Plea for Your Evidence

by Bruce Fein, Esq., May 23, 2008

The time has come to bring the Rajapaksa brothers and General Fonseka to justice, especially Defense Secretary Gotabaya who is a United States citizen.

The Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) has been internationally repudiated for its genocidal campaign against Sri Lanka’s Tamils.

It has been expelled from the United Nations Human Rights Council.

It has been denounced by Nobel Peace Prize laureates.

It has been assailed by every human rights organization that has surveyed Sri Lanka’s bleak human rights landscape.

It has placed every Tamil outside the law with its Prevention of Terrorism Act and legalization of assassination squads authorized to shoot, kill, and secretly bury murdered Tamils.

Governments repulsed by the Rajapaksa brothers and General Fonseka are eager to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture, or extrajudicial killings.  But they have been stymied by the reluctance of the Tamil Diaspora to provide public testimony.  Cases cannot be prosecuted in civilized countries like the United States, Great Britain, or Canada based on secret evidence or anonymous statements.  The prosecution’s case must be public and the accused must have an opportunity to confront and cross-examine the witnesses against him.

The Tamils’ reluctance to be identified as a witness against the GOSL is understandable.  The Rajapaksa brothers and General Fonseka are ruthless.  They have retaliated against many of their critics.  Tamils who speak out against them enhance the risk that they or their relatives in Sri Lanka will be detained, robbed, or otherwise maltreated.     

But the GOSL’s threats of retaliation cannot be rewarded with Tamil silence. 

Silence only emboldens the Rajapaksa brothers and General Fonseka to greater Tamil atrocities.

No Tamil is an island, entire of himself or herself.  The silence of one Tamil endangers all others by permitting GOSL crimes to be perpetrated with impunity and entrenching the power of the Rajapaksa brothers and General Fonseka. At this stage in Tamil history, silence is not a morally satisfactory posture.

I urge the Tamil Diaspora to share with me under a cloak of confidentiality all direct or indirect evidence that the Rajapaksa brothers, General Fonseka, or their agents in the security services or paramilitary organizations have been involved in kidnappings, disappearances, extrajudicial killings, or torture.  I can arrange to meet and communicate confidentially and to insure that the proper law enforcement authorities receive your evidence.  You may communicate with me in confidence by calling me at 703-963-4968, sending an email to bruce@thelichfieldgroup.com, or mailing me at Bruce Fein & Associates, Post Office Box 65450, Washington, D.C. 20035.

Statehood has never been won with summer soldiers and sunshine patriots.  Every Tamil needs your courage and evidence.

Ending sixty years of Tamil vassalage in Sri Lanka is worth risking that last full measure of devotion. 

Bruce Fein
Attorney
Tamils for Justice