“The President wanting to engage with the Tamil diaspora is certainly a progressive move and we welcome it. However, when requests are made by democratically elected representatives of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka to meet with the President, they are deferred with flimsy excuses. Now from New York, he has declared that he wants to engage with us, the Tamil diaspora. In March 2021, the Government proscribed seven Tamil diaspora organisations and a number of individuals, including the GTF and Surendiran. Even recently, we facilitated millions of dollars worth of medical equipment to assist in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic in Sri Lanka.”

Source: The Nation September 21, 2021 18:00 UTC