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Diaspora Lifeline Sustains Vanniby Tamil Guardian, London, June 14, 2012
Repeating a common falsehood, Sri Lanka’s President Rajapakse recently lambasted the Tamil diaspora as not having spent a penny on helping the Tamils of the Vanni. Speaking at the opening of the communications tower in Kilinochchi last week he claimed that ‘not a single member of the so called Tamil Diaspora shouting in foreign countries to protect the rights of Tamils, has donated a single dollar for the welfare of Tamils in Sri Lanka.’ Since the war’s end, “many Tamils living overseas have begun transferring money to their relatives, particularly the war displaced in the Vanni region,” the paper said. In fact, the total of Diaspora support for Tamils in Sri Lanka would be much higher, since the substantial transfers through the informal ‘undial’ system are not accounted for in the BoC’s figures.. And given the Rajapaksa government’s deliberate neglect of the people of the Vanni, without this community support it is likely that many in the region will simply starve. As Harim Pieris, the former Presidential Spokesman notes:
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