Tamil Americans and Canadians to Rally Asking Chinese Assistance to Help Tamils in Sri Lanka

by Tamils Against Genocide, July 27, 2009

Tamil Americans, Tamil Canadians and their friends from around the New York metropolitan region and the East Coast will assemble on Monday, August 3rd from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM outside the UN Mission of The Peoples Republic of China at 350 East 35th Street in New York to protest China’s assistance to the Government of Sri Lanka towards ethnic cleansing and genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Tamils Against Genocide (TAG) urges The People’s Republic of China to use its good offices with the Government of Sri Lanka and encourage President Mahinda Rajapaksa to follow humanitarians norms and refrain from committing further atrocities against Tamils.

The Peoples Republic of China shielded the Government of Sri Lanka in the United Nations Security Council earlier this year during the genocidal onslaught by Sri Lanka armed forces on the Tamil Homeland. According to well documented media reports, more than 20,000 innocent Tamil civilians were massacred. Sri Lanka was supplied with weapons by China, which has led Sri Lanka towards a balance of payments crisis and the recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout. As Sri Lanka's armed forces chief recently announced a further expansion of armed forces personnel, international aid will be continued to be used for militaristic purposes and up-keep of a large Army.

China prevented a ‘humanitarian ceasefire’ for an onslaught Sri Lanka guised as a ‘humanitarian rescue operation’ that never considered any ‘human costs’. China’s veto at the United Nations Security Council contributed to the escalation of this genocidal onslaught and in shielding the war criminals and war crimes of Sri Lankan state. Continuing economic and military assistance from Beijing today enables the government in Colombo to destroy evidence of war crimes and detain war witnesses such as medical professionals, a parliamentarian and clergy and defy calls to close the concentration camps.

Although human-rights organisations and western governments have continued to protest at the situation of Tamils, the Sri Lankan government has found friends in the United Nations’ new Human Rights Council and was able to pass a resolution there on 27 May 2009 praising its own commitment to human rights endorsed by several nations, again led by China.

The chauvinist Sri Lanka leaders today are firm believers in militaristic triumphalism and are engaging in ethnic cleansing and in changing the demographics of Tamil areas. This is an evil combination that spells death for freedom-aspiring Tamils of Sri Lanka. Support for the Sri Lankan government's policy is a setback in the geo-political standing of nations that uphold freedom, democracy, humanitarian norms and dignity in the region.

TAG appeals to the world community to raise their voices also to request China to end her continued military and economic assistance. This aid enables the Sri Lanka to escalate ethnic cleansing and detention of Tamils in concentration camps, in defiance of calls by several world leaders and human rights organizations for more access to the camps for aid workers and international media and for immediate resettlement.

For more information contact: info@TamilsAgainstGenocide.org

Tamils Against Genocide, P.O. Box 529, Glen Echo, MD 20812-0529, USA – Tel: 301.806.1866