In a bold and rare po­lit­i­cal state­ment, Canada’s Prime Min­is­ter Justin Trudeau, on the oc­ca­sion of the tenth an­niver­sary of the end of the Ee­lam-Sri Lanka bat­tle urged the is­land na­tion to ful­fil its in­ter­na­tional and do­mes­tic com­mit­ments to es­tab­lish a mean­ing­ful ac­count­abil­ity process that has the trust and con­fi­dence of the sur­vivors. WSN pro­duces the full state­ment here:

Today marks the 10th an­niver­sary of the end of the armed con­flict in Sri Lanka. Over 26 years of war, in­clud­ing dur­ing the last phase of the war in Mul­li­vaikal in 2009, tens of thou­sands of peo­ple were killed and hun­dreds of thou­sands more dis­placed and dis­ap­peared, leav­ing last­ing wounds in com­mu­ni­ties across the coun­try.

“Over the past decade, I have met many Tamil-Cana­di­ans per­son­ally af­fected by the war. Their sto­ries – of in­cal­cu­la­ble loss, tremen­dous ad­ver­sity, and con­tin­ued re­silience – serve as a stark re­minder of the long road ahead to peace and rec­on­cil­i­a­tion.

“I re­it­er­ate my call to the Gov­ern­ment of Sri Lanka to ful­fil its in­ter­na­tional and do­mes­tic com­mit­ments to es­tab­lish a mean­ing­ful ac­count­abil­ity process that has the trust and con­fi­dence of the sur­vivors. Canada con­tin­ues to of­fer its full sup­port to the Gov­ern­ment of Sri Lanka and all those work­ing to­ward ac­count­abil­ity, jus­tice, peace, and rec­on­cil­i­a­tion on the is­land.

“On be­half of the Gov­ern­ment of Canada, I ex­tend my deep­est sym­pa­thies to Tamil-Cana­di­ans, and to all those who suf­fered and lost loved ones dur­ing the war. We also pause to re­mem­ber the many peo­ple in Sri Lanka and around the world af­fected by the dev­as­tat­ing ter­ror­ist at­tacks on ho­tels and churches on Easter Sun­day. We will al­ways stand against such acts of hate, and work to make sure every­one can prac­tice their faith in free­dom.

“To­day, I in­vite all Cana­di­ans to rec­og­nize the many con­tri­bu­tions that Tamil-Cana­di­ans have made to our coun­try and the ad­ver­sity they have over­come.”