COLOMBO : Minority Tamil and Muslim people of Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri-Lanka urged Sri-Lankan government to disassociate with the illegal Myanmar military junta regime.
“ The Myanmar military junta that captured the regime by a coup is committing grave human rights violations against the civilians. This has raised concerns and fears among the minority ethnic and religious communities of Sri-Lanka about their future as the present militarized political situation of Myanmar would become a negative role model to other oppressive regimes of South and South East Asia,” a press release issued by the protesters said.The protests were held in two places on Tuesday March 16. respectively in Mannar in Northern province and in Batticaloa in East. Civil activists, women and men who directly suffered by the war and youths from Jaffna, Mannar, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu and Vavuniya districts of Northern Province gathered in Mannar urban council stadium and voiced against the Myanmar military regime and expressed their solidarity to the people of Myanmar.
In the Eastern province the protest was held at the Gandhi park in Batticaloa town where activists and community representatives from Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampara districts rallied. The common passion and feeling of those people were, that the minority people of Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri-Lanka has suffered by ethnic discriminatory war for more than three decades and faced multiple oppressions. Women who joined in the protest stated, as women of a minority community they could understand the sufferings and pains of the people of Myanmar especially the sufferings faced by women.
Yardson Figurado, a prominent human rights defender of Sri-Lanka and the team leader of Mannar Social and Economic Development Organization (MSEDO) stated, that an oppressed community could only understand the pains and sufferings of another oppressed community. Accordingly, as people of a minority oppressed community they condemn the military atrocities taking place against the people of Myanmar and extend their solidarity towards the ethnic minorities and all people of Myanmar. He further stated, at this critical situation the United Nations and the international community should come forward to protect the Myanmar people.In his press brief Lavakusarasa, a leading human rights campaigner of Sri-Lanka and the coordinator of NECC stated, that they strongly condemn the Myanmar regime’s brutal attacks against the peaceful protestors and oppressing people’s democratic and human rights and called to end the military rule in Myanmar and to immediately restore democracy. An open appeal which was addressed to the Sri-Lankan government was openly read in both locations and press conferences were held at the end of the protests.
