A video recently emerged showing Sri Lankan soldiers executing bound and naked Tamil civilian prisoners. The video was broadcast by the U.K.’s Channel 4 news. Tamils for Obama wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Attorney General Eric Holder, and U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka Patricia Butenis requesting them to block the entry of Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa’s delegation to the U.N. General Assembly session this fall where he plans to present SL military men to the assembly for the world’s approval. Tamils for Obama suggests that these soldiers will be revealed as war criminals and will eventually embarrass the U.N. and the U.S.
New York (PRWEB) August 28, 2009 — Britain’s Channel 4 news aired a video showing Sri Lankan soldiers executing bound and naked Tamil civilian prisoners.
(To see the Channel 4 news report go to: http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1184614595?bctid=35256686001)
Tamils for Obama, citing the Channel 4 video as further evidence of war crimes by the Sri Lankan military, requested that the U.S. refuse to allow President Rajapaksa’s delegation to enter the U.S. for the U.N. General Assembly session this fall. President Rajapaksa plans to include a number of Sri Lankan soldiers in this diplomatic delegation. Tamils for Obama maintains that most of them are guilty of war crimes like those shown in the video.
The video was made by a Sri Lankan soldier on his mobile phone and then passed along to an independent journalists’ group, which supplied it to Channel 4. The video seems to give clear evidence of this Sri Lankan war crime.
"We are pleased that this video emerged," said a spokesman for Tamils for Obama. "It came from independent sources–a Sri Lankan soldier and a European journalists’ group–who cannot be called propagandists for Tamils. This is plainly genuine."
Tamils for Obama also mentioned in a letter the Tamil group sent to Secretary of State Clinton, Attorney General Holder and Ambassador Butenis that "according to the U.N., the number of Tamil civilians killed by the Sri Lankan government is over 30,000 between January and May of this year."
The same Tamils for Obama spokesman said that "Stories of Sri Lankan atrocities still horrify us, but they are no surprise. As we wrote to Secretary Clinton and Attorney General Holder ‘We have heard stories like this for years. We have heard that thousands of crippled Tamil civilians were buried alive by the Sri Lankan armed forces on May 18, 2009, a story which we expect will eventually be proven and become part of the world’s consciousness.’"
The Tamils for Obama spokesman said that independent proof of the mass burials has not yet emerged, but that they are confident that the truth of the matter would eventually be proven.
The Tamils for Obama letter concludes "We consider that these bloody-handed killers are appropriately regarded as war criminals and should be barred from entering the U.S. We urge the U.S. state and justice departments to prevent them from entering the U.S. and exploiting American credulity."
To read the letter, go to: www.Tamilsforobama.com/Letters/SL_UN_Delegation.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.
(For updates you can share with your friends, follow TNN on Facebook and Twitter )