LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM , February 8, 2018 /EINPresswire.com/ —
Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) announced today that they are joining hands with other Tamil groups: Tamil Youth Organization, Tamil Coordinating Committee and Tamil Solidarity, in a massive rally in London on Friday, February 9th, urging UK Government to arrest Sri Lankan Military Attaché Brigadier Priyanka Fernando for committing War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide against Tamil people and prosecute him under Universal Jurisdiction.
WHEN: Friday, February 9th at 2:00 pm.
WHERE: Rally will begin outside Sri Lankan High Commission at 13 Hyde Park Gardens.
MARCH: Demonstrators will march from Sri Lankan High Commission to UK’s Foreign Commonwealth Office at King Charles Street, Westminster.
WHY: Urging UK Government to arrest Sri Lankan Military Attaché Brigadier Priyanka Fernando for committing War crimes, Crimes against Humanity and Genocide against Tamil people and prosecute him under Universal Jurisdiction.
CONTACT: TGTE’s Minister for Human Rights Mr. Manivannan. Phone (UK): 00-44-786-9133-073. Email: humanrightsministry@tgte.org
INFORMATION:
1) Several Tamil victims who currently live in UK have filed complaints to the UK police, about gross human rights abuses they underwent in Sri Lanka, amounting to War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide.
2) There are several reports published by UN and others, identifying Brigadier Priyanka Fernando’s regiment, the Gemunu Watch Battalion of the 59th Division, as responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the final months of the war in 2009. According to the UN and other organizations, the 59th Division was the frontline fighting force that committed numerous war crimes, including repeated bombing and shelling of hospitals, food distribution centers and other civilian areas.
3) According to the 2012 UN Internal Review Report on Sri Lanka around 70 thousand Tamils were killed in 2009 and a large number of Tamil women were sexually assaulted and raped by Sri Lankan security forces.
4) The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in his statement to the UN Human Rights Council in March 2017 urged countries around the world to initiate actions under Universal Jurisdiction to hold those responsible for committing international crimes in Sri Lanka.
ABOUT TRANSNATIONAL GOVERNMENT OF TAMIL EELAM (TGTE):
Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) is a democratically elected Government of a million strong Tamils (from the island of Sri Lanka) living in several countries around the world. TGTE was formed after the mass killing of Tamils by the Sri Lankan Government in 2009.
TGTE twice held internationally supervised elections among Tamils around the world to elect 132 Members of Parliament. It has two champers of Parliament: The House of Representatives and Senate and a Cabinet.
TGTE is leading a campaign to realize Tamils’ political aspirations through peaceful, democratic and diplomatic means. The Constitution of the TGTE mandates that it should realize its political objective only through peaceful means.
The Prime Minister of TGTE is Mr. Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran, a New York based lawyer.
For information contact: pmo@tgte.org
BACKGROUND:
Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka faced repeated mass killings in 1958, 1977, and 1983 and the mass killings in 2009 prompted UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to appoint a Panel of Experts to report on the scale of the killings.
According to UN internal review report on Sri Lanka, over 70,000 Tamils were killed in six months in early 2009 and Tamil women were sexually assaulted and raped by the Sri Lankan Security forces. There are over 90,000 Tamil war widows and thousands of Tamils disappeared due the conflict.
According to this UN report, the killings and other abuses that took place amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Independent experts believe that there are elements of these abuses that constitute an act of genocide.
Members of the Sri Lankan security forces are almost exclusively from the Sinhalese community and the victims are all from the Tamil community. A Buddhist Monk shot and killed a Sri Lankan Prime Minister 1959 for having talks with Tamils.
Tamils overwhelmingly voted in a Parliamentary election in 1977 to establish an independent and sovereign country called Tamil Eelam. This Parliamentary election was conducted by the Sri Lankan Government.