Letter to President Obama from Member of Pariament R.

UNCLAS COLOMBO 000097


STATE FOR S/ES-CR

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OPDC PREL PGOV CE
SUBJECT: Letter to President Obama from Member of Pariament R.
SAMPANTHAN


1. Embassy Colombo received the following letter from Member of
Parliament R. SAMPANTHAN concerning the Tamil National question in
Sri Lanka [BEGIN TEXT]:

21 January 2009

His Excellency Barack Obama
The President of the United States of America
The White House
Washington D.C.
U.S.A.

Dear Mr. President,

THE TAMIL NATIONAL QUESTION IN SRI LANKA

We write to you as the representatives in the Parliament of Sri
Lanka of the Tamil people of the Northeast region comprising the
Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka - the areas of
historical habitation of the Tamil speaking people. Of the 23 Tamil
representatives elected to Parliament from the Northeast, 22 belong
to our Party.

May we extend to you our warmest congratulations and very best
wishes on your assumption of office as President of the United
States of America.

Your election to office of President of the USA is a source of hope,
encouragement and inspiration to all peoples who seek to be freed
from injustice.

We write to fervently appeal that your administration should address
the Tamil National Question which has plagued Sri Lanka ever since
the country attained independence over six decades ago in 1948.
During this period the Tamil people have suffered much injustice.

May we briefly outline the causes for this conflict and its
continuance. [note internal numbering]


1. Sri Lanka is inhabited by two distinct Nations of People, the
larger Sinhala speaking people and the smaller Tamil speaking
people. The Tamil speaking people have been an overwhelming majority
in the Northeastern region just as much as the Sinhala speaking
people have been in the rest of Sri Lanka. Instead of recognizing
this reality, the Sri Lankan State whilst trying to portray an
inclusive Sri Lankan civic identity, in fact is entrenched with a
Sinhala Buddhist supremacist nationalism that wants exclusive
control over the entirety of Sri Lanka. Consequently the Sri Lankan
State has failed to enact constitutional provisions that give the
Tamil speaking people the right to internal self-determination in
the area of their historical habitation - the Northeastern region.
This supremacist form of nationalism has resulted in the Sri Lankan
State altering the demographic composition of the areas of
historical habitation of the Tamil speaking people through State
aided Sinhala colonization. Despite this, the Tamil speaking people
remain a significant majority in the Northeast.


2. Flowing from 1 above, the denial to the Tamil people of physical
security and the denial of the security of their homeland; the Tamil
people have been subjected continuously to racial pogroms first in
1956, and thereafter in 1958, 1961, 1977, 1981, 1983 and such
violence continues against the Tamil people up to the present.
Following such continuous racial pogroms large numbers of Tamil
people have left the country and continue to do so.


3. Flowing from 1 above, discrimination in the fields of education,
public sector employment, health care and social services, economic
empowerment and development, and in the utilization of the natural
resources in the Northeastern region, to the detriment of the
historical inhabitants - the Tamil speaking people.


4. The prosecution of the war in the Northeastern region,
purportedly to militarily defeat the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam (LTTE),with total unconcern for the immense harm inflicted on
the non-combatant Tamil civilians resident therein by aerial
bombardment of, and the firing of multi barrel rocket launchers and
heavy artillery into Tamil civilian populated areas resulting in
death and injury to substantial numbers of Tamil civilians including
women, children and infants, the destruction of valuable civilian
assets both residential and occupational and the inexorable
reduction of a people who have led respectable and contented lives
in their historical habitations to a state of destitution and
penury. It is our submission that the Sri Lankan State prosecutes
the current war in the manner outlined above in the pursuit of a
given ideological position - the assertion of a Sinhala Buddhist
supremacy throughout the whole of Sri Lanka, and that in order to
achieve that objective a process of Genocide of the Tamil people is
in progress. The media does not have the freedom to cover the war
zone. The United Nations agencies and International Non-Governmental
organizations have been directed by the government to leave the war
zone. Consequently no independent information is available to the
outside world, thereby facilitating the implementation of the
government's objectives.



5. Sri Lanka's record on human rights is one of the worst in the
Comity of Nations. It consequently failed recently to succeed in its
attempt to be re-elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council.
The repeated requests of the UN High Commissioner for human rights
to set up a UN human rights monitoring mechanism in Sri Lanka, to
monitor the grave human rights situation particularly in view of the
prevalent state of impunity, has been consistently rejected by the
Sri Lankan State. An International Independent Group of Eminent
Persons (IIGEP) was appointed consequent to international pressure,
by the government of Sri Lanka to ensure that a local Commission of
Inquiry appointed to investigate certain identified violations of
human rights, functioned in keeping with international norms and
standards. Consequent to unwarranted government interference the
IIGEP have withdrawn stating publicly the reasons for their
conclusion that the Sri Lankan State does not have the political or
institutional will to inquire into human rights violations in
keeping with international norms and standards. Recording of
evidence through teleconferencing was being done in two cases. (i)
The assassination of 5 students in Trincomalee. (ii) The
assassination of 17 aid workers of the INGO "Action Contra la Faime"
in Muthur, Trincomalee. In both these cases witnesses had left the
country consequent to intimidation. The recording of evidence by
teleconferencing has been stopped due to government interference.
Four members of the Commission of Inquiry too have subsequently
resigned presumably also due to such unwarranted government
interference. A Bill entitled "Protection of Victims of Crime and
Witnesses Bill" was tabled in Parliament to afford a measure of
protection to victims and witnesses. The Bill has now been
abandoned. The Commission of Inquiry which was the Sri Lankan
State's only visible exercise on human rights has thereby lost
credibility. Extra judicial executions, enforced disappearances and
other grave human rights violations continue to be a regular feature
in Sri Lanka.


6. Sri Lanka's purported steps to evolve an acceptable political
solution to the Tamil National Question are no more than a mere
charade to mislead the international community into the belief that
the State is committed to an acceptable political solution. On the
contrary the Sri Lankan State has reneged on commitments already
made such as the purported de-merger of the merged Northern and
Eastern provinces, which were constituted as a single
politico-administrative unit under the Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement of
1987, on the incontrovertible basis that the said two provinces
constituted the areas of historical habitation of the Tamil speaking
people. Sri Lanka seeks thereby to unilaterally abrogate an
international treaty which it cannot do under International Law. The
merger of the Northern and Eastern provinces was accepted by the
international community as the corner stone of the peace process,
and the purported de-merger is despite the strongest advice by the
international community that the merger should not be disturbed.

The Sri Lankan State we submit is committed to perpetuate the
ideology of a Sinhala Buddhist supremacy with all its consequences
throughout the whole country. This we submit is the prime cause of
the conflict.

The Sri Lankan State today pursues its policies clearly on the basis
that it is answerable to no one for whatever it does. This we submit
is a very dangerous trend and will inevitably cause immense harm to
the Tamil speaking people living in Sri Lanka, instability in the
region, and promote majoritarian ethno religious nationalism,
authoritarianism and hegemony.

Consequently, we would like to urge that the policy of the United
States of America towards the resolution of the Tamil National
Question reflects the existence of two distinct Nations of People
inhabiting Sri Lanka and where these two nations are encouraged to
associate with one another by pooling their sovereignties to form
the State.

We would earnestly urge you to utilize your good offices to ensure
that the Sri Lankan State in the words of President Abraham Lincoln
"thinks anew and acts anew" to ensure justice to all its peoples.

Whilst we sincerely appreciate the very onerous nature of the duties
that you have assumed, we seek your indulgence to state that the
Tamils in Sri Lanka face extinction as a People. In the
circumstances, may we most earnestly urge that our appeal receives
your earliest possible attention and that as a first step to a final
acceptable resolution of the Tamil National Question, the current
war be brought to an end.

Thanking you and with our warm regards.

Yours sincerely,
//s//

R. SAMPANTHAN M.P.
Parliamentary Group Leader
Tamil National Alliance

[END TEXT]


BLAKE