Genocide of The Sri Lankan Tamils Memorandum to USA President

Protesters want US to intervene in Sri Lankan war
Hafiz Yatim | Apr 17, 09 11:59am

A small group of protesters today gathered at the American Embassy at Jalan Tun Razak in Kuala Lumpur to urge Washington to intervene to stop the civil war in Sri Lanka.

Led by the KL-based Global Peace Initiative, the 20-odd protesters wanted US president Barack Obama to urge the Sri Lankan government to stop targeting and victimising innocent Tamil civilians in their fight against rebels LTTE.

Global Peace Initiative coordinator S Pasupathi also submitted a memorandum to US embassy representative Eugene Axe.

Also present in the protest were Pakatan legislators R Sivarasa, M Manogaran, Charles Santiago and S Manikavasagam.

sri lanka protest us embassy 170409 01The 25-year-old conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE reached a high in recent days when the government troops managed to corner the rebels into a 17 square kilometre strip of northeastern coastline.

The problem however is that tens of thousands of civilians too have been forced to stay with the remaining LTTE soldiers in the tiny area.

According observers, the Sri Lankan government’s continuous attacks onto the enclosure were causing high civilian casualties.

The United Nation has also swung into action to protect the civilians by sending the secretary-general’s chief of staff to Sri Lanka to arrange for the trapped civilians to escape.

UN officials also said that they have been pushing the Sri Lankan government to stop shelling areas where civilians are concentrated.

Pasupathi: Force a ceasefire

Pasupathi said the fear was that many innocent people, including women and children, in grave danger of being massacred.

“There are 190,000 civilians entrapped within a small area of safety zone… they are facing danger everyday,” he said.

Sri Lanka two-day ceasefire in war against Tamil Tigers”We want the US government, being a superpower, to intervene and order the Sri Lankan government to have an immediate ceasefire to stop the genocide,” he said

The memorandum submitted today also highlighted the Sri Lankan government’s intention to “wipe out” every Tamil from the island-state.

It said that the government troops have “killed more than 77,000 Tamil civilians, including children”.

“During the last three month, more than 4.100 Tamils have been killed and more than 8,000 wounded by the government armed forces.”

The memorandum also quoted Sri Lankan defence secretary Kottabaya Rajapakse as saying: “From now on, let the women captured in Mullaitivu be the feast of our soldiers. Let the blood of the men captured there redden the Indian ocean”.

Besides wanting the US intervention, the Global Peace Initiative also hoped Obama will request the meeting of the United Nation’s security council at once and order a permanent ceasefire there.

It also wanted the UN to deploy peace keeping forces to the war zone.

Charles: Asean should also intervene

Klang MP Charles Santiago also called on Asean, of which Malaysia is a founding member, to help stop the conflict.

sri lanka violence 110309 03″The number of casualties among civilians is staggering and efforts have to be made to stop the genocide,” he said.

Santiago said the international community should also pressure Sri Lanka to stop the escalating conflict there to prevent further civilian deaths.

He said the Sri Lanka Tamils were in dire need of international intervention and hoped that the US government would take some action.

Meanwhile R Sivarasa, who is also Subang MP, said they had handed over similar memorandum to Sri Lanka and the United Nations to pile up the pressure to stop the killings.

Sivarasa said they will also hand a memorandum to the Indian High Commissioner next Tuesday to seek their support to stop the killings