As of June 5, twenty thousand Tamil civilians, men, women and children, have been killed as a result of unceasing, indiscriminate and illegal shelling by the Sri Lankan Army. Entire towns have been decimated, and many forced to flee their homes. Many Tamils have been sent to “safe zones” that are anything but safe, with widespread reports of summary executions of civilians.
The scale of the rapidly deteriorating conditions of the 300,000 Tamils as a result of this ongoing government offensive is still not fully known. Rather than attempt to ameliorate the situation, the Sri Lankan government has instead imposed a near complete blockade, denying access to international relief agencies as well as international media. The Government has indefinitely imprisoned more than 150,000 Tamils in detention camps, as a form of illegal collective punishment. They remain untreated for their injuries, and many more are without food or clean water.
The Tamils have been the victims of systematic and unceasing ethnic discrimination since Sri Lanka gained independence in 1948. This discrimination is aimed at undermining any expression of Tamil national identity and consciousness. Pogroms were orchestrated, massacres perpetrated, and self-determination denied. Under the guise of “counter-insurgency” and the “war on terror,” the Sinhalese-majority government has brutally crushed any and all rightful resistance by the Tamil people to the wholesale violations of their national, civil and human rights.
The Palestinian community in the United States mourns with the Tamil diaspora in the US, and asserts its solidarity with the Tamil people as they struggle for their national rights and resist the war waged against them.
The Palestinian community in the United States joins the Tamil community in demanding that:
- the United States, as well as the United Nations, uphold the UN Genocide Convention, the UN Declaration on Human Rights, and the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and condemn the Sri Lankan government’s egregious violations of international law.
- the Sri Lankan government immediately release all Tamil political prisoners and dissolve all detention camps.
- the Sri Lankan government allow all refugees who wish to do so to safely return to their homes and compensate them for their losses.
- the Sri Lankan government address all the grievances of the oppressed Tamil community and work genuinely towards a political solution that ensures their full rights.
- the international community act immediately to bring all those responsible for the deaths of innocent civilians to justice.
US Palestinian Community Network
June 11, 2009
