23/09/2025
+ Swiss Embassies Deny Visas to Tamils
Wishing to Approach the UN Human Rights Commission!
+ Has Switzerland become an instrument of the Sri Lankan government?!
+ Have Tamil human rights organizations lost their value?!
+ Is the UN denying justice to Eelam Tamils?!
* Valarmeyyarivaan (alias Vishwaa Viswanath), Editor, Tamil Oodagam
The reason United Nations institutions are based in Switzerland is that it is generally considered a country that respects human rights. However, over the past few years, the UN Human Rights Commission has increasingly behaved in a biased manner regarding human rights activities related to Eelam Tamils, raising concerns every day.
In Sri Lanka, the years 1956, 1958, 1977, 1983, and 2009 witnessed mass killings and brutal attacks on Tamils by Sinhalese Buddhist extremists, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Tamils.
According to reports by human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, the number of Enforced disappearances were nearly 146,000 people during these attacks.
These violent campaigns did not only target Eelam Tamils but also Hill Country Tamils who came from India and lived in Sri Lanka.
During these attacks, hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives, homes, and were displaced—many fled north, while some returned to Tamil Nadu.
Similarly, in July 1983, Tamils again faced mass killings. For nearly 70 years, unending suffering has been inflicted on Tamils in Sri Lanka by Sinhalese Buddhist extremists. The number of Tamil women subjected to sexual violence cannot be counted.
Sinhalese Buddhist extremists burned and destroyed around 90,000 Tamil books, palm-leaf manuscripts, and documents, eradicating Tamil libraries. This represents cultural destruction, language destruction, and the annihilation of a speaking people —all hallmarks of genocide.
Because of this brutal campaign of ethnic hatred, around 700,000 Eelam Tamils were forced to migrate, living as refugees around the world. Even small children can understand that this was a planned genocide of Tamils.
The UN Human Rights organizations failed to prevent the killings of Eelam Tamils in Sri Lanka, which even the UN itself acknowledged. Particularly during the final stages of the war, UN human rights observers left the battlefield instead of bearing witness to the military's final attacks, signaling their failure to fulfill their duties.
Since 2012, the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva has been criticized for avoiding the term "genocide" and appearing to align with Sri Lanka’s political agenda.
Nevertheless, the struggle of Tamils for justice continues within the UN Human Rights Commission. The Sri Lankan government has tried to suppress this struggle and these voices in subtle and strategic ways.
One part of this suppression involves denying visas to Tamil activists, journalists, and human rights workers who wish to enter the UN Human Rights Commission.
The reasons given for these visa denials are arbitrary, often presented as uniform excuses for everyone. Applications sent to the Swiss Embassy in Delhi are sometimes rejected within minutes.
Many applicants are denied, while a few are granted permission. Those who are allowed to attend tend to hold moderate views rather than strong criticisms against the Sri Lankan government.
This indicates a filtering system in place at the UN Human Rights Commission, deciding who may or may not participate. This system operates in coordination not just with the Sri Lankan government but also with some individuals in Tamil Nadu under the name of “Dravidian” interests, certain Indian officials, and some Tamil human rights organizations collaborating with the UN.
The goal is gradual suppression : avoiding words like “genocide” or “war crimes,” postponing discussions until 2025, and quietly limiting the participation of stronger voices while giving access only to moderate ones—meticulously planned and executed.
To strengthen this article, it is worth noting that the preparatory meeting for a discussion on the “Enoforced disappearences” was held on 22nd September 2025 at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva. Only one Tamil woman, Saradha from Canada, participated. No other Tamils, particularly from Sri Lanka, attended.
If a meeting on 146,000 disappeared people had only a single Tamil woman representing the community, it raises the question: Where were the Tamil human rights organizations operating at the UN in Geneva?
This confirms that a deliberate plan is being executed to silence Tamil voices regarding human rights violations, and some Tamil human rights organizations have lost their credibility in the process.
Tamil Oodagam Weekly, 23/09/2025
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Tamil Oodagam* is a unique weekly publication, registered with the Press Registrar of the Government of India.
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