“Trees for Justice” Campaign Launched by TGTE to demand justice for Tamils killed in Sri Lanka

For Each Tamil Life Lost – A Sapling Shall Grow! Let Us Plant A Lakh Of Saplings In Our Demand For Justice!

1) Campaign to plant one hundred thousand trees around the world in memory of over a lakh of Tamil lives taken during the Mullivaaikkaal Genocide.

2) To embolden the struggle for justice against the Tamil Genocide of Sri Lanka.

The Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) is launching a campaign to plant one hundred thousand trees around the world in memory of over a lakh of Tamil lives taken during the Mullivaaikkaal Genocide, and to embolden the struggle for justice against the Tamil Genocide of Sri Lanka.

This ‘Trees for Justice’ campaign will commence on 14th September coinciding with the opening of the 30thSession of United Nations Human Rights Council(UNHRC) in Geneva, and it would be concluded on the 18th of May 2016, the 7th anniversary of Tamil National Day of mourning in memory of the Mullivaaikkaal Genocide.

We firmly believe that this Campaign will help to rouse the conscience of the international community towards the delivery of justice for those who were killed during the Mullivaaikkaal Genocide, and to foster the conservation of nature as our contribution towards the global Commons.

Now is a moment when the Tamil people have to be extremely vigilant. It is becoming clear that the powerful nations of the world, in securing their own interests, are willing to take measures to dilute the Tamil struggle for justice, following the change of regime in Sri Lanka.

The views expressed recently in Colombo by Ms. Nisha Biswal, the US Assistant Secretary of State, confirm that arrangements are being made to enforce a domestic investigation mechanism instead of an international one against Sri Lanka’s genocidal actions towards the Tamils.

The Sri Lankan State itself remains as the first and foremost accused in the genocide against Tamil people. The Panel of Experts of the UN Secretary General points to the role played by the Sri Lankan state in the Mullivaaikkaal massacres. Destroying the symbols of a distinct national identity by the Tamil people, wiping out their claims of nationhood, and the imposing on the Tamil people the identity of a Sri Lankan, remain in force as the policies of the Sri Lankan Government. We know very well that the Genocide committed in Mullivaaikkaal is nothing but a cruel expression of the same scheme.

The genocidal schemes of Sri Lanka should not be viewed simply within the dimension of the killing of lives, nor should the systematic genocide being committed on the Tamil people be simply reduced to a case of war crimes.

Given the above as the background, there are two main reasons for our demand for justice through an international mechanism of investigation.

1. The delivery of justice against the Sri Lankan Government’s Genocide of Tamils could only be a political arrangement based on a remedial justice for protecting the Tamil people permanently from such genocidal killings. The international investigation mechanism against the Tamil genocide should contribute to help us achieve such an arrangement.

2. While the Sri Lanka Government itself is the prime accused in this case, there will never be the political will in Sri Lanka to institute an investigation mechanism against the Tamil genocide, or to create the conditions for an inquiry that would mete out justice as referred to in the report of the UN Secretary General’s Panel of Experts. No international experts could accomplish anything significant which goes beyond the political circumstances in that country.

While we have been demanding an international investigation mechanism for the reasons mentioned above, we have also inferred that, due to the regime change in Sri Lanka, there may develop a trend among the international states to support a domestic mechanism instead of an international investigation mechanism. We also sensed the danger of a serious setback in the international arena for the Tamil struggle for justice.

As a way of confronting this challenge, politically and morally, we had launched the Million Signatures Campaign demanding that Sri Lanka be brought before the International Criminal Court or a comparable international investigation mechanism. This campaign, now exceeding 1.3 million signatures, will continue to the end of September with the encouraging sign that numerous people belonging to international civil society have joined the campaign and thereby raised their voice for justice.

This is the moment for Tamils to mobilize all their strength for demanding an international investigation mechanism against the Tamil genocide. We should reach out not only those in the homeland, but also in Tamil Nadu and in various diaspora countries, including Malaysia, Singapore and South Africa..

The resolution demanding an international investigation mechanism moved by the Northern Provincial Council under the leadership of its Chief Minister, Justice Vigneswaran, on September 1st is capable of strengthening the people’s will on this matter. We believe that such a resolution passed in the Tamil Nadu State Assembly would also attract the world’s attention towards the Tamil people’s struggle for justice. We call on all people and the international community of non-governmental organizations to raise their voices in support of justice for the Tamil people.

Justice remains in our hands as the powerful weapon for this struggle to be continued. We shall ask aloud all the governments around the world if they were going to sacrifice justice and human rights in the altar of short term geopolitical gain. Let the voice for justice by the Tamil people reach the halls of the 30thSession of the UNHRC and knock at the conscience of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

We begin this ‘Trees for Justice’ campaign in order to strengthen the Tamil people’s struggle for justice and we shall bring further information about this movement.

Let each of the saplings we plant remind the world and ourselves of a life that was taken by the genocide perpetrated on our nation by the Sinhala State!

Let the individual trees and the groves we plant stand in good stead and as powerful reminders for the struggle for justice of the Tamil Nation!Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam