Sri Lankan Foreign Minister summons Canadian High Commissioner over Canadian Prime Minister's Tamil Genocide Day statement

by Sharmini
May 20, 2023

Photograph: Canadian High Commissioner for Canada in Sri Lanka and Maldives 

Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Ali Sabry summoned Canadian High Commissioner Eric Walsh over the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's statement on Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day. 

In a statement, Sri Lanka's Foreign Ministry said that Trudeau's statement was "politically motivated" and "was issued for domestic political consumption in Canada." 

On May 18, Trudeau issued a statement marking Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day and commemorating the tens of thousands of Tamils massacred at the hands of the Sri Lankan state.

In his statement, Prime Minister Trudeau reflected on the “Tens of thousands of Tamils lost their lives, including at the massacre in Mullivaikal, with many more missing, injured, or displaced. Our thoughts are with the victims, survivors, and their loved ones, who continue to live with the pain caused by this senseless violence."

Read more here: Canadian Prime Minister marks Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day 

Sri Lanka said it "vehemently rejects this unsubstantiated allegation of ‘genocide’ relating to the country’s almost 3 decades of terrorist conflict perpetuated by the LTTE."

Sabry reportedly told Walsh that the "arbitrary and erroneous use of ‘genocide’ on Sri Lanka is driven by a small section of the politically motivated anti-Sri Lanka elements in the Diaspora with a separatist agenda."

Read the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry's full statement here. 

 

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