Tamils for Obama to Kerry: When You're in Sri Lanka, Pay Attention to Tamils
New York, New York (PRWEB) April 30, 2015 -- Tamils for Obama wrote a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry concerning his trip to Sri Lanka. Tamils for Obama urged him to meet the widows and orphans of the Tamil dead. Tamils for Obama also asked Kerry to reaffirm US support for an international investigation of crimes committed during the ethnic civil war and for a referendum to determine the wishes of the Tamil population of Sri Lanka.
"We know that Kerry will be brought to meet the military widows of government soldiers," said the press spokesman for Tamils for Obama. "The government will arrange it and the Secretary of State will politely comply. What we said in our letter is that it is equally important that Mr. Kerry meet with the widows and orphans of the Tamils who fell in the ethnic civil war."
The letter stated "You will certainly meet many prominent people from Sri Lankan Sinhalese civil society. No doubt, you are already aware that these people will have been carefully chosen because they are supporters of the Sri Lankan government. Of course, this is right and good, but we hope and expect that you will take the time to meet the oppressed Sri Lankan minority Tamil population. British PM David Cameron did this when he visited Sri Lanka last year, and we hope you will do at least as much."
"We also wanted to bring up one of Tamil Ceylon's favorite Americans," the spokesman said. "Our letter said 'Mrs. Harriet Wadsworth Lathrop Winslow (was) a missionary who founded schools and hospitals in the northeastern (Tamil) areas of the island. She was beloved by the Tamils of Ceylon, and she is buried in Tellipalai in northeastern Sri Lanka. She was, by the way, a great-grandmother of your predecessor as Secretary of state John Foster Dulles. We hope that you will find time to visit her monument."
"Next, we brought up the perhaps controversial things that we hope Mr. Kerry will bring up during his visit," the spokesman went. "In our letter we wrote 'We hope also that you will mention the international investigation of Sri Lankan government atrocities during and since the ethnic civil war. The US has both introduced and supported UNHRC resolutions to conduct this investigation. This will likely annoy the Colombo government, but it will encourage the Tamils and strengthen their hope for justice.
"'The US has also supported referenda in South Sudan, Kosovo, and East Timor to discover the wishes of the people who live in those places. The situation of the Tamils in Sri Lanka is similar to the peoples in those places. We hope you will encourage such a referendum among the Sri Lankan Tamils.'"
Tamils for Obama is a politically active group of Tamil Americans. They believe that over 70,000 Tamil civilians were massacred during the last weeks of the Sri Lankan ethnic war. They have also watched the behavior of the Sri Lankan Singhalese victors after the war, and strongly conclude that Tamils in Sri Lanka will only be safe when this unfortunate island is divided into two states.
To contact the group, call at (516) 308-2645 and speak to, or leave a message for, the Communication Director, Tamils for Obama.
http://www.TamilsForObama.com
Email: info(at)TamilsforObama(dot)com
Communication Director, Tamils for Obama, http://www.tamilsforobama.com, +1 (516) 308-2645, [email protected]
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