Lifelong human rights activist Viraj Mendis sadly passed away on 16th August 2024, his critical perspectives and tireless praxis relating to systemic inequalities and the deep rooted power bases which drive them will be missed. All who knew him will remember his heartfelt humanity for those fleeing persecution and at the brutal end of the worst inequalities across the world, in particular in Sri Lanka.
While there is much written about his anti-deportation campaign in the UK there is much less about his wider work both at that time and in Bremen where he has lived since leaving the UK, in particular with https://humanrights.de . Perhaps the most overlooked aspect of Viraj’s deportation is that Sri Lanka was deemed safe by the UK government at that time, yet years later as a result of investigative reporting by journalists of the highest calibre it became evident to the world that this was plainly untrue, and that the Tamil population were in fact subjected to sustained attacks, murders and intimidation. Worth also reading the funeral tribute in the Tamil Guardian at https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/friend-colleague-and-supporter-tamil-eelam-struggle-viraj-mendis-laid-rest .
Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields documentary
First Broadcast: Tuesday 14 Jun 2011 Channel 4
Jon Snow presents a forensic investigation into the final weeks of the quarter-century-long civil war between the government of Sri Lanka and the secessionist rebels, the Tamil Tigers. With disturbing and distressing descriptions and film of executions, atrocities and the shelling of civilians the programme features devastating new video evidence of war crimes – some of the most horrific footage Channel 4 has ever broadcast.
Captured on mobile phones, both by Tamils under attack and government soldiers as war trophies, the disturbing footage shows: the extra-judicial executions of prisoners; the aftermath of targeted shelling of civilian camps; and dead female Tamil fighters who appear to have been raped or sexually assaulted, abused and murdered.
According to Wikipedia: Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields elicited reactions from foreign governments, international human rights groups, and various public figures. The film was nominated for a BAFTA TV Award for Best Current Affairs documentary and won the Current Affairs – International category of the Royal Television Society‘s Television Journalism Awards 2010–2011. Furthermore, the documentary won two One World Media Awards in 2012 in the categories “Television” and “Documentary”. In November 2011 Channel 4 announced that it had commissioned a follow-up film Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished from ITN Productions with new evidence concerning the final days of the conflict, broadcast in March 2012.
‘War Paradigm’ – a short film by HumanRights.de
This text extract and film is taken from the website of IMRV Bremen and represents very recent work by Viraj Mendis – the film was produced in 2023:
War vs Peace: the US against the EU
This new video explains how the EU’s abandonment of their own peace intiative – the Sri Lankan Peace Process – under US pressure is part of a US strategy to dominate the world – a war paradigm. The green light given to the Sri Lankan government to slaughter the people of Tamil Eelam from 2006 to 2009, and continue to destroy the collective existence of the Eelam Tamils in the North East of the island today, advances US military power that imperils the security of peoples across the world.
The Viraj Mendis Defence Campaign
The following text is an extract from an obituary originally published at https://socialistworker.co.uk/obituaries/viraj-mendis-1956-2024/ :
No one can have lived in Hulme or even Manchester in the 1980s and not have known the name of Viraj Mendis. Viraj won nearly all the anti-deportation campaigns he fought—and then needed one for himself. Viraj, a socialist, was a Sinhalese man from Sri Lanka who defended Tamil rights. He faced a huge campaign of oppression by the racist Sri Lankan state, so he was rightly concerned about his safety if forced to return. In 1986, he lost his last legal battle over his right to stay in Britain, but vicar John Methuen allowed him asylum in his Church of the Ascension.
He stayed for over two years in a room of tiny proportions. A huge campaign developed that was backed by many trade unions. It saw weekly marches for the two years, including on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. In 1989, Margaret Thatcher’s government was furious that he had escaped deportation. It ordered 50 tactical officers to break their way into the church at 5am—they dragged Viraj out and took him straight to London. That night many attended a strong protest. Thousands responded to his capture, and surrounded Moss Side police station that used the full gamut of horses and police dogs to maintain any sort of order. Roy Hattersley, Labour shadow home secretary at the time, was extremely critical of police action and opposed the deportation.
