ISTANBUL

Sri Lanka on Wednesday summoned the Canadian high commissioner in Colombo to express "strong objections" to the genocide allegations and the monument erected in the east-central Ontario province.

"The Government of Sri Lanka maintains that the allegation of genocide during the final phase of the conflict in Sri Lanka is unsubstantiated by any credible authority, either nationally or internationally, and is based on misleading information," said a statement from the Foreign Ministry.

The island's government "firmly rejects this false narrative and believes it has been propagated primarily for electoral gains within Canada," the statement said.

The "Tamil Genocide Memorial" has been erected in Ontario’s city of Brampton to commemorate the victims of the final stages of the Sri Lankan war.

The Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry statement said it "complicates and undermines the government's efforts toward reconciliation and national unity."

The Sri Lankan civil war lasted from 1983 to 2009, during which the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fought for an independent Tamil state against the government, which was dominated by Sinhalese ethnicity.

In 2023, approximately 74% of the population was Buddhist, primarily ethnic Sinhalese. Hindus, primarily ethnic Tamils, constituted 11.2% of the population, with 9.7% Muslim and 7.6% Christian.

According to a UN Secretary-General 2011 report, there have been as many as 40,000 civilian deaths during the civil war.