he continued.

"The truth of the matter is that there's people who are being oppressed simply because a larger neighbour has decided that they want to take over their land or other money or whatever. And that seems to me to actually also be mirrored to some great degree with what's taking place with the Tamils."

On accountability, Kidd said growing international awareness would "become an international issue that will then actually shame the government of Sri Lanka and also make all Sri Lankans aware of what their government has actually been doing."

He was critical of the lack of media coverage to date, stating that although "the Tamil people have done a great job of actually trying to ensure that people are aware of what's taking place, the media in [a] vast number of countries haven't really picked up on it or done anything about it."

"When it's displayed, when it's in public, people take it much more seriously," he added. "This is going to be something which will be in their face, and that will waken something inside of them as well, which will then need to be addressed."

When asked what role the UK government should play, Kidd said Westminster would "begin to take things much more seriously, because the UK population will be aware to a much greater degree."

"[That will] make them want to have to do something, because they wouldn't like to be seen to be sitting back and ignoring what's taking place. Now, they may have done so so far, but they don't like the idea that the general population knows that they've been doing that. So this will waken things up."

The UK government has been the penholder for multiple resolutions at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) over the last decade. The most recent resolution, adopted in October 2025, extends the mandate of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) for a further two years, allowing it to keep gathering evidence of human rights violations in Sri Lanka that could be used in future war crimes trials.

Whilst many of the resolutions have noted that Sri Lanka committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, the UK government has not recognised the atrocities as genocide. Speaking at a hustings ahead of the 2024 General Election, Catherine West, who was serving as Shadow Minister for Asia at the time, said that though the genocide needs to be proven in a court of law, "that doesn't mean that parliamentarians can't use that term."

Canada remains the only state to have formally recognised the massacre at Mullivaikkal as a genocide. In 2022, the Parliament of Canada unanimously adopted a motion to mark May 18 as Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day.

The full text of the lapsed motion read:

That the Parliament recognises the reported mass atrocities committed against the Tamil people in Sri Lanka, particularly during the final stages of the armed conflict in May 2009, which resulted in the deaths of an estimated 70,000 to 146,000 Tamil civilians, as documented by the UN and international human rights organisations; acknowledges the findings of the UN panel of experts' report on accountability in Sri Lanka in 2011, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) in 2015, and successive UN Human Rights Council resolutions highlighting credible allegations of war crimes, crimes against humanity and systemic persecution against Tamils; notes the continuing calls from the Tamil diaspora and civil society for an international investigation into the genocide and for recognition of the Tamil people's right to determine their political future through a referendum, and calls on the UK Government to advocate at the UN for a UN-monitored referendum on Tamil self-determination in the North-East of Sri Lanka, in line with international legal standards and past UN resolutions recognising people's rights to self-determination in post-conflict contexts.