Remembering more than 140,000 Tamils who perished in the hands of Sri Lankan armed forces 11 years ago in Mullivaikal, Sri Lanka.
The is the transcript of the above video released by Navanethem "Navi" Pillay who is a South African jurist who served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014 today - May 18 - for remembering the 11th anniversary of the genocide committed by the Sri Lankan Government forces that wiped out the lives of more than 176 thousand Tamils:
"Victims of the war in Sri Lanka that ended on the 18th of May 2009, close to 146 000 Tamils lost their lives in six decades of struggling for self-determination.
So, on this remembrance day, it's important that we honor the Tamil and we inspire ourselves to continue their struggle for justice, freedoms and reparation for their losses.
The united nations investigations determined that during the war in Sri Lanka, international crimes such as war crimes and crimes against humanity were committed, and yet there has been no judicial mechanism.
No perpetrators have been brought to justice and recently, in a cynical, the president pardoned and released from the only one soldier and army sergeant who had been convicted by the courts and sentenced to prison for killing. Eight civilians, including a child, and he was just released by the president last month.
This is a far cry from justice.
Tamils continue in Sri Lanka to suffer all kinds of prejudice, discrimination and violation of the human rights the that were stolen from them by the military have still not been restored and the Tamil language has now been excluded from the national anthem.
In the past, there were always two languages, and almost 200 people are still in prison.
This is why?
Because of the continuing violations of the rights of Tamils, all of us should join the international in collective action to realize the rights of Tamil people to that they have justice and reparation redress in Sri Lanka.
Thank you."