Toronto—The National Council of Canadian Tamils strongly commends the 50 page decision of Justice John O’Keefe to rule Nadarajah Kuruparan—a former senior Sri Lankan Navy officer—as an illegitimate refugee due to his involvement in crimes against humanity. Kuruparan’s appeal to the Federal Court of Canada was rejected and he now faces deportation back to Sri Lanka. The ruling against the former Sri Lankan Navy Commodore, third in rank behind the Admiral, is significant because it affirms that massive atrocities were committed as detailed in a UN Panel of Experts report.

“The ruling against Nadarajah Kuruparan speaks to the broader necessity of establishing an international, impartial, and independent inquiry into the war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide committed against Tamils by the Sri Lankan Government and its Armed Forces in 2009,” said Krisna Saravanamuttu, spokesperson of the National Council of Canadian Tamils. “Three years after the war in the island reached its bloody conclusion, there is still no credible accountability process that meets international judicial standards to address the indiscriminate bombings of hospitals, humanitarian operations, and innocent Tamil civilians that led to the massacre of at least 40,000-70,000 with over 100,000 still unaccounted for.”

The ruling against Kuruparan serves to reinforce the need for Prime Minister Harper to boycott the upcoming Commonwealth meeting to be held in Sri Lanka. Prime Minister Harper promised boycott the 2013 Commonwealth meeting in Sri Lanka unless the country’s human rights record improved. The most recent reports by credible international human rights groups and journalists expose militarization, ethnic cleansing, rape, torture, and extrajudicial killings in Sri Lanka against the Tamil population in the North-East of the island even after the war reached its bloody conclusion three years ago.

“The human rights record in Sri Lanka cannot logically improve when there is one soldier for every four Tamil civilians; the human rights record cannot improve when the Tamils are being subjected to ethnic cleansing and a protracted genocide; the human rights record cannot improve when Tamil civilians continue to be subjected to murder, rape and executions, said Saravanamuttu. “We are confident that Canada can and must take a strong stand against the Sri Lankan government’s culture of impunity and disregard for the human rights of the oppressed Tamil nation.”

For more information contact: Krisna Saravanamuttu, NCCT National Spokesperson: 647-448-0576 or info@ncctcanada.ca.

The National Council of Canadian Tamils (NCCT) is a grassroots organization, composed of elected representatives from across Canada that serve to organize Tamil-Canadians on a democratic and cooperative basis. The National Council of Canadian Tamils advocates for a political solution to the ethnic crisis in the island of Sri Lanka based on self-determination.