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Solidarity rally for War Crimes Investigations


New Zealand - Black July Commemoration
Time: 5.00pm, Saturday 23rd July 2011
Venue: Mt Albert War Memorial Hall, Auckland

Melbourne Media Release and Black July Commemoration

Solidarity rally for War Crimes Investigations in Sri Lanka: Tamil Australians to hold protest at the Federation Square in Melbourne July 23, 11AM to 1PM

Hundreds of Tamil Australians will hold an awareness rally at the Federation Square in Melbourne this Saturday calling for prompt international investigations of the war crimes committed in Sri Lanka.


Melbourne, July 23: Tamil Coordinating Committee along with other organizations who advocate for justice and human rights is organizing the "Solidarity March for War Crimes Investigations in Sri Lanka" at the Fedration Square this saturday. The purpose of the rally is to expose Tamil Genocide committed by the Rajapaksa Government in Sri Lanka and to call for War Crime Investigations.

This rally in solidarity is also to request the Australian government to join with other nations in exerting maximum pressure on Sri Lanka to bring the regime to justice for its war crimes" said Tamil Coordinating Committee Spokesperson Sabesh Sanmugam.

"The Channel4 documentary "Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields" opened the eyes of the world to the hypocrisies of the Sri Lankan regime. Australia’s citizens saw this seminal work broadcast on the ABC’s Four Corners programme on 4 July 2011. Those fifty horrifying minutes made many political figures answer, at the very least, their own conscience".

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"Australia has been at the forefront in defending human rights around the world. Tamil Coordinating Committee feels that it is time that Australia shows its concern for the hundreds of thousands of Eelam Tamils who have been subjected to inhuman treatment by the Sri Lankan government," he said.

In 2009 the Sri Lankan Army killed more civilians than were killed in all other conflicts combined in that year-all of them were Tamils. Over Forty thousand Tamil civilians were killed in may 2009 while three hundred thousand Tamil men, women and children were locked in concentration camps run by the Sri lankan military for 12 months. There have been many disappearances of Tamil civilians from these camps and many journalists were killed for trying to report on the conflict.

This Saturday's solidarity rally is about Australian citizens calling for an independent international inquiry into the war crimes committed in Sri Lanka, as per the recommendations made by the UN Experts Panel. This rally is about Australians calling for trade sanctions on Sri Lanka and travel bans on Sri Lankan government officials until Sri Lanka agrees to follow the UN recommendations.

Tamil Coordinating Committee calls upon the Australian government and the public to show their solidarity with the Tamils in condemning the human rights violations taking place in Sri Lanka and raising a voice for an independent UN Investigation.


July 22, 2011

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