Sunday, May 24, 2009
2-5 p.m.
Cafe Kathmandu
2779 Commercial Drive, Vancouver
Discussants: Peter Julian, MP, C. Premarajah, Hari Sharma, L. Pathmayohan, and others
Tamils in Sri Lanka have been systematically deprived of their rights and reduced to second class citizenship. Now this minority is facing genocidal violence as the government pursues its military solution to the insurgency led by the LTTE.
Rejecting international appeals for ceasefire and access of relief agencies to the civilians trapped in the war zone and in camps, the Sri Lanka government has continued its bombardment, including a rocket attack on a makeshift hospital that has killed 64 patients. Over 6500 innocent civilians have been killed and more than 11000 injured. There are no figures for those who have disappeared and those who have been buried in mass graves in Vannu. There are over 300,000 internally displaced people (IDP). About 185,000 are in camps without basic necessities. This genocidal violence must be stopped. The murder, imprisonment, and intimidation of journalists daring to report on the situation must be stopped. We must support the Tamil diaspora in Canada in their effort to provide humanitarian relief for the victims of war in Sri Lanka.