SL lodges protest over Canadian PM’s ‘Tamil Genocide’ comment

Colombo: Sri Lanka has summoned the Canadian High Commissioner here and registered a strong protest over Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s “Tamil Genocide” comment on the 14th anniversary of the end of the brutal civil war in the island nation.

The bitterly-fought conflict, which began in 1983, came to an end on May 18, 2009, with Sri Lanka’s military killing the supremo of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Velupillai Prabakaran. LTTE fought an armed conflict for a separate homeland for the minority Tamils.

On Thursday, Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau said tens of thousands of Tamils lost their lives, including at the massacre in Mullivaikal, with many more missing, injured, or displaced. “Our thoughts are with the victims, survivors, and their loved ones, who continue to live with the pain caused by this senseless violence,” Trudeau said.