SANSAD News Release, May 27, 2009
South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy (SANSAD) held a Public Forum on Genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka on Sunday, May 24 at Cafe Kathmandu, 2779 Commercial Drive, Vancouver.
A gathering of South Asians originating in various countries and other Canadians that filled the café in Vancouver – well known as a site for intellectual and rights-based discussions -, heard from Hari Sharma, President of SANSAD, Chelliah Premrajah, a Tamil community, Labour, and Church activist, C. Pathmayohan, an activist in the Tamil community, Raj Chouhan, MLA, Peter Julian, MP, and Don Davies, MP. Indran Amrithanayagam, a Tamil poet and a member of the US Foreign Service, read some of his new poetry dealing with the current situation in Sri Lanka – both at the beginning and at the end of the forum. The presentations were followed by a vigorous discussion and collection of funds for humanitarian relief of the victims of war in Sri Lanka. The funds will be directed through appropriate agencies to ensure that they reach the people in need.
The following resolution was adopted by the gathering:
Whereas the Tamils in Sri Lanka have been systematically deprived of their rights since the adoption of the constitution of 1956,
Whereas their attempts to seek political and social justice has been repeatedly and systematically thwarted, compelling many of them to take up arms in a struggle for liberation,
Whereas the current military victory of the Government of Sri Lanka over the LTTE has been achieved at the cost of immense loss of civilian lives against the appeal of the international community, including the United Nations for restraint and the complete denial of access to the press and relief agencies,
And whereas hundreds of thousands of displaced people, a large percentage of whom are severely injured, are currently confined in camps without adequate supply of food, clothing and medicines and denied relief from international agencies,
Therefore be it resolved that we express our commitment to provide what relief we can for the victims of war in Sri Lanka and demand that the Government of Canada contribute generously to humanitarian relief in Sri Lanka and demand that international agencies be allowed to deliver it to the needy.
We further demand that the Government of Canada use its diplomatic power to champion the establishment of political and social justice for Tamils in Sri Lanka because without such justice there is no possibility of a secure peace in Sri Lanka.
We express our solidarity with the Tamil diaspora in Canada and demand that the Government of Canada remove and desist from any labeling of the community that discriminates against them.