Heavy police presence as Sinhalese attempt to disturb Mullivaikkal commemoration in Colombo

by Rukshana
May 20, 2024

Dozens of Sri Lankan police officers were deployed and one man was carried away by officers as several Sinhalese individuals attempted to disrupt a Mullivaikkal commemoration in Wellawatta, Colombo on Saturday morning, May 18. 

“Why are you allowing them to celebrate the LTTE,” shouted one man, as he was being carried away by police officers. He was trying to pass on to the site where several individuals had gathered to mark 15 years since the massacres at Mullivaikkal.

Several others also attempted to disrupt the commemoration and were reportedly turned away by Sri Lankan police.

(Image courtesy: Tracy Holsinger) 

The event saw several activists including Sandya Ekneligoda, wife of forcibly disappeared journalist and human rights activist Prageeth Ekneligoda, father Lionel, demand justice for the forcibly disappeared and the thousands who died during the armed conflict at the hands of Sri Lankan security forces. 

Wellawatta is a suburb of Colombo with a significant Tamil population and a high presence of Tamil homes and businesses.

Tamils have repeatedly called the events at Mullivaikkal a genocide, a term that is being increasingly recognised when it comes to Sri Lanka's abuse of the Tamil people. Canada's parliament has recognised May 18 as Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day.

Add new comment

About text formats

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.

Restricted HTML

  • You can align images (data-align="center"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • You can caption images (data-caption="Text"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.
  • You can embed media items (using the <drupal-media> tag).

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

link button