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Office of the Prime Minister
Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam
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www.tgte.org
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875 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 1001
New York, NY 10001, USA
January 6, 2011
Honorable Ban Ki Moon
Secretary General
United Nations
Dear Honorable Secretary General,
I am urgently writing to bring to your attention the recent escalation of violence in the island of Sri
Lanka. This escalation resulted in numerous Tamil civilians executed, kidnapped, raped and
disappeared. Tamils are living in fear and feel extremely nervous about their safety. I strongly urge
you to take immediate steps to address this crisis situation and to bring an end to these abuses.
Even though the war ended about a year and a half ago, the violence against the Tamil civilians
continued and in recent weeks has seen an escalation. Sri Lankan armed forces, comprised almost
exclusively Sinhalese, have saturated the North and East of the island and are backing pro-government
Tamil paramilitary groups. The barricade is so tight that it is hard to believe that these incidents can
take place without the knowledge or assistance of the Sri Lankan armed forces. These armed groups
and the armed forces virtually enjoy total impunity and are never brought to justice.
Recent escalation of violence resulted in the beheading of a young man, killing of a Hindu priest for
performing prayers to the war dead, execution of an education officer for objecting to the singing of
the national anthem in Sinhalese, assassination of an environmentalist, disappearance of a teacher, and
the abduction of a mother of six. The list goes on and on.
It is emphasized that the victims are all Tamils.
Every day there are reports of executions and kidnappings. It is in this environment of terror that
Tamils live in their homeland. These killings are not random acts of violence by the Sri Lankan armed
forces or pro-government armed groups. They are calculated acts to terrorize the Tamil people and to
subjugate them.
I urge you to understand the current escalation of killings in the context of the political history in the
island of Sri Lanka. The crimes which happened during the war and that still happen today are the
continuation of the structural genocide which Tamils living in Sri Lanka have been subjected to for the
past 60 years.
We applaud your decision to appoint Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts on Sri Lanka to investigate
and advice you on accountability issues for abuses that happened during the final stages of the war.
But since the war ended, numerous abuses are taking place against the Tamil civilians, including the
recent escalation. Your panel of Experts does not have the mandate to investigate these abuses. And
therefore we appeal to you to rectify this by broadening the Experts Panel’s mandate to address the
abuses that took place since the war ended, including the abuses that are currently taking place. This
will also help the panel to ascertain the intent of the Sri Lankan government and the scope and the
scale of the atrocities during the final stages of war.
Given the current situation, it is your intervention that will give some protection to the vulnerable
Tamil people in their homeland. I am appealing to you to take this matter very seriously and take
urgent action to prevent this from continuing unabated. I strongly urge you to:
1) Broaden the mandate of the Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts on Sri Lanka to cover the abuses
that took place since the end of the war, including current abuses.
2) Create a protection mechanism to safeguard the Tamil people in the island of Sri Lanka.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran
Prime Minister
Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam