1983 July Massacre: Blood witness of Genocide!

A nation experiencing genocide could not restore its existence by pleading with those who perpetrate the acts of genocide or with anybody else. Only an independent state of Tamil Eelam will ensure the security of the Tamils, states Viswanathan Rudrakumaran, the Interim Chief Executive of the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam. Media Release: We mark 27 years since the anti-Tamil pogrom in Sri Lanka and the mass killings of July 1983 which have become a bloody reminder of the acts of genocide undertaken by the Sri Lankan state against the Tamils. Over 3,000 Tamil people were killed; many millions worth of Tamil residences and property were plundered, burnt down and destroyed during this orgy of violence against Tamils aided and abetted by the Sri Lankan state machinery. Tamil combatants including Thangaththurai and Kuttymani and many civilians in detention at the Welikada prison were brutally massacred. Tamils living in the south of Sri Lanka sought refuge in their traditional homeland in the North East of the country. These events in the Black July of 1983 showed to the world that the Tamil people were most secure in their own homeland. The Tamil liberation struggle also gained an impetus hitherto unseen. What followed from then until May 2009 has made it amply clear that there has been no change in the genocidal intent and actions on the part of the Sri Lankan state; only that these have been intensified, with far more force and brutality. Genocidal acts do not take the same form everywhere. Indeed it is the oppressor who determines the form and levels of these acts. Over 50,000 Tamil people have been annihilated during the final stages of the genocidal war conducted by the Sri Lankan armed forces. Thousands more were maimed. Over 300,000 of Tamil people were interned in detention camps. Many thousands of these people are still detained in the camps with no access to any rehabilitation or reconstruction of their lives. The status of over 10,000 ex-combatants in detention is unknown and the memories of the cruel prison massacres of 1983 only heighten our fears. While remembering those who lost their lives in July 1983, we present all the 200,000 of our people who died at the hands of the Sri Lankan armed forces as witnesses for the justice we seek from the international community. No nation could heal its wounds in the absence of justice being granted to them. We seek the following from the international community in the name of justice and on the basis of international law: 1. The only way a people who are being subjected to genocide could reach their freedom and exercise their right to self-determination is through the establishment of a State for themselves. The International Community must support the establishment of the independent state of Tamil Eelam as the only way for the Tamils to live in safety and with security. 2. All former combatants detained under harsh conditions by the Government of Sri Lanka must be recognized as prisoners of war and be freed. Arrangements should be made to release the names of all combatants in detention and to enable visits to them by the International Committee of the Red Cross. 3. The international community must raise its voice on behalf of the Tamil people in the name of justice and according to the norms of international human rights. At this time we also gratefully remember those Sinhalese citizens who valiantly saved the lives of many Tamils during the pogrom of July 1983 purely on humanitarian grounds. Likewise, there have been many progressive forces, writers and artistes among the Sinhalese who continued to express their voice of opposition to the genocidal acts of the Governments of Sri Lanka. We link our arms in solidarity with all of you. Your voice may be weak against that of the majority but it will always be loud in front of justice. In our struggle for justice, yours will be a strong force of support. As we remember the pogrom of July 1983, a young Tamil activist by the name of J. Sivanthan is embarking on a long march from London towards the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, starting on the night of July 23. He is demanding that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights takes up the question of war-crime investigations in Sri Lanka and that the Tamils still held in detention be freed. While expressing our support for his action, the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam calls upon all Tamils to contribute to the success of this undertaking by Sivanthan. Today, we are sending out to various governments a dossier concerning the genocide of the Tamils. Following this, the members of the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam will reach out world leaders with proposals for political action for meting out justice against the genocide of the Sri Lankan Government. A nation experiencing genocide could not restore its existence by pleading with those who perpetrate the acts of genocide or with anybody else. We are not seeking concessions but our inalienable rights derived from justice and inherent to us according to international norms. Our voices shall ring high until we establish them. Viswanathan Rudrakumaran Interim Chief Executive http://tamilnational.net/Black_July_Dossier.pdf