B.C. Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines
Solidarity Statement

Canadians and Filipino-Canadians express solidarity with Tamil people and community:
Justice for the victims of state violence in Sri Lanka; Uphold communities' right to build people-to-people solidarity in Canada!

May 29 , 2009

 
As Filipino-Canadians and Canadians working in solidarity and support with the Filipino people in their struggle for genuine human rights and democracy, we stand in firm and unconditional solidarity with the Tamil people as they are enduring horrific acts of state violence by the Sri Lanka government. Likewise, we affirm our solidarity with the Tamil community in Canada as they mobilize their community’s support for the Tamil people’s legitimate struggle for genuine human rights, justice and freedom.

Earlier this month, reports leaked from regions where the Sri Lankan Army operate revealing acts of repression, state violence and human rights violations. It is estimated that close to 1 million people, the majority of whom are Tamils, have been subjected to forcible displacement, starvation, bombing, strafing, incarceration, loss of life and disappearances at the hands of the military. To conceal these acts of violence, the Sri Lankan government has banned any local and international media and humanitarian aid organizations from entering these regions.

As peace and freedom-loving Canadians, we condemn these atrocious acts of state terrorism.

Much like in the Philippines, the Sri Lankan government is localizing and using the so-called global war on terror to repress its own people. Since 2001 when current Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo came to power, there have been over 900 political killings, close to 200 enforced disappearances, and over 1 million people displaced from their homes and livelihood in the Philippines. During her seven-year rule, Arroyo has shown that she is hell-bent on destroying all political opposition, (particularly the long-standing revolutionary movement led by the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army) through the government’s counter-insurgency program, Oplan Bantay Laya (Operation Freedom Watch). Similarly, using the pretext of militarily defeating the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam), the Sri Lakan government is subjecting innocent civilians to acts of terror.

History has shown us that the people’s aspirations for genuine freedom, democracy and peace cannot be silenced by the barrel of a gun.

Therefore, we stand in solidarity with the Tamil people in their calls for an immediate end to these recent acts of state violence, for real solutions to the current humanitarian crisis, and for peace based on justice.

We express our solidarity to the Tamil community in Canada. Since the reports of the atrocities in Sri Lanka surfaced, the community, by the thousands have taken to the streets in Canada – raising awareness about the plight of the Tamil people and raising legitimate calls for the Canadian government to take a firm stand against the Sri Lankan government’s military actions against its own people.

As Filipino-Canadians and Canadians also calling on the Canadian government to re-examine and re-direct its foreign aid and support for the fascist government in the Philippines, it is urgent that the Canadian government heed the calls of peace- and freedom-loving Canadians to take a firm stand against the Sri Lankan government’s military operations against the Tamil people.

The Tamil community in Canada’s acts of genuine people-to-people solidarity should be commended as inspirational and brave, instead of dismissed as troublesome and inconvenient. Their actions in support of their families, friends, and people in Sri Lanka have demonstrated the importance of international solidarity and the need to raise the Canadian people’s awareness about the root causes of people’s common struggles all over the world.

Long live international solidarity!

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