Chers amis,

Les documents ci-dessous sont des pétitions pour mettre fin à la guerre civile au Sri Lanka opposant le gouvernement cinghalais à la population tamoule.

La 1ère pétition est destinée au Président des Etats-Unis d’Amérique M. Obama et à la secrétaire d’Etat Mme Clinton. La 2ème pétition est destinée au Haut-Commissariat des Nations Unies aux Droits de l'Homme. Nous vous demandons donc de transférer ce mail à tous vos contacts, sans oublier de le signer pour faire cesser cette horreur et sauver nos frères et sœurs tamouls qui meurent à chaque instant.

 

La première pétition :

Dear Mr. President and Madam Secretary,

The people who signed this formal request are humbly asking you to take action to end the war in Sri Lanka.


The reasons you should take action are the following:

1.

The war that has been initiated by Sri Lanka on the Tamils in its territory is a genocidal war. Its purpose is to uproot all the Tamils from the northeast of Sri Lanka. It has provoked a mass exodus and dispersal of Tamils from the island, analogous to the Roman dispersal of Jews from Palestine in the first century or any other ethnic cleansing meant to remove an entire population.

 

2.

The war began almost the day Ceylon gained independence from Britain in 1948. It has involved grabbing lands from Tamils and resettling these lands with Singhalese convicts and/or Sri Lankan armed forces; discriminating against Tamils in employment and education; renaming Tamil areas with Singhalese names; and (for the last 25 years) bombing, shelling, and disappearing Tamil civilians.

 

3.

The government made Buddhism the state religion and has bombed Hindu and Christian places of worship, frequently replacing them with Buddhist temples.

 

4.

All efforts at mediation, negotiation, compromise, or peaceful resolution have failed due to stubbornness and insincerity by the Singhalese-dominated government.

 

5.

All international efforts at bringing peace and humanitarian assistance have ended with refusal of the Sri Lankan government to cooperate and the expulsion (and sometimes killing) of international observers and helpers.

 

 

 

We hope that the new Obama administration will act promptly and forcefully to end this ongoing genocidal war.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

The following signatures were collected by Tamils for Obama.

Further information about the ongoing genocide and its history is available at:

http://www.tamilsforobama.com/Slow_Genocide.html

Pour signer la première pétition :

http://www.tamilsforobama.com/sign/usersign.html

 

La deuxième pétition :


Hon.Navanethem Pillay
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
Palais Wilson
52 rue des Pâquis
CH-1201 Geneva, Switzerland

Dear Commissioner Pillay:

I am writing to you to make an urgent appeal to act immediately on the escalating humanitarian crisis faced by the Tamils in Sri Lanka. Today, a silent tragedy unfolds in Sri Lanka as the plights of Tamil civilians are disregarded by the International Community.

The Genocide Prevention Project, a New York based initiative listed Sri Lanka as one of the top eight "red alert" countries, where genocide is either already taking place or underway. The Government of Sri Lanka has implemented a genocidal strategy by placing an embargo on food, medicine, and other essentials. They have expelled various non-governmental organizations which were active in providing aid. The Government of Sri Lanka continued to escalate human suffering by carrying out intense aerial bombardments using cluster bombs. The government is also responsible for a media black out in Sri Lanka by preventing international media from reporting the genocidal atrocities on the ground.

Peter Campbell of the World Food Programme, commented how the conditions in northern Sri Lanka is similar to conditions observed in Somalia. Over half-a-million Tamils are displaced and the Government of Sri Lanka has carried out intense aerial bombardments on IDP settlements, hospitals, schools and churches. The International Committee of the Red Cross has expressed that they are extremely concerned about the civilians that are fleeing from the aggression by the military.

The Government of Sri Lanka is guilty of serious violations of international law and the Geneva conventions. At this time the Tamils in Sri Lanka are in dire need of international intervention.

It is my fervent hope that you will act immediately on these immense concerns of the genocidal atrocities that are being inflicted by the Government of Sri Lanka on the Tamils.

I urge the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights to act immediately to:

*    Stop the indiscriminate aerial bombings and artillery shellings carried out by the Government of Sri Lanka on Tamil civilians;

*    Allow international and local NGOs to the war affected areas to provide emergency assistance to internally displaced Tamils;

*    Allow international media and monitoring missions to report freely about the humanitarian crisis in the conflict zones;

*    Adopt a United Nations Human Rights Council Emergency Resolution calling for an end to the massive human rights violations against Tamils.


Sincerely,

Pour signer la deuxième pétition :


http://www.tamilidpcrisis.org/urgentAppeal/postcard.php

 

Merci d'avance.