Re: Take Tigers and the TRO off terror lists

Dear Secretary Clinton, President Obama, and appropriate elected officials,

Hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians are still displaced, hungry, homeless, injured, and without medical care. Millions of oversees Tamils want to help them, but can not because the U.S. and some other countries keep the funds from getting to the people who need the help or can give it.

During the recently ended civil war, American and many other governments labeled the Tamil Tigers a terrorist organization, and the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) a front for the Tigers. Then because these governments believed Sri Lankan assertions that humanitarian funds were destined for the Tamil Tigers, U.S. and friendly governments blocked any funds getting to the desperate Tamil victims.

After the tsunami of 2004, former presidents Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush worked with the TRO and praised the organization's efforts.

The civil war is now over and the Tamil Tigers are a thing of the past. The humanitarian donations which were blocked lest they fall into terrorist hands should now be allowed to go on to their original purpose of proving food, shelter, and medical care for the Tamil war victims in Sri Lanka.

If any of the Tamil Diaspora's charitable contributions were ever meant to support the Tigers that can no longer be an objection. We urge that charitable contributions to the Sri Lankan Tamils no longer be prevented.

The Tamil Tigers always provided a pretext for the Sri Lankan government to solicit military help from other countries and to seize any charitable contributions intended for war victims. We think that it is unlikely that the government of Sri Lanka will give up this profitable pretext. We don't expect them to do so anytime soon.

We urge that the Tamil Tigers be removed from any list that the U.S. keeps of currently active terrorist organizations. The Tamil Tigers are dead. Keeping them on the list can only generate confusion and make it harder to get help to the Sri Lankan Tamils who desperately need it.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Tamils for Obama.