Responding to meetings between Tamil politicians and Sri Lanka’s President, during his visit to the Northern Province last week, Tamil Families of the Disappeared have protested the action of Tamil politicians and for not raising their issues.
protesting #SriLanka president’s visit to the north, Sivananthan Jenita, leader of Association for Relatives of Enforced Disappearances (ARED) in #Vavuniya, slams #Tamil politicians who went up on his platform by ignoring the plight of Tamils to “pick up bones thrown at them”. pic.twitter.com/ntxAsctJsS
— LankaFiles (@lankafiles) May 30, 2024
Sivanathan Jenita, leader of the Association of the Relatives of the Enforced Disappeared for Vavuniya, expressed to reporters her disappointment. She was joined by other demonstrates who carried black flags to mark the occasion.
“For the sake of their lavish life, these politicians are joining hands with the President without taking notice of the misery of the Tamil people and have closed their eyes to the oppression against the Tamils. We are being subjugated and jailed and unable to protest on the streets demanding justice. Those politicians who don’t question these are Tamils themselves”.
She further compared these politicians to dogs willing to scrounge of the bones thrown to them by the government in Colombo.
Jenita also questioned their engagement with Rajapaksa stating:
“Those who support the development plans of the state are extending their support for the killers. Hence, this president is enacting his dubious drama with an eye on the next Presidential election. A President who came to power without the people’s mandate is now trying to secure that mandate. Our politicians and ministers are supporting him”.
According to Sri Lanka’s President’s Media Division, former state minister Vijayakala Maheswaran, Cabinet Minister Douglas Devananda, Parliamentarians Tharmalingam Sitharthan, M.A.Sumanthiran, Charles Nirmalanathan, Kulasingam Thileepan, S.Noharathalingam, Selvam Adaikkalanathan and former chairman of the Northern Province CVK Sivagnanam participated in public meetings with the President.
The black flag protests followed crackdowns by Sri Lanka’s police on memorial activities marking the Tamil genocide. Jenita noted that the contrast of the police’s actions in preventing the distribution of kanji during the memorials, which was violently opposed under guise of sanitation, whereas during the Vesak celebrations police permitted the distribution of food and ice cream.
“Seeing this it is evident that there are two sets of laws in this Country, one for the Tamils and the other for the Sinhalese”.
Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam supported the Families of the Disappeared protest and urged Tamils across the homeland to boycott the upcoming Presidential election. He maintains that the elections are inconsequential for Tamils as whoever assumes the Presidency will be in service of the Sinhala majority.
Speaking to reporters, Jenita stated:
“I am asking these politicians and ministers. Are you shameless? Don’t you have self-respect? Are you the people who are going to seek justice for the Tamils? If you people seeking justice think about us who are in the streets. Ask the President what happened to our relatives whom we handed over. Ask him who came here for Pongal. It is from him you are seeking developments and what next?”
