Black Day for Tamils - Kilinochchi protest condemns Sri Lanka’s ‘independence’

A vigil and mass protest was held in Kilinochchi today as Tamils across the North-East marked Sri Lanka’s ‘Independence Day’ as a day of mourning rather than celebration.

The protest, which remained peaceful throughout, brought together students, relatives of the forcibly disappeared, civil society organisations, religious figures, political representatives and members of the public. 

Participants demanded justice for those who were forcibly disappeared, the unconditional release of Tamil political prisoners, an end to state-sponsored ethnic cleansing, and recognition of the Tamil people’s right to self-determination.

The demonstration in Kilinochchi formed part of coordinated protests held across the Tamil homeland on Sri Lanka’s 78th Independence Day. Calls for mobilisation had been issued by a range of organisations, including student unions and civil society organisations from the North and East, who rejected the notion of independence in a context where Tamil political aspirations remain unaddressed and state repression continues.

In Kilinochchi, the protest began at the Kandaswamy Temple and proceeded as a vigil march through the town before concluding at the Kilinochchi Depot Junction. Protesters carried placards and raised slogans rejecting military occupation, land appropriation projects and state-backed demographic change in the Tamil homeland.

Chants invoked long-standing Tamil political positions, including the Vaddukoddai Resolution, the right to self-determination, and opposition to development schemes such as the Kivul Oya project, which protesters argue are designed to alter the ethnic composition of the North-East.

Among those present were Members of Parliament Sivagnanam Shritharan and Thurairasa Ravikaran, former Member of Parliament Selvarajah Kajendran, university students from Jaffna, relatives of the disappeared, representatives of civil organisations and members of the clergy. Organisers stated that the gathering represented only a fraction of the wider resistance among Tamils to ongoing structural oppression.

As part of the protest, participants sent a detailed letter to the United Nations Secretary-General. The letter was also forwarded to ambassadors of UN member states and to the United Nations Human Rights Council.

The letter detailed how the Tamil people constitute a nation and have the right to self-determination, and condemns the genocide carried out by the Sri Lankan state. 

Organisers stated that the vigil and protest were intended not only to mark Independence Day as a “Black Day” for Tamils, but also to reaffirm long-standing political demands that continue to be denied decades after the end of British rule and nearly seventeen years after the Mullivaikkal genocide.