A solemn indoor memorial event in Negombo earlier this week to mark the 16th anniversary of the Tamil Genocide was met with hostility as protesters affiliated with the far-right organisation Sinhala Ravaya shouted slogans and hurled abuse at the entrance.
Organised by local social justice activists and religious leaders, the remembrance ceremony sought to provide a space for collective mourning and calls for accountability for the 2009 genocide at Mullivaikkal.
'Sinhala Ravaya' is a Sinhala-Buddhist extremist organisation that has long been associated with campaigns of incitement and violence against other ethnic groups on the island. The group is infamous for its role in instigating anti-Muslim riots, spreading hate speech, and opposing any form of accountability for war crimes committed by Sri Lanka against Tamils. Its ideological project is rooted in Sinhala-Buddhist supremacy and the continued subjugation of Tamils and other communities.
This latest incident is symptomatic of the attitude against Tamils, where even private memorials are not spared from surveillance, harassment, and disruption.
Human rights observers and Tamil civil society groups have consistently raised alarm over Sri Lanka's failure to protect the right to remembrance and the increasing normalisation of Sinhala-Buddhist extremism. Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister, Vijitha Herath, warned this week that legal action will be taken against those who refer to the state’s atrocities against Tamils as genocide.
