Honouring the Tamil Genocide: Light a candle on May 18.
Image: Freepik
Every year in May, the Tamil people of Sri Lanka relive the terrible and tragic memories of the tragedy in Mullivaikkal, which occurred on May 18, 2009.
Many decades of continual brutal acts of conflict came to an end at Mullivaikkal, a community in northern Sri Lanka, when more than 70,000 Tamil men, women, and children were killed in a government-designated no-fire zone.
"At Mullivaikkal, a place of safety where civilians took refuge, indiscriminate shelling, aerial bombardment, mass shooting, executions and targeted attacks were made on civilian shelters and hospitals.
"And the injured were either run over by military vehicles or buried in mass graves where the living were buried alongside the dead. 146,000 people have been unaccounted for to this day," said Solidarity Group for Peace and Justice in Sri Lanka's publicity secretary, Logispree Naicker.
The post-Mulligaikkal period was allegedly greatly dominated by military occupation, which resulted in harsh and repressive state control over Tamil territories and people, as well as severe security measures imposed on both Tamils who stayed in the nation and the Diaspora.
To a significant degree, atrocities against the Tamil community reportedly continued.
"At this juncture, the hope of the Tamils from within the country to find a solution is very bleak, and hence it is imperative that all people take up the cause for justice for the Tamil People of Sri Lanka. To lobby support of governments, activists, international humanitarian, cultural and religious organisations and society as a whole.
"For it is at this juncture that humanity is once again tested, where a duty lies on every human being to remember the atrocities that were committed in a civilised society against a group of people punished for being Tamil."
During Mullivaikkal Remembrance Day, people throughout the world light lamps or candles at 6pm for 18 minutes to honour the martyrs of the Tamil Struggle and promote togetherness.
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