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SL rejects Canadian Parliament’s ‘Tamil Genocide Day’

20 May 2022

The Government of Sri Lanka said it notes with regret the adoption of a motion in the Canadian Parliament on the alleged genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka and the recognition of 18 May as “Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day”. In a press release, the Foreign Ministry said that the Government of Sri Lanka categorically rejects the blatantly false allegation of genocide contained in the parliamentary motion with reference to Sri Lanka, which contradicts the official position of the Canadian Government, i.e., that “it has not made a finding that there was genocide in Sri Lanka”. This comes after Canada’s Parliament yesterday (18) unanimously adopted the motion to make 18 May of each year Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day, to recognise what it termed was “the genocide of Tamil people” in Sri Lanka in 2009, according to a report by The Canadian Press. Liberal MP Gary Anandasangaree, the MP for Scarborough-Rouge Park, put forward the motion yesterday, and said in a statement that Canada became the first national Parliament in the world to create such a day. He said the passed motion is the result of years of work by the Tamil community, survivors, and their loved ones, and that much work lies ahead to make sure those responsible for the “atrocities” are held to account. He stated: “I hope this will give some solace to those who are impacted and traumatised by the genocide.” In its response, the Foreign Ministry said that it recalled that the Canadian Government has been briefed at the highest level of the actual situation in Sri Lanka during the end stage of the conflict, which entailed the conduct of a humanitarian operation by the Sri Lankan Government to save its population in the former conflict zones, while taking appropriate action to defeat the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) terrorist organisation. “Today, 13 years since the end of the conflict, Sri Lanka has made significant progress in its process of reconciliation, which is ongoing, and on which the Canadian Government has been regularly apprised. The Government reiterates that the term genocide has specific legal connotations and has never been used in relation to the Sri Lankan conflict by the United Nations, nor by any of its intergovernmental bodies, including the UN Human Rights Council. It is observed that the term is arbitrarily and erroneously applied to the Sri Lankan situation only by a minority of politically motivated anti-Sri Lanka elements in the diaspora inimical to Sri Lanka’s interests,” the statement read. It added that it is a matter of particular regret that such misguided action is undertaken by the Canadian Parliament at a time when the Sri Lankan people are faced with enormous challenges emanating from the economic crisis in the country, and therefore deserving of constructive engagement by the international community.


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