Massacre commemoration rally in front of UN headquarters

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 May 2011, 02:51 GMT]
Nearly one thousand expatriate Tamils from the U.S. and Canada held a protest rally in front of the United Nations headquarters near the Dag Hammarskjold park in Manhattan New York on the second anniversary of the Mu’l’livaaykkaal massacre of May 2009, appealing to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to act on the recommendations of his expert panel to conduct independent war crimes investigations in Sri Lanka. Protesters' chants of “UN, UN, Never again” and “Ban Ki-moon, Act Now” echoed off the white metal building where Secretary General Ban's office now is, Inner City Press (ICP) which covered the protest reported.

UN protest 2011 May
UN protest 2011 May
Prof. Glenn T. Morris (with the flag in hand) at the UN protest rally
Prof. Glenn T. Morris (with the flag in hand) at the UN protest rally
ICP also reported that an appointment with a delegation of protesters agreed to by the UN officials ended up in a farcical encounter with an official who alleged walked with the petition into an entirely empty UN building.

Amid continuing calls by many human rights organizations for independent investigations into war crimes, the convergence of resolve to continue to fight for justice was palpable in the Tamil expatriate groups, as several hundred Tamils resident in Montreal and Toronto crossed over the border to New York to attend the rally, an attendee said.

Protesters of various age range and from different shades of Tamil acivist groups appeared united in the call for justice.

Dr K. Thayaparan, a key organizer of an earlier 4-month long White House protest, told TamilNet, "the US embassy was clearly aware of the impending massacre as revealed by the cables recently made public, but failed to stop the massacre of 40,000 Tamil civilians. Now the UN expert panel's report is out, and it is incumbent upon the Obama administration to seize this moment and make amends by asserting its will for an independent international investigations into the war crimes."

Professor Glenn Morris, Professor of Political Science at University of Colorado, and a well-known native American activist who attended the protest, told the attendees, "Tamil struggle is a precedent setting example to suffering oppressed people across the world. The determination, resilience, intellectual capacity, cultural unity to withstand tremendous amount of adversity, are all shining models of character traits all of us can emulate." Prof. Morris also served as a delegate to the UN Commission on Human Rights.

Legal actions filed in the U.S., Norway, U.K., and International Criminal Court, and the resulting restriction of mobility of Sri Lanka's alleged war-criminals have brought increased optimism within the diaspora seeking justice to the crimes at Mu’l’livaaykkaal, an attendee to the protest said, adding, "the emergence of new evidence of crimes, States supporting Sri Lanka will soon find themselves to be in an untenable position. The world must know that Tamils are not going to give up this fight," the protester added.


Related Articles:
20.08.09   White House Tamil protest draws media attention


External Links:
ICP: Petition on Sri Lanka War Crimes Is Fake Carried Into Empty Building by UN Staffer

 

Latest 15 Reports
21.09.24 16:12   Photo
JVP always denied Eezham Tamils’ inalienable self-determination: Anthropology scholar
18.09.24 21:30   Photo
Sinhala leftists need careful perusal of Lenin’s definition of Right to Self-Determination
30.08.24 15:27   Photo
Viraj exposed West’s criminalization of Tamil struggle
30.08.24 09:08  
‘பொதுச்சபை’ நகர்வை ‘சிவில் சமூக அமையம்’ தரும் படிப்பினைகளின் கண்கொண்டு நோக்குதல்
20.08.24 17:59   Photo
Viraj teaches Zone of Peace, Peace Process, Crimes Against Peace
18.08.24 21:23   Photo
Viraj Mendis: A beacon of international solidarity and a pillar in the Eelam-Tamil liberation struggle
18.08.24 16:47   Photo
Viraj in Tamil Radical Politics
18.08.24 11:27  
மூலோபாயத்தையும் தந்திரோபாயத்தையும் தொலைத்த தேர்தல் அரசியலைத் திருத்த இயலுமா?
17.08.24 12:15   Photo
விராஜ் மெண்டிஸ் விட்டுச் செல்லும் நிரப்பவியலா இடைவெளி
04.02.24 15:40   Photo
சியோனிசம் காணும் தோல்வி ஈழத்தமிழருக்குப் பலன் தரவல்ல படிமை மாற்றத்தின் அறிகுறி
24.04.22 05:44  
தீவின் நெருக்கடிச் சூழலில் ஈழத்தமிழர் தேசம் கடைப்பிடிக்கவேண்டிய நிலைப்பாடுகள்
09.04.22 14:44   Photo
குறிதவறும் ஈழத்தமிழர் தலைமைகளுக்கு வரலாறு தருகின்ற எச்சரிக்கை
21.01.22 07:24   Photo
ஈழத்தமிழர் தேசத்தின் தலைமைத்துவம் தேர்தல் அரசியற் கட்சிகளுக்கு அப்பாலானது
02.11.21 15:32   Photo
13 ஆம் சட்டத்திருத்தத்தால் கட்டமைக்கப்பட்ட இன அழிப்பை எதிர்கொள்ள முடியுமா?
15.09.21 08:19  
English version not available
 
Find this article at:
http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=33966