Photograph Tamil Guardian

The Northern Province Councillor, Ananthy Sasitharan, addressed the UNHRC General Debate, under two NGOs today, calling for an international investigation into the past, and on-going genocide taking place against the Tamil people, by the Sri Lankan state.

"The Sri Lankan state is incapable of investigating itself, it's a genocidal state, it cannot conduct an inquiry itself. " said Ms. Sasitharan.

"There must be a UN, international independent mechanism into the genocide. There should also be a mechanism to halt the genocide ongoing."

Full text of both statements, reproduced below.

Speaking as a representative of the Collectif des Femmes Africaines du Hainaut (CFAH), Ms. Sasitharan said,

"We welcome the focus on mass atrocity crimes by this [March] assembly."

"Following the genocidal war in the island, more than 146,000 Tamil people are still unaccounted for. The UN has said that tens of thousands of Tamil civilians were killed in 2009.

The 60-yar-old genocide is still going on. We are subjected to cultural genocide, demographic genocide and structural genocide.

The democratic Northern Provincial Council has passed as important resolution demanding international investigation on situation akin to genocide.

The Tamil Nadu State assembly in India has passed resolutions demanding independent international investigations into all crimes, including genocide against Tamils. The Tamil Diaspora has also been demanding the same.

As the victims of a continued genocide, we are disappointed with the resolutions being tabled at this respected assembly, year after year, failing to address the root-problem, which is genocide.

In our opinion, it is not enough to look only at the war crimes of the final months. It is not enough to treat the whole affair, as something related to individual human rights violations in the South, is not helping the victims on the ground.

The judges of the Permanent People's Tribunal have found Sri Lanka guilty of genocide in their verdict given last December at Bremen in Germany.

In the opinion of the Tamil victims, the R2P concept, accepted by the World Summit, in 2005, has totally failed in saving Eelam Tamils from the genocidal war in 2009.

After 2009, following reports, the UN has admitted the systematic failure on the conflict.

Learning lessons from the failure in our conflict, the UN has come up with Rights Up Front Initiative.

However, justice is not delivered to the victims, on whose fate these lessons were learned. Justice delayed is justice denied."

Speaking in Tamil, as a representative of another NGO, Ananthy Sasitharan, said,

(Transcription of UNHRC translation.)

"After May 2009, genocide has intensified as a policy in different forms. The Sri Lankan military which is made of Sinhalese, occupies our homeland. The numbers of military occupying our homeland has increased year after year. We don't have rights to our land, our land is taken away from us by the Sri Lankan military and Sinhalese settlers. The occupation there makes it not safe for women and girls. Rape and sexual violence occurs regularly.

Even as I speak today two prominent activists, Father Praveen and Ruki Fernando who went to Kilinochchi to voice the rights of a Tamil mother and daughter have been put under arrest by the Sri Lankan state and the notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act. Several of our temples and churches are destroyed as Buddhist statues are built. Our culture is being destroyed day by day. We are not even allowed to light candles for our dead. The Sri Lankan state wants to erase our land, our culture, history and memory.

I can speak for the Tamils in the homeland that we are very disappointed with the earlier resolutions and the draft resolution. They don't recognise any of these problems that we face, even the word Tamil has not been mentioned.

The Bremen-Permanent People’s Tribunal concluded that what happened to the Tamils during the war and what is on-going is genocide.


Yet, the UN has done nothing to stop it. It has not even recognized it. I can speak for the Tamils in the homeland that we are very disappointed with the earlier resolutions and this draft resolution. They do not address any of the problems we face. Even the word “Tamil” has not been mentioned.
The Sri Lankan state is incapable of investigating itself. It's a genocidal state, it cannot conduct an inquiry itself. There must be a UN, international independent mechanism into the genocide. There should also be a mechanism to halt the genocide ongoing. I speak as a mother, we want our children back.

The world has a responsibility to our nation that has suffered brutal state persecution for 60 years."