In a statement issued on Monday, the Global Tamil Youth League (GTYL), a diaspora youth group, said that the assault by a four-member squad on the secretary of the Jaffna University Student Union (JUSU) on the day of Mu’l’livaaykkaal Remembrance was an attempt by the occupying Sri Lankan forces to instil fear in students and silence their voices for justice. The GTYL blamed the Government of Sri Lanka for targeting such remembrance events of Eezham Tamils with the aim of extinguishing the memory of the victims.
“The Sri Lankan government is trying to forcefully suppress our mourning as part of its genocidal agenda,” Braveen Nagendram spokesperson of the GTYL said, adding that the Human Rights Advocacy Council of the Canadian Tamil Youth Alliance would work with their member organisations in order to raise awareness about the ongoing attacks on the Tamil students in the homeland.
K. Tharshananth, a third year student at the Art Faculty of the Jaffna University, was attacked while he was making arrangements to observe Mu’l’livaaykkaal Remembrance event at the University of Jaffna on Friday.
“Tharsananth, along with the Jaffna University Student Union (JUSU), were vocal about the need and democratic right to observe Mu’l’livaaykkaal Remembrance – despite threats by the Sri-Lankan Military prohibiting such an event,” the GTYL release said.
“The Global Tamil Youth League (T-League) strongly condemns this act of intimidation and violence. It was an attempt to instill fear in students and silence their voices for justice. The atrocities carried out against the Tamils in Mu’l’livaaykkaal is a reality and cannot be denied or forgotten. Targeting remembrance events such as this is an attempt to extinguish the memory of the victims, and deny the ongoing genocide that is apparent today.”
“The final stage of genocide is the destruction of memory, and as Tamil youth around the world, we cannot allow that to happen. We will never forget the victims of Mu’l’livaaykkaal, and must work tirelessly to bring justice to our brothers and sisters who have suffered, and continue to fall prey to violence at the hands of the Sri Lankan Government.”
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