Help Sri Lanka rebuild
Sri Lankan Americans appeal to US Secretary of State
******
A group of Sri Lankan Americans have written to
US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton replying to some of her comments
regarding the current situation in Sri Lanka. We reproduce below without
comment the contents of the letter sent by them
******----
We address this response to you as registered Democratic Citizen
voters of the United States and the Free World of Sri Lankan Origin. We
value democracy and freedom for all people in Sri Lanka. Your comment
concerning the end of the war in Sri Lanka to quote your words, “I think
that the Sri Lankan Government knows that the entire world is very
disappointed that in its efforts to end what it sees as 25 years of
conflict, it is causing such untold suffering” is the most undemocratic
statement we have ever heard from you having followed your political
career with admiration.
Suicide bombers
The entire nation of Sri Lanka’s peace loving democratic voters of
all ethnicities has suffered through that long 25 year period. We have
all lost relatives and friends and fellow citizens over 25 years. The
International Community didn’t come to help us and voice disappointment
in the path taken by the LTTE when suicide bombers ran amok in the
country and ethnically cleansed parts of it committing Genocide against
Sinhalese and Muslims.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton |
What you see now is the disruption of life in the Northern part of
the country where civilians are being saved from the jaws of the most
brutal Terrorist organization that has ever walked this earth in the
history of mankind.
We know that finally the people of Sri Lanka have a Government that
has taken the situation in hand to end the suffering of all people. It
is not a pretty picture but it is the creation of the LTTE that many
fail to see. For the people of Sri Lanka the failure by successive
governments that trusted the LTTE and thought they can be won over was a
greater disappointment. Right now, the people of Sri Lanka are living in
hope and that should not be a disappointment to anyone who is far
removed from the suffering of the people there.
The civilians fleeing are being saved by the very forces referred to
in the International Media as the Sinhala Buddhist Army of a Sinhala
Buddhist Government.
This is a misnomer. In Sri Lanka, there is far more diversity in all
walks of life including the military than most countries in the world.
That is how the people lived in Sri Lanka having fought for Independence
from the British united as one nation of ‘Ceylonese’ of diverse races.
The Tamil leaders at that time didn’t see a need to divide and the
country as they were the privileged class. The Sinhalese majority was
the deprived class. The current situation that leads to the final push
against the LTTE is the result of the LTTE’s drive toward hatred against
all those who stood in their way. Death was inevitable to those who
spoke out.
You are aware of the number of moderate Tamils murdered by the LTTE.
You are also aware of the number of heads of State that were murdered by
the LTTE under the orders of Prabakaran.
You may not be aware that even in the evacuation there were three
suicide cadres that exploded themselves and killed the fleeing
civilians. The International Media fight shy to mention their atrocities
within the NFZ and lay blame on the Government only for fighting back.
The Special Forces took the risk of breaking the enforcement around
civilians at 2 a.m. watched on camera by the entire Diplomatic Corps in
the Capital Colombo. This is not something that should appear as a
disappointment when for the first time video footage provided images of
the fleeing civilians being received by the Security Forces.
The footage clearly showed the LTTE cadres pointing their guns at the
civilians and shooting some who tried to leave but never made it out
alive. That is a great disappointment to be voiced in the International
Media.
The Tamil Diaspora who financed the carnage of their own people has
not come forward to launch a relief operation and assist the Government
to provide humanitarian aid. They provided plenty of funds to the tune
of US$ 300 Million a year for the destruction of Sri Lanka.
Where are they now if they are fighting a Tamil cause and worrying
about the Tamil civilians? Actions speak louder than words and banners
for political gain. The Tamil civilians are a mere pawn to seek a
ceasefire for the escape of the Terror leader. They are poor, powerless
and of low caste considered dispensable as collateral damage for saving
the LTTE leader.
Ceasefire
When two of the LTTE’s high ranking officers surrender and provided
hospital care, there is plenty of evidence to believe that the
Government is right in their action. The LTTE moved their heavy
artillery to the NFZ during the two day truce for the New Year
celebrated by their own Hindu people.
The World cried foul when the Government didn’t bow their heads to a
permanent ceasefire. The Government knew from previous experience that
it will only benefit the Terrorist Leader and the most brutal crew. They
would have escaped in a shoot out when all the civilians would have been
massacred by them just as they are shooting and killing the civilians
trying to leave.
As the head of the Foreign Relations arm of the US, when President
Obama and you are trying to mend the image of the US, Sri Lanka’s image
is being measured in different terms. A Democratic Government trying to
save lives about to be destroyed by the LTTE, their own people is viewed
harshly while the LTTE atrocities within the NFZ are also being
attributed to the forces.
None of the International Agencies have thought about going to the
grass roots of the problem to interview the civilians who have
sacrificed children, husbands and their freedom under the terror of the
LTTE. It is their voice that must be heard to learn if this exercise of
eradicating the LTTE is a disappointment or not. The Tamil civilians
have the real story that must be accurately made known to the world.
Instead of expressing disappointment at the Government that has done
what they had to do, please take a different view. The LTTE promised to
reward the Diaspora with a bigger and grandiose separation and eventual
take over of an entire nation to ethnically cleanse all non-Tamils as
they did in the North and East of Sri Lanka not long ago. Consider the
region, the 2 million Tamil people in Sri Lanka have support from Tamil
Nadu with about 70 million people. However, Tamil is not the official
language in Tamil Nadu while in Sri Lanka; Tamil Language is the
official language for business purposes for Tamil speaking people.
Any Tamil Citizen can study in the Tamil language from kindergarten
to university.
We are Americanized enough to quote to you a common phrase we use in
America, “You got to do what you got to do” and that is exactly what Sri
Lanka is doing right now. This is not a fight to discriminate against
Tamils. This is a fight to free the Tamils from their own oppressor.
We wish to remind you of the countless number of suicide bombings
instigated by the LTTE chief against innocent civilians in public places
of worship, markets, trains, office building, buses, oil installations,
airports, army headquarters, and congested streets in traffic jams the
list goes on and on. Don’t the citizens of Sri Lanka have a right to
live in peace? What you call a disappointment is an effort at liberating
the hostages.
They may be undergoing hardship but their lives were spared. Many of
our kith and kin didn’t have anyone to spare them when LTTE suicide
bombs killed people on the streets in peace time and in areas well
outside of their claim of a homeland.
Even today, people worry about leaving home for a work day or sending
children to school. Young children kiss their parents and leave homes
not knowing whether they will return alive because bombs are planted in
buses and trains that carry school children. The innocent Tamils who
have come out in this rescue now speak about the brainwashing they went
through to be told of hatred against them.
It is that same hatred that has been fed to International Media and
International politicians who have been bankrolled as referred to in the
recent issue of the Economist. It is a US Citizen Bruce Fein who is in
the enormous pay of the LTTE that has visited all the legislators to
gain support for brazen lies with donors posing as supporters when the
funds came from the LTTE. Brazen lies because over 50 per cent of the
Tamil people lived freely in Sri Lanka enjoying the best of homes, cars,
jobs, education and privileges in areas outside the LTTE dominated
region.
The very blood, sweat and tears of the Tamil people went into the
coffers of the LTTE in the form of their earnings, their children, their
freedom and their lives. The Diaspora fed the coffers living in Western
nations chosen for economically favourable refugee and asylum
privileges.
I ask how so many are spending so many days on the streets of London,
Toronto, Ottawa, Washington, New York among many other cities, when
those of us who work in countries like the US cannot miss a day of work
without hindering the productivity of our employers.
These are now citizens of foreign countries, living out of the
benefits provided to them and their productivity is expressed in time
spent supporting a terror organization that has violated every human
right in the book to be banned in 32 countries.
While the fund raising and protests go on, they raise the violent
symbols on their flag ignoring flag etiquette that must be followed in
venerating national flags of nations.
The US is the leader of the world. Although terrorism from the LTTE
Tigers did not come to our doorstep, do not disregard their invisible
hand in the suicide bombs invented and now used against our American and
NATO forces. Isn’t that enough to stir feelings among the American
people?
The US is democratizing countries to liberate them from tyranny. Why
is there less support for the Sri Lanka Government which has preserved
Democracy that the silent majority relishes when they are being
liberated from the tyranny of an internationally proscribed terrorist
group?
Just as your support is extended to Pakistan to eradicate terrorism,
Sri Lanka’s scenes of carnage look the same but are not acknowledged as
terrorists causing the same damage as we see on the news media.
As a Democrat who believes that your party and President Obama care
about immigrants like me, we the people who support Peace, Unity and
Harmony in Sri Lanka where our families wish to co-exist with all
ethnicities and religions believe the Sri Lanka Government is doing the
rights thing. It is we who are disappointed in your statement of
disappointment in seeing suffering when that suffering for the people of
Sri Lanka is coming to an end after nearly 30 years. More than the
majority community, we are happy to see the innocent voiceless people of
Tamil origin who will utter the words of Rev. Martin Luther King and
tell the world that they are “Free At Last” and if there is life, we can
rebuild a united nation in an era of Peace.
A United Sri Lanka is nothing new. We had it and lost it when the
LTTE took some of the Tamil people on the wrong road preaching hatred
and lies while a majority of them enjoyed the fruits of freedom in the
south.
The Diaspora who laid the foundation for their prosperity using the
privileges provided by Sri Lanka denied admitting that they had equal
opportunity for education and employment and used that education to go
overseas and finance the use of terror against their own people.
The road to violence leads to nowhere. The future of the people of
Sri Lanka has to lead somewhere as a reward for their endurance and we
call upon your good offices to help that island to rebuild and move on. |