Father Marimuthu Sathivel says that the forced labour of children in up-country including Tamil girls, is another aspect of Sri Lanka’s notorious racist genocide and that the country’s economy and development have not yet been inherited by the Tamil people and they have not been accepted as a community in this country. As a result, currently there are
only 146,000 plantation workers in the state sector but many young people are working in the urban sector.
Condemning the pressures on various ethnic groups, he further questioned who had evicted the 300,000 and 400,000 people from their homeland and further stated that development did not belong to them due to racism in the country.
Father Marimuttu Sathiwel, who had to live in refugee camps due to the violence against Tamils in 1977 and 1983, recalled that hundreds and thousands of Tamils had to flee their homeland to India as a result of the communal riots.
He shared this thoughts, addressing a discussion organized by the Christian Solidarity Movement under the theme “Let’s go beyond the reflection of the 83rd Black July!” On 20th in Colombo. The Christian Solidarity Movement also launched a silent protest at Lipton Roundabout to commemorate Black July.