Tamils for Obama Urges Assistant Secretary Blake not to Pressure TNA

“After 1977 many government-inspired large-scale killings of Tamils took place in Sri Lanka,” said the spokesman. “This led to the outbreak of armed resistance.”

(NEW YORK) - 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.

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.

Robert Blake is US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian and Central Asian affairs. He was previously US ambassador to Sri Lanka.

“As the representative of the sole remaining super power, Assistant Secretary Blake should not exert undue pressure on the Tamils’ elected representatives,” said a spokesman for Tamils for Obama. “He should remember that Tamils are the victims here, not the perpetrators.

“Assistant Secretary Blake should exert pressure on the Sri Lankan Government and not on the victimized population,” said the spokesman. “We also think he should talk to those Members of Parliament who were elected by the people they represent, not with those MPs who were appointed by political parties. We think appointed MPs have no clue what’s going on on the ground. More importantly, we think that the US, while championing democracy around the world, should not talk to un-elected MPs.”

Since the end of the war in 2009, Tamils have been at the receiving end of government violence and abuse. The Tamil National Alliance MPs have held several rounds of talks to find some solution to the decades-old problem.

“Assistant Secretary Blake should realize that there is a long history of failed talks between elected Tamil MPs and Singhalese leaders over the last fifty years,” the Tamil spokesman said. “An agreement was signed in 1957 between then Prime Minister Bandaranayke and Tamil leader Chelvanayagam. But the majority of the Sinhalese community and Buddhist monks protested the agreement, and a Buddhist monk shot and killed the Prime Minister. That ended the 1957 agreement.

“There were several other agreements over the years,” said the Tamil spokesman, “and everything failed.”

Tamils during the 1977 parliamentary elections overwhelmingly voted to establish a sovereign and independent state in their traditional homeland in the North and East of the island.

“After 1977 many government-inspired large-scale killings of Tamils took place in Sri Lanka,” said the spokesman. “This led to the outbreak of armed resistance.”

“We request Assistant Secretary Blake to find the true desire of Tamils,” the spokesman concluded, “and we think the best way to find out is to hold a UN-supervised referendum.”

Tamils for Obama is a politically active group of Tamil Americans. We supported Hillary Clinton and then Barack Obama in the Democratic primary and US general election in 2008. We believe that over 70,000 Tamil civilians were massacred during the last weeks of the Sri Lankan civil war. We have watched the behavior of the Sri Lankan Singhalese victors after the war, and we strongly conclude that Tamils in Sri Lanka will only be safe when this unfortunate island is divided into two states.

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Anonymous September 1, 2011 2:19 am (Pacific time)

A disgusting pattern in your articles is that this is the same propaganda used by the Tamil terrorist sympathisers in the tamil diaspora. You have become a mouthpiece for Tamil propganda like the LTTE mouth piece tamilnet and numerous others. By reading the comments section also it is obvious that the LTTE sympathisers form a vast majority of your readership. These people have been brainwashed since birth are rabidly racist/chauvinistic and think they are superior and more cunning than other Sri Lankans. Are you the same, are you just provided these one sided stories or are you funded by them?

Tim King: I am a humanist, we are not supported by the LTTE and I resent your remarks, they are just whitewash to throw people off track. How can there be two sides? This is not a hit piece on the Sinhala population, I have many friends who are Sinhalese, it is about the mass murder of defenceless human beings.

John September 1, 2011 2:10 am (Pacific time)

according to your logic any terrorist organization with good funding and overseas propaganda network can terrorize people at their will and the government who is responsible for all citizens has to give in to all demands. Every tribe in every ghetto will take up arms. Are we going forward to live peacefully in multicultural countries or backwards where tribes will be engaged in eternal warfare creating there mono-ethnic enclves (Tamil Eelam). Are you aware that the Northern SL Tamil terrorists engaged in true ethnic cleansing chasing away Singhalese and tamils threats of death and destruction. Are you also aware that more than 55% of Tamils live peacefully with other communities in the rest of the country. They will only feel insecure with rantings of chauvinists who live overseas who are trying to disturb this peace with terrorist loving media like you.

Tim King: Tamil Eelam is an attempt for a culture to seek fairness, and if you know history then you know that for 30 years, the Tamils tried to exist only in peace and used Gandhi's techniques to seek a solution without arms, however the government of Sri Lanka is more interested in ethnic cleansing and Genocide, just murder everyone.... Well that is terrible and it is equally harsh for anyone to make excuses for what took place in 2009. There is only one Tami Eelam, it should be allowed to exist, especially now.

Sri Lankan Pride August 27, 2011 8:38 pm (Pacific time)

Editor: Sri Lankan Tamil citizens indeed believe he is a war criminal.

Well in a democracy there will be a few that differ in their opinion of President Rajapakse which includes Tamils and Sinhalese(just as you think the former president is a war criminal) however the overwhelming majority believe in President Rajapakse as our leader and thats why he was voted in for a second time and will soon be for the third time

Why dont you take up the fight for the native americans? Are they not human?

Editor: We do fight for Native Americans, and I would never stand up for that period in American history, it is obscene. The Americans were at a high point during WWII though this supposedly free country did not allow Black Americans to serve without segregation until 1947. After WWI the U.S. Army opened fire on U.S. veterans who were camped out on the White House lawn with their families in protest over a check they were promised but never provided. During the Philippine Insurrection U.S. forces did what they are doing today, and that is to slaughter Muslim people.as they have done in the Middle east and continue to do today. You want to know who a good person is? That would be Bradley Manning. Our writer Chuck Palazzo was a Marine in the Vietnam War and today he lives in Da Nang giving back to the people who the Marines brought violence to then. He covered the 44th anniversary of the slaughter at My Lai. As a reporter, I observed detainees being terribly abused by Americans who I presume were with 'Blackwater' and reported it. I am trying to make you understand that this is nothing personal, these stories are not about the average Sinhalese Lankans, however it is a constant expression of anger and disgust over what happened to the Tamils. There are no excuses for it, and it is my belief that you do not go far enough in appreciating the tragedy. I noticed you said some things in this that show your realization of what happened, and why things are the way they are, but it has to be laid on thick or your country could do it again. I make no excuses for any acts of my country, please understand that. I give credit where it is due and I hope you just understand that you can't walk around this one, you have to take it straight on and when you are critical about it, when you are demanding more answers, more accountability, then you will understand. No offense but the whole election thing is humorous. You are surprised that the Sinhalese reelected Rajapaksa, really? The former President now wishes she had disbanded the entire system, remember that? Sure, he looks like a nice president, a nice guy, and we westerners are raised to believe that Buddhists are some of the world's fairest and kindest peace oriented people. The acts of your military shatter my vision of this.

Sri Lankan Pride August 26, 2011 9:51 pm (Pacific time)

"it takes a world to raise a country when the country demonstrates that it is savagely brutal toward its own citizens". Are ou referring to your own native country? Was it the United nations that helped end segregation in the US? Who has stood up for the rights of the native americans that were brutalized by the white settlers. So Editor before you go preaching to another country why dont you start with war crimes against all all those people that killed blacks and native americans. I am sure some of your own decendents maybe guilty of war crimes in the US. Although you may think our President is a war criminal the Sri lankan citizens dont think so and in fact voted him into power for another 6 years.

Editor: Sri Lankan Tamil citizens indeed believe he is a war criminal.

Sri Lankan Pride August 26, 2011 10:44 am (Pacific time)

Obviously the editor does not know the meaning of the word intolerance. Intolerance the virtue of war criminals? So does this mean that countries need to be accountable to the entire world instead of the citizens of the country? Perhaps when the September 11 events took place the US should have just turned the other cheek since it would be intolerant to invade Afghanistan. The Sri lankan nation fully supported the position taken by the US to punish all those who are responsible. Does this make the leaders of the US including thecurrent president a war criminal? The point I was trying to make is that the Sri Lankan government is only accountable to the Sri Lankan people (which includes Tamils, Muslims, Sinhalse etc). Outsiders cannot demand the Sri lankan government to do anything. Also editor it may be best you tend to the ills in your own back yard before you go advising others. It must be frustrating not being able to boss a tiny country such as Sri lanka but thats just the way it is going to be.

Editor: It takes a village to raise a child, it takes a world to raise a country when the country demonstrates that it is savagely brutal toward its own citizens. Sri Lanka voided the right to be in charge of itself because of what Rajapaksa did. Do I think he is a war criminal? Absolutely, I also think George W. Bush is a war criminal all day, along with Rumsfeld, Cheney and a whole list of them. The origin has nothing to do with it. It is one world man and one human race.

Sri Lankan Pride August 25, 2011 7:20 pm (Pacific time)

Tamils for Obama must be smoking crack if they believe they have any leverage over the democratically elected government of sri lanka who is excercising the will of the Sri Lankan people. The Sri Lankan people will not tolerate outside interference especially by exiled terrorists and/or economic refugees that have no country to call their own

Editor: Oh, so you are intolerant inside and out? Is that your point? Intolerance is no virtue, more a quality of war criminals. What a great fit.

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