27th May 2009
Wellington Tamil Society
Media Release

Our Statement to New Zealand

On the afternoon of Sunday 24th May Wellington Tamils gathered together to mourn the passing of the many thousands of Tamils recently murdered in northern Sri Lanka. So many Tamils have died and are continuing to die. The memorial service commenced with multi-faith prayers followed by a sharing of thoughts and feelings by the members of the Wellington Tamil Society.

There is a palpable level of grief within the Wellington Tamil Society over what has occurred and what is continuing to occur in northern Sri Lanka. Literally thousands of civilians have been murdered – before and after the LTTE surrendered. The Sri Lankan government has blocked access for the UN and ICRC to the post-conflict zone and is in the process of burning and burying all trace of the murder victims.

Furthermore, countless wounded were left to die in the conflict zone rather than have their existence exposed to the United Nations.

In the concentration camps, where hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians are being forcibly held, aid agencies are complaining of severe restrictions placed by the Sri Lankan government on their access to those civilians. Human rights groups are warning that children are being abducted. Post-conflict, the Sri Lankan government is now lengthening the time the civilians have to be forcibly held.

Based on these events, Wellington Tamil Society makes the following statement:

Wellington Tamil Society’s open letter to the New Zealand government

Wellington Tamil Society has for the past several months consistently stated that unless there were internationally-monitored safe havens established in northern Sri Lanka, a bloodbath would ensue. No international monitors were allowed by the Sri Lankan government and a bloodbath did ensue. The international community did not sufficiently challenge the Sri Lankan government’s refusal. Thousands upon thousands of Tamils were murdered as a result.

Wellington Tamil Society has for the past several months consistently stated that unless food and medicine were allowed into the then conflict zone, people would die. The international community did not sufficiently challenge the Sri Lankan government’s blockade of food and medicine (a war crime). Death was the result, from elderly dying of starvation through to people of all ages dying of festering wounds.

Wellington Tamil Society has for the past several months consistently stated that unless the opaque military-run concentration camps are instead run by the United Nations, they would be used by the Sri Lankan government to cull the Tamil population. This is exactly what is happening right now. Many of the victims, which number in the tens of thousands, are teenage boys and girls. The Sri Lankan government calls this culling process ‘rehabilitation’, which occurs entirely behind closed doors. Rather than standing by, the international community still has the opportunity to halt this.

With regard to this culling process of Tamils, the estimated number of people in the Vanni region at the beginning of this year was 330,000, with some estimates as high as 490,000. According to the United Nations, 280,000 are either in or on the way to the concentration camps. The number killed during the last five months varies between 8,000 (United Nations estimate) and 25,000 (Tamil sources). That leaves 25,000 to 42,000 unaccounted, who are presumably being held in secret prisons. The number of unaccounted could be as high as 200,000. While acknowledging these numbers are unsubstantiated, the Sri Lankan government’s claim that there were only 70,000 in Vanni is now totally discredited. The United Nations’ estimate of 250,000 is already proven to be a significant under-estimate.

Wellington Tamil Society would like to communicate to New Zealanders that Tamils are human beings. Human beings cannot ignore the tens of thousands of their friends and family who have been murdered and disappeared and hundreds of thousand now held in concentration camps. We want justice for the dead and disappeared and freedom for the living before the future can be meaningfully addressed.

We hope the New Zealand government appreciates the desperation of the many Kiwi Tamils with relatives forcibly held in the concentration camps and supports efforts to have them released. As New Zealand helped East Timor soon after the destructions in 1999, we want New Zealand, through NZAID, to assist the hundreds of thousands of IDPs in northern Sri Lanka.

We Kiwi Tamils enjoy the ways the principles of democracy are practiced in New Zealand. Conversely, in the name of democracy, the Sri Lankan government kills Tamils. We request that the New Zealand government and the New Zealand Cricket Board cancel the Black Cap’s upcoming tour of Sri Lanka unless there is a full international investigation into the tens of thousands that have died via war crimes and who are now dying via disappearances.

Wellington Tamil Society’s vision for the future of Sri Lanka is one where each community in Sri Lanka is free to make its own decisions about its future. This vision is motivated by the now stark fact that the Sri Lankan government cannot be trusted to have veto power over Tamil life.

ENDS

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