Secretary Clinton spoke to the UN Security Council in September 2009 and urged the members to take a stand against sexual violence used as a tool of war. In Sri Lanka, armed forces are using it as a tool of political suppression. In a letter to Clinton on May 1, Tamils for Obama requested that Clinton use her influence to stop it.
Delegates from Tamils for Obama accepted an invitation from Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert Blake and met with him and other State Department officials on February 29, 2012. The delegates discussed matters concerning Tamils in Sri Lanka with Blake and several State Department officials and then handed Blake two copies of Tamils for Obama’s petition for a “Referendum in Sri Lanka to Gain Self-determination for Tamils,” and asked him to hand the second copy to Secretary Clinton.
Tamils for Obama wrote a letter to Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake in which they recognized his role in forcing the GOSL to create an investigating body—the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission—and asked him to denounce the commission’s final report as biased and inadequate, and to call for an international tribunal to investigate the war crimes committed during the final stages of the Sri Lankan civil war.
Tamils for Obama sent the president a letter wishing him a happy and successful 2012, and urging him to take measures to save the Tamils in Sri Lanka in 2012.
Four Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MPs were invited by the US State Department to visit the US and meet with officials from the Department of State (DoS), the White House, and Congress. All four of the TNA members attended these meetings. This was the first time since the end of the Sri Lankan mass killing of Tamils that TNA representatives visited Washington, DC. Tamils for Obama extended special thanks to State Department officials for arranging and facilitating this visit.
Ahead of the reported visit to Colombo of Ambassador Robert Blake, Tamils for Obama urged him to understand the enormous suffering of Tamil civilians over the years. Most recently was the UN-reported killing of 40,000 Tamil civilians near the end of the Sri Lankan civil war, and the widespread and on-going rape of Tamil women by Sri Lankan Army personnel, which also has been reported by the UN.
Tamils for Obama has been passing around DVDs of UK Channel 4’s documentary “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields.” The Tamil group expects that increased viewing of this story of Sri Lankan horrors will bring greater awareness and sympathy to their movement. They also expect that the DVD will generate chatter among the Congress people to whom they’ve delivered it, and that President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton will want to know what the chatter is about, and so Tamils for Obama is sending copies of the DVD to Obama and Clinton.
Hillary Clinton will be making the first ever visit of a US Secretary of State to the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, and Tamils for Obama makes some suggestions about what Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister Jayalalithaa should say to her when they chat. The American Tamil group recommends that the two leaders endorse the UN Panel of Experts Report and its recommendations. They also suggest that Clinton and Jayalalithaa push for an internationally supervised referendum in the North and East of Sri Lanka like the one recently held in southern Sudan, which resulted in the world’s newest state.
Southern Sudan recently had a referendum asking whether the region should become a sovereign state separate from the rest of Sudan. It passed overwhelmingly and appears likely to result in a new state. Tamils for Obama is soliciting signatures for a petition asking for a similar referendum to be held in northeastern Sri Lanka and proposing an independent homeland for the region’s Tamils.
The Sri Lankan government is clearly worried about the UN Report of the Secretary-General's Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka. They will probably agree to almost anything to make this report disappear. Tamils for Obama suggests that whatever the SL government agrees to will probably be ignored (as GOSL has done in the past) as soon as the UN report is buried. Tamils for Obama recommends that the Tamil National Alliance not tie the UN war crimes report to any other issues.
"Sri Lanka's Killing Fields"
documentary by UK's Channel 4 News.
சனல் 4 வெளியிட்ட
“இலங்கையின் கொலைக்களம்”
தமிழ் மொழியில்
Is Sri Lanka guilty of war crimes?
UK Channel 4 News's November 2010
video showing the same SLA executions
from a different angle
UK Channel 4 News's August
2009 video showing SLA
soldiers executing prisoners
Petition
Tamils Petitioning White House to Act on Sri Lanka. Petition circulated in January 2009. Over 165,000 signatures. We've spoken to Obama 's staff and are waiting to hand it over directly. Click here to see the petition.
Poll Result
Poll: Tamils Petitioning White House to Act on Sri Lanka. Petition circulated in January 2009. Over 165,000 signatures. We've spoken to Obama 's staff and are waiting to hand it over directly. Click here to see the petition.
Poll: What should be done in Vanni, Northern Sri Lanka?
Poll conducted March 16 to March 31, 2009. For results Click here
Poll: What now for the Tamils? Transnational Governemnt?
Poll conducted October 14 to November 04, 2009 . For Results
