British Tamils Forum strongly denounces the police obstruction at Vedukunarimalai temple Sivarathiri worship
The British Tamils Forum (BTF) strongly denounces the continuing arrests, land grab, intimidation and disruption of the daily activities of the Tamil people by the Government of Sri Lanka, its military and police administrations. The atrocities of those in robes and uniform prevails above the law of the land of Sri Lanka.
While BTF expresses its vehement condemnation of the arrest of the Hindu priest and the devotees who participated the recent Sivarathiri worship at the Vedukunarimalai temple, the BTF demands the immediate release of all of them with no preconditions.
The BTF also calls government administration to take necessary steps to respect the Court order to return the idols and to arrest the culprits who snatched them including taking appropriate legal action against them.
The BTF is appalled that the Sri Lankan state forces have been deployed to intimidate the Tamil people who have been peacefully observing Sivarathri festival historically for many years. It is not an exaggeration to register that the Sinhala Buddhists’ intransigence of the reality of unbearable oppression forcing Tamil people to fight for their legitimate aspirations, has driven Sri Lanka into disrepair today.
The deliberate strategy of the Sri Lankan state is to disintegrate Tamil peoples’ traditional homeland, to deprive their right to worship, to usurp places of worship and to destroy their places of worship. The state structures such as the Department of Archaeology and Police forces are used to unleash such premediated atrocities in order to dismantle the traditional homeland of the Tamil people by replacing Sinhala Buddhist identities and to distort their claim to nationhood of Tamils.
We earnestly request the representatives of the Tamil people to tell the multi-tier decision-making institutions at the international level that sustainable peace, stability and development in the island of Sri Lanka will never be possible if the President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government, which claims to be committed to reconciliation, continues to promote inter-ethnic conflicts through such activities.
Just as the British Tamils Forum (BTF) has been apprising the international community and the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) about the Sri Lankan government’s agenda against Tamils for the past several years, the current UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session will also be provided authentic information to the competent decision-making centres.
The BTF urges the government of India and member states to immediately establish an interim administrative mechanism for Tamil people to live in peace and harmony in their homeland of North – East of Sri Lanka. Such an administration must suspend continuing land grabbing, other activities aimed at weakening the Tamil nation on socio-economic grounds, creating impossible conditions for Tamil people to live in their homeland & expelling them from their soil, and disintegrating & paralyzing the political representation of Tamil people.
