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Sri Lanka: Tamils begin Week of Mourning, Commemorate 5th anniversary of Genocide: TGTE

A list of 1st Batch of Sri Lanka War Criminals to be Released by Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE).

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, May 12, 2014 /EINPresswire.com/ --

Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka and worldwide begin a week of mourning to commemorate the 5th anniversary of mass killings in the final months of the war in 2009, which resulted in tens of thousands of innocent Tamils killed and Tamil women raped by the Sri Lankan Security forces.

Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) started the week of mourning by convening a special session of the Parliament to pay respects to those Tamils killed.

During this special session, Prime Minister Mr. Rudrakumaran emphasized "sorrow and mourning is only one dimension; the other is the meaning of the days and the week. As an oppressed people seeking justice and eventual freedom, we need to take the sense of loss and mourning to our 'collective memory' and thereby recommit ourselves to the political dimension and revitalize our tasks of collective action - to seek justice, to bring the genocidal acts of the Sinhala State to an end, and to free our people".

Other activities planned by the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) for the week are:

1. War Criminals List: Release of the first batch of Sri Lankan War Criminals and those who committed Genocide against Tamils. This 1st batch of names will be that of main political and military officials. This will be released on May 18th.

2. Say No to Sri Lanka: An international Conference titled “ Say No to Sri Lanka” to be held on May 17th in London, to formulate innovative political and legal strategies for boycott, divestment, and targeted sanctions against Sri Lankan political and military leaders and sanction against Sri Lanka itself.

3. Special Exhibition: The Ministry of Tamil Youth & Cultural Affairs (TYCA) is holding an exhibition from May 12-16 in front of British Parliament in London, to highlight mass killing and Genocide of Tamils. In addition to a video & photo exhibition, there will be street plays, speeches & poetry readings.

4. Intensify the distribution of Tamil Eelam National Card.

5. Organize and participate in numerous rallies around the world.

BACKGROUND:

Tamils have faced repeated mass killings since 1958 and the killings in 2009 prompted UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to appoint a Panel of Experts to report on the scale of killings.

According to the report by this UN Panel, tens of thousands of Tamil civilians were killed (UN Internal Review Report on Sri Lanka: over 70,000 Tamils were killed in five months in 2009).

These people were killed due to deliberate and intense shelling and bombing of areas designated by the government as "no-fire zones", where Tamil civilians had assembled for safety. The Sri Lankan Government also restricted food and medicine for Tamils,resulting in large numbers of people dying from starvation and many of the injured bleeding to death.

According to the UN Panel, the killings and other abuses that took place amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Independent experts believe that there are elements of these abuses that constitute an act of genocide.

According to a May 2012 report by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office on Human Rights and Democracy; there are up to 90,000 Tamil war widows in the North & East of Sri Lanka. A book "Unfinished War: Torture and Sexual Violence in Sri Lanka: 2009 - 2014 highlight the continuing sexual abuses by the Sri Lankan Security forces.

UN Human Rights Council in March 2014 established an international war crimes investigation for these killings.

Members of the Sri Lankan security forces are almost exclusively from the Sinhalese community and the victims are all from the Tamil community.

Tamils overwhelmingly voted in an election in 1977 to establish an independent and sovereign country Tamil Eelam. This election was conducted by the Sri Lankan Government.

ABOUT TRANSNATIONAL GOVERNMENT OF TAMIL EELAM (TGTE):

Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) is a democratically elected Government of Tamils (from the island of Sri Lanka) living in several countries.

It held internationally supervised elections among Tamils around the world to elect over 132 Members of Parliament and is leading a campaign to realize Tamils’ political aspirations through peaceful, diplomatic and democratic means.

TGTE has a bicameral legislature and a Cabinet and held one of its Parliamentary sittings in the British Parliament.

The Constitution of the TGTE mandates that it should realize its political objective only through peaceful means.

The Prime Minister of TGTE is Mr. Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran, a New York based lawyer.

Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam
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