To mark 41 years since the Black July anti-Tamil pogroms, join us for this community film screening and panel discussion. We will be highlighting British complicity in the genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka as well as continued colonisation by the Sri Lankan state, linked to Israeli state practices.
We will be showing excerpts from the below films:
Keenie Meenie: Britain's Private Army (2020 - dir. Phil Miller), exposes the covert operations of the British mercenary group known as ‘Keanie Meanie Services’, and the significant role they played in the state violence and atrocities perpetrated against the Tamil people. Through interviews and rare archival footage the film uncovers secret diplomatic cables and meets insiders who reveal the British government’s covert support for Keenie Meenie – and the continuing cover-up.
This Land Belongs to the Army (2014 - dir. Maga Tamizh Prabhagaran), offers an unflinching look at the systematic militarisation of the Tamil homeland. The documentary follows the lives of Tamil families who have been forcibly displaced from their homes and lands, now occupied by the Sri Lankan military. This film connects these colonial practices, of land-grabs and ‘Sinhalisation’, to those used to subjugate Palestinians, mirrored by the Israeli state
After the screening we will be holding a panel with Tamil academics and organisers to collectively explore these topics further.
In the spirit of transnational solidarity, we recognise the interconnectedness of liberation struggles worldwide. As we stand with the Tamil people in their fight for justice and self-determination, we draw parallels with the ongoing occupation and genocide in Palestine. Our shared struggles remind us of the urgent need for global solidarity in the face of state violence and colonialism.