COLOMBO – Sri Lanka on Tuesday (25), rejected reference to a Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, deeming the narrative of the past conflict to be ‘false’ and ‘distorted’ and that continued reference such a narrative was not conducive to broader goals of communal harmony.
The Sri Lanka Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a statement issued on Tuesday, said it unreservedly rejects the reference to a Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day in the statement issued on 23 July 2023 by the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“Canada’s continued reference to a false, distorted narrative of the past conflict in Sri Lanka is aimed solely at achieving local vote-bank electoral gains, and is not conducive to broader goals of communal harmony,” it said, urging Canada and its leaders to support Sri Lanka in its efforts to ensure stability, progress, peace and reconciliation among all communities in all parts of Sri Lanka, as well as among communities of Sri Lankan heritage overseas.
Trudeau in his statement issued on Sunday (23) marking the 40th anniversary of the Black July pogrom of 1938 sympathized with victims and their loved ones, saying his government stays committed to building a future “free of hate”.
“Last year, the Parliament of Canada unanimously adopted the motion to make May 18 Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day, which was marked for the first time this year. And today, we continue to call for accountability for human rights violations and abuses in Sri Lanka,” Trudeau said. He noted that forty years ago, in July 1983, an onslaught of horrific anti-Tamil pogroms were carried out across Sri Lanka taking the lives of thousands and escalating tensions in what became a decades-long armed conflict that led to the death of tens of thousands of people, and trauma that communities continue to endure today.
“On this sombre day, we join Tamil-Canadians and Tamil communities around the world to remember the victims, honour the survivors, and recommit ourselves to always stand against hate and violence,” he said in the statement..
–ENCL
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