Tamils for Obama Congratulates President on the Peace Prize

Asks him to help restore peace in Sri Lanka

by Tamils for Obama, October 9, 2009

Tamils for Obama wrote to congratulate President Obama on receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. It conveyed the good wishes of its members and asked Obama to take measures to protect Tamils in Sri Lanka from the on-going ethnic cleansing campaign of the Colombo government.

New York, NY (PRWEB) October 9, 2009 -- Tamils for Obama wrote to congratulate President Obama on receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. It conveyed the good wishes of its members and asked Obama to take measures to protect Tamils in Sri Lanka from the on-going ethnic cleansing campaign of the Colombo government.

"We at Tamils for Obama wish to congratulate President Obama and express our pride and satisfaction at the Nobel Committee honoring the president with the Nobel Peace Prize," said a spokesman for the Tamil organization. "We hope the president will act to restore peace in Sri Lanka. If the ethnic cleansing that is Colombo's custom intensifies, we trust that President Obama will act to stop it. We said this in a letter we sent to President Obama just a few minutes after he spoke at the White House to the American people."

"Our letter to the president states 'As some of your earliest supporters, we at Tamils for Obama wish to express our pride and satisfaction at the Nobel Committee honoring you with the Nobel Peace Prize. We heard your acceptance speech this morning, in which you said that no one person or one country can fulfill the obligations suggested by this great honor. We admire and mean to follow your example of pride tempered by humility. Of course we are a bit proud too, because we (along with millions of others) helped to place you where this kind of recognition could be earned.

'Again, congratulations on receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. An uncountable number of our members have written to tell us how pleased they were to hear the news this morning, and they urged us to convey their heartfelt congratulations and good wishes.'"

The spokesman said "In our letter we then went on to the subject that is most urgent to us, the persecution of Tamils by the Sri Lankan government. In our letter to the president we wrote 'During your campaign for the presidency you stated that you would never send U.S. troops abroad unless there was the threat of genocide against a group of people. There is such a threat. In Sri Lanka the government has been carrying on a campaign of ethnic cleansing ever since the British left in 1948. It involved nation-wide government-inspired race riots against the Tamils. There were new laws stripping Tamils of citizenship, voting rights, and public employment. Other measures kept Tamil youths out of college. Inevitably, armed resistance began in 1983.

'Now, having won the civil war, the government seems to be spurning their peace dividend and preparing for more civil war.'"

The spokesman went on: "We then quoted what we consider a neutral and reliable source, Japan Times, which recently wrote 'Not content with increasing the military's size five-fold since the late 1980s to more than 200,000 troops today, Colombo is raising the strength further to 300,000, in the name of "eternal vigilance." Soon after the May victory, the government, for example, announced a drive to recruit 50,000 new troops to help manage the northern areas captured from the rebels.'"

(Here is the link to the Japan Times article: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20090919bc.html )

Tamils for Obama's letter continues, "The Japan Times is right. Sri Lanka already has a far larger army than any country its size requires. The extra soldiers it is adding are apparently needed because the Colombo government expects to reignite a rebellion among the Tamil population, a rebellion it is right to expect because it is doing everything in its power to provoke the rebellion. For instance, it is holding over 250,000 internally displaced Tamil civilians in internment camps, with no indication that they will be released any time soon. It is continuing to resettle Singhalese in areas from which Tamils were driven. It continues to tolerate (or commit) the murder of journalists and aide workers."

The spokesman said "We concluded with the question 'Why would a government want to start up another civil war within its boundaries?'

"We then answered the question. 'We think that Colombo's goal is to drive the Tamils out of Sri Lanka as fast as they can. For Colombo, the best way to do this is to recommence the war that ended last May. We expect that the government is going to re-start the civil war and kill as many Tamils as they can with aerial attacks, shelling, cluster bombing, and so forth. That is, kill and scare away as many Tamils as possible, as fast as possible. We would prefer to be wrong about this, but our experience with the Colombo government allows us no such hope.'

"We ended by reminding the president of what we consider to be his responsibilities: 'We hope you will act to restore the peace in Sri Lanka. If the ethnic cleansing that is Colombo's custom intensifies, we trust that you will act to stop it.'"

Read the whole letter at: www.Tamilsforobama.com/Letters/Nobel_obama_10_09_2009.html

Tamils are an ethnic group living mainly in the northeast of Sri Lanka and southern India. During the final weeks of the recent civil war, the Sri Lankan government killed about 1,000 Tamil civilians per day, according to the United Nations, and about 30,000 in 2009. Tamils are a minority population in Sri Lanka, and have borne the brunt of a civil war they regard as genocide. One-third of the Tamil population has fled the island and formed a substantial diaspora overseas. Tamils for Obama is comprised of Tamils who have settled in the U.S. or who were born in the U.S.

To contact the group, call at (617) 765- 4394 and speak to, or leave a message for, the Communication Director, Tamils for Obama.
www.TamilsForObama.com
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