Brannavy Jeyasundaram is the operations officer for the Washington, DC–based People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL).
Sri Lankan prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, have been implicated in egregious human rights violations against Tamils in the country, including accusations of crimes against humanity and genocide. Yet rather than being held accountable, the Rajapaksas are actually consolidating their ethno-nationalist agenda.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa was the architect of Sri Lanka’s genocide against Tamils in 2009. He was also just elected president of the country. It’s the culmination of a decade of impunity following the end of the Sri Lankan civil war that has enabled genocidaires to be feted as “war heroes.”