Hindu American Foundation seeks Immediate Cease-Fire in Sri Lanka
HAF Seeks Immediate Cease-Fire in Sri Lanka to Avoid Massacre of Innocent Civilians
Washington, D.C. (April 22, 2009). The situation in Sri Lanka has become dire, as the two-decade old war between the majority Sinhalese and the minority Tamils approaches a dangerous military endgame. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), designated as a terrorist organization by more than 30 countries, has been fighting for a separate Tamil homeland since 1976. The situation turned extremely dangerous for the 50,000 to 100,000 ethnic Tamils caught between the LTTE forces earlier this month, fighting a last ditch battle in a small area of the eastern seaboard, and the Sri Lankan army demanding an unconditional surrender from the LTTE. The LTTE has said it will never surrender, and in that bid is holding the civilian population hostage.
More than 4,500 people have died since January 2009, and news reports trickling in from Sri Lanka indicate that the civilian population has been brutalized: one in four children under 5 were malnourished, and one in four children had limbs amputated, according to UNICEF. The International Society of the Red Cross has termed the situation “catastrophic”. The Sri Lankan government has not paid heed to the calls from nations around the world to observe a cease-fire to enable evacuation of the civilian population. While the government paused fighting for two days, it ignored calls for cease-fire talks demanded by the LTTE.
Journalists have been barred from the area of conflict, and reports trickling out are therefore unreliable. While the LTTE have claimed that government forces have wounded 1,400 and killed 492 children, the government says that the LTTE is killing civilians for propaganda purposes.
The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) called for an immediate cease-fire to enable the evacuation of innocent civilians. “The gamesmanship displayed by the Sri Lankan army and the LTTE forces should be condemned, and international pressure should be brought to bring a peaceful end to this dangerous standoff,” said Suhag Shukla, Managing Director, HAF. “It is an ethnic war, not a religious war, that has gone on for too long, and such a standoff as we are seeing now could lead to a slaughter of innocent civilians on an unprecedented scale.”
HAF has condemned both the Sri Lankan army as well as the LTTE for the violence, for the loss and displacement of innocent civilians, and the destruction of Hindu temples and other places of worship. HAF believes there can be no military solution to the problem, and the conflict should be settled through a durable political solution.
Full Text of Press Release by HAF
Sam from Canada said,
April 22, 2009 @ 11:16 pm
It seems that the only party who can put an end to this is LTTE. All they have to do is to take the UN advice and lay down the arms and release the innocent Tamil civilians.
Once that’s done there will be peace.
Tamils now should discard the LTTE and should look forward for a new life by contesting elections just like former LTTE “Karuna” now the chief minister of Eastern Province did.
All reports indicate that Tamils were held against their will by the LTTE all this time
HoneyBunny, Boca Raton, FL said,
April 23, 2009 @ 12:46 pm
I will tame the Tamil Tigers setting them straight on the pathway of the feminine divine birth rite in step 2 of 3. First I will break the seal of the Bible, Book of Revelation to the First Lady and a girls school and the entire world media screen, then in step 3 I will standardize your government interface, and the world will join us. Step 2 was revealed to me in a dream the night a woman held my head in her hands over her lap, then I looked into her eyes. Both step 2 and 3 have been through court and were documentation used in the process of judging me competent. I am the owner of that judgement. The Secret Service or the FBI have visited me – maybe 4 or 5 times, and they all know exactly who I am. The FBI and Secret Service gave me Carte Blanche to install the new interface on single condition: No crossing police radar or I’ll be involuntarily committed. I’ve matrixed an absent viral warning to your sky instead. My background is in predictive modeling and underwriting risk, and I do “carpe” data like I “carpe’ diem” for peace, and I carpe’d that judgement, then the feds dropped in for visit after visit after visit after visit while my family sat taking notes. Parts of what lies ahead went through the hand of my judge in court to my Senator, and the FBI verdict on the Senate was, “they all got it”. How would I not know that? I emailed it to them all, and now I am about to set that alarm clock, bigtime.