US Tamil groups commemorate the 40th anniversary of "Black July'83", when thousands of Tamils were killed in Sri Lanka

Few days ago, Sri Lankan police and security forces enabled extremist Buddhist Bhikkhus and goons to disrupt the legitimate worship at a sacred Hindu temple

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, July 19, 2023/EINPresswire.com/ -- "Black July '83, the infamous massacre of over 3,000 Tamils and destruction of their properties in Sri Lanka, which prompted the 30-year war of liberation culminating in the Genocide of Tamils in May 2009, was in fact the notorious watershed of the string of riots and pogroms initiated by successive Sri Lankan governments against the Tamils since independence in 1948.

The 14 years, since the genocide in 2009, has not seen any semblance of abatement in the onslaught and subjugation of the remaining Tamil people in Sri Lanka. While we in the Tamil Homeland and in the Tamil Diaspora commemorate the 40th year of "Black July'83", we do so with the cognizance of the existentialist threat faced by the Tamil Nation in Sri Lanka even as the international community is bent on bailing out the country from its current Bankruptcy without undertaking the "Responsibility to Protect" (R2P) the Tamil People. In effect, 75 years of the Tamil struggle for emancipation continues to this day from Sinhala-Buddhist majoritarian domination and subjugation since independence from the British in 1948.

It was only the other day, Friday, July 14th, that the Sri Lankan police and security forces enabled extremist Buddhist Bhikkhus and goons to disrupt the legitimate worship at the sacred Hindu temple in KurunthurMalai in the Mulaitivu district of the Tamil Homeland. Not only was a Buddhist structure built on the site against court orders, the disruption of the worship also flouted additional court orders that specifically permitted the worship.

Tamils have exhausted all means during the past 75 years, both internally and with the aid of international fora, for the failed state of Sri Lanka to shed its fascistic stranglehold on the Tamil people. All to no avail. It has now fallen upon the civil society in the North-East Tamil Homeland, a majority of Tamil Parliamentarians, and a significant segment of the global Tamil Diaspora, to invoke their "Universal Right to Self-Determination".

In pursuance of such an objective, we, the 6 major Tamil Diaspora organizations in the US, hereby call upon the international stake holders to:

1) Initiate an internationally conducted and monitored "Referendum" among the Tamils in the country and the Tamil Diaspora, leading towards a permanent political solution acceptable to the Tamils of the island,

2) Refer Sri Lanka to the international Criminal Court (ICC) for prosecution of war crimes and crimes against humanity,

3) Hold Sri Lanka to unconditionally release all Tamil political prisoners and disclose to the Tamil families the whereabouts of the thousands of forcibly disappeared loved ones by the Sri Lankan security forces,

4) Ensure the removal of the military occupation of the North-East Homeland of the Tamils to prior "Black July '83" levels, and,
ensure the immediate cessation of all land expropriations, destruction of Hindu temples, and the Tamil Heritage of their North-East Homeland.

Signed by:

1. Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America (FeTNA); contact@fetna.org

2 Ilankai Tamil Sangam; president@sangam.org

3. Tamil Americans United PAC; info@tamilamericansunited.com

4. Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE); Secretariat@tgte.org

5. United States Tamil Action Group (USTAG); info@theustag.org

6. World Thamil Organization; wtogroup@gmail.com

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