Dr T Varatharajah, Dr T Sathyamurthy and Dr V Shanmugarajah are currently being detained by the Government of Sri Lanka, for working in the war zone during the recent phase of the Sri Lankan Civil War.
These brave men have risked their lives, to save others. Working through daily shelling, they never gave up trying to save the lives of innocent civilians who were being horrifically injured. There were hardly any drugs or medicines available, their staff members were dying around them and they were constantly facing death. Still these men did not waver towards their duty.
These doctors have been put forward for the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize, established by UNESCO and have been praised by the UN, Amnesty International, Physicians for Human Rights and Reporters Without Borders amongst many other international organisations.
We urge the British Government to intervene and secure the release of these doctors, who have not committed any crimes and have simply abided by their duty as physicians, even when they were facing the very real risk of losing their own lives.
Despite the official war in Sri Lanka having ended, major human rights violations are still being reported as over 280,000 Tamil civilians are being detained in Nazi-style camps in northern Sri Lanka.
These people have been traumatised by the war, having watched their love ones die, now they live in fear.
GLOBAL APPEAL!
Please send appeal letter TODAY to PM Gordon Brown, President Barack Obama and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, demanding that they do everything in their power to pressure the Sri Lankan Government to firstly ease the suffering and then close the camps.
Despite the official war having ended, major human rights violations are still being reported as over 280,000 Tamil civilians are being detained in Nazi-style camps in northern Sri Lanka.
They are living in overcrowded conditions, lack of food and water, inadequate medical facilities and poor sanitation. The camps are very basic and are surrounded by barbed wire, armed guards and resemble Nazi-style concentration camps.
There are reports of large scale human rights violations such as rape, torture, abductions and child recruitment by government backed paramilitaries. According to the UN’s latest figures over 13,000 civilians are “missing” from the camps.
The UN secretary General Ban Ki-moon visited the camps in May and said "I have traveled around the world and visited similar places, but this is by far the most appalling scenes I have seen" .
These people have been traumatised by the war, having watched their love ones die, now live in fear and are being treated worse than animals.
Of the survivors of the war at least 60% were injured and according to a local doctor over 20,000 are now amputees, so there is a desperate need for adequate medical care.
Global camp appeal
In response Act Now has launched a new global appeal. The appeal was launched in the form of a scroll at a celebrity event in London and can now be found online.
A number of top celebrities have signed the scroll including Bob Geldoff and former politician Tony Benn. The scroll has also been signed by a long list of British MPs.
The appeal is calling for Gordon Brown, President Obama and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to use all the means at their disposal to pressure the Government of Sri Lanka to meet the following requests:
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a)Unrestricted access to the camps for the UN, International Committee of the Red Cross, non-governmental organisations and all local and international media.
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b)Emergency medical treatment and care for all detainees.
c) Access to adequate food, shelter, water, clothing, medicine and sanitary facilities.
d) Transfer of control from the military to civil authorities and a removal of all military or paramilitary personnel from the camps
e) Release the full names and appropriate details of the detainees.
Final Aim
The release of all of the detainees and the closure of the camps.