STATEMENT | 17th Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day

On this day, we remember the tens of thousands of Tamil lives killed at Mullivaikal in May 2009 and the Tamil genocide that did not end when the guns fell silent.

Tens of thousands Eelam Tamils were killed or remain unaccounted for. Internationally banned weapons were deployed against civilians such as cluster bombs. Those captured were sexually harassed and executed. Witnesses were deliberately excluded so that atrocities could be carried out with impunity.

The evidence is not in question. The findings of multiple UN reports and independent investigations leave no doubt — what was committed against the Eelam Tamils constitutes as genocide and war crimes under international law.

To the International community and United Nations - your own internal review called your conduct during the final months of the war a "systemic failure." Seventeen years later, that failure has hardened into continued impunity in Sri Lanka.

Not one perpetrator has been prosecuted. Not one credible international mechanism has been established. The Responsibility to Protect is meaningless when it does not protect the ones that should be protected.

While institutions such as EU trade with Sri Lanka, lend to Sri Lanka, and platform its government on the world stage, Tamil mothers enter their tenth year of protest searching for their disappeared family members. IDCTE stands unwavering in our commitment to justice through continued advocacy for accountability of Tamil Genocide. We will not stop until the Tamil Genocide is recognized and the Tamil nation's right to self-determination is honored.