{"id":84058,"date":"2024-05-19T01:08:18","date_gmt":"2024-05-19T05:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=84058"},"modified":"2024-05-19T01:53:07","modified_gmt":"2024-05-19T05:53:07","slug":"84058","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=84058","title":{"rendered":"Thousands of Tamils Converge at Mullivaaikkaal On Mullaitheevu district coast to remember their Kith and Kin were killed 15 years ago in the Final phase of the war in May 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

Meera Srinivasan<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thousands of Tamils on May 18 converged in Mullaivaikkal, along Sri Lanka\u2019s north-eastern coast, to pay homage to their relatives killed in May 2009, in the final battle of the island\u2019s protracted civil war.<\/p>\n

As the war escalated before its gruesome end, lakhs of Tamil civilians were pushed to this narrow strip of land, declared a \u2018No Fire Zone\u2019 by the government. Tens of thousands, including women and children, died in the indiscriminate shelling of the armed forces, while scores were seriously injured.<\/p>\n

Families gathered at the venue on Saturday and placed photographs of their loved ones in the sandy ground near the sea, offered prayers with flowers, food, and by lighting lamps. Antony Jesurathnam Mariapushparani, a Mullaitivu resident, has vivid images from May 18, fifteen years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly those of us who were here know how many children died, how many senior citizens died. I saw how they just stacked up bodies in tractors and dropped them here,\u201d she said. Pointing to the main road adjacent to the venue, she said, \u201cit was there that we had our last kanji (porridge).\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

To recall those desperate times, many Tamils prepare and serve kanji in the run up to May 18, marking the period as \u2018Mullivaikkal remembrance week\u2019, or as \u2018Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day\u2019 by some. Earlier this week, four Tamils were arrested in the Eastern Province while they were serving kanji, after police obtained a court order citing reasons of \u201cpublic health\u201d and revival of \u201cterrorist activities\u201d. The three women and a man were granted bail yesterday, amid sharp criticism of the government for \u201csuppressing\u201d Tamils\u2019 right to memorialise.<\/p>\n

Fifteen years after the war ended, with allegations of serious violations of human rights and international law, survivors are relentlessly demanding the whereabouts of their missing relatives, among some 60,000 forcibly disappeared persons.<\/p>\n

\u201cSri Lanka\u2019s Government must take meaningful action to determine and disclose the fates and whereabouts of tens of thousands of people who have been subjected to enforced disappearance over the decades and hold those responsible to account,\u201d a UN Human Rights Office report released this week said.<\/p>\n

Further, it called on the Sri Lankan government to acknowledge \u201cthe involvement of State security forces and affiliated paramilitary groups, and to issue a public apology.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rights Watchdog Amnesty International\u2019s Secretary General Agn\u00e8s Callamard was in Mullaitivu to participate in the remembrance event. \u201cBetween Gaza and its 34,000 dead, Russia invading Ukraine, Myanmar crisis, Ethiopia and Sudan, there is a risk that the Sri Lankan conflict could be forgotten, That is why we are here, we don\u2019t want the pain, suffering, loss of lives to fall off the agenda.\u201d Amnesty would remind the international community that the search for justice in Sri Lanka must be answered, she said.
\n
\nCourtesy: The Hindu<\/em><\/p>\n

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By Meera Srinivasan Thousands of Tamils on May 18 converged in Mullaivaikkal, along Sri Lanka\u2019s north-eastern coast, to pay homage to their relatives killed in May 2009, in the final battle of the island\u2019s protracted civil war. As the war escalated before its gruesome end, lakhs of Tamil civilians were pushed to this narrow strip …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Thousands of Tamils Converge at Mullivaaikkaal On Mullaitheevu district coast to remember their Kith and Kin were killed 15 years ago in the Final phase of the war in May 2009’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84058"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84058"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84061,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84058\/revisions\/84061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}