Re: Congratulations and Hopes October 9, 2009 Dear Mr. President, We at Tamils for Obama wish to express our pride and satisfaction at the Nobel Committee honoring you with the Nobel Peace Prize. We heard your acceptance speech this morning, in which you said that no one person or one country can fulfill the obligations suggested by this great honor. We admire and mean to follow your example of pride tempered by humility. Of course we are a bit proud too, because we (along with millions of others) helped to place you where this kind of recognition could be earned. Again, congratulations on receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. An uncountable number of our members have written to tell us how pleased they were to hear the news this morning, and they urged us to convey their heartfelt congratulations and good wishes. During your campaign for the presidency you stated that you would never send U.S. troops abroad unless there was the threat of genocide against a group of people. There is such a threat. In Sri Lanka the government has been carrying on a campaign of ethnic cleansing ever since the British left in 1948. It involved nation-wide government-inspired race riots against the Tamils. There were new laws stripping Tamils of citizenship, voting rights, and public employment. Other measures kept Tamil youths out of college. Inevitably, armed resistance began in 1983. Now, having won the civil war, the government seems to be spurning their peace dividend and preparing for more civil war. Japan Times recently wrote “Not content with increasing the military's size five-fold since the late 1980s to more than 200,000 troops today, Colombo is raising the strength further to 300,000, in the name of "eternal vigilance." Soon after the May victory, the government, for example, announced a drive to recruit 50,000 new troops to help manage the northern areas captured from the rebels.”
Why would a government want to start up another civil war within its boundaries? We think that Colombo's goal is to drive the Tamils out of Sri Lanka as fast as they can. For Colombo, the best way to do this is to recommence the war that ended last May. We expect that the government is wants to re-start the civil war to kill as many Tamils as they can with aerial attacks, shelling, cluster bombing, and so forth. That is, kill and scare away as many Tamils as possible, as fast as possible. We would prefer to be wrong about this, but our experience with the Colombo government allows us no such hope. We hope you will act to restore the peace in Sri Lanka. If the ethnic cleansing that is Colombo's custom intensifies, we trust that you will act to stop it. Thank you. Sincerely, Tamils for Obama |