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Dear Secretary-General
With the anniversary of the military victory over the LTTE approaching, we thank you for your firm insistence on a credible investigation of war crimes committed by both parties to the conflict. We look forward to the announcement of an appropriately qualified committee of experts to ensure this.
Meanwhile, almost 100,000 Tamil civilians are still interned, about 6 months after the deadline for their promised release, and over 10,000 alleged LTTE supporters are still held in special camps. As the ICRC has still not been allowed to visit them without restrictions, we can only fear the worst for the treatment they are likely to be receiving.
Sadly, the nine original demands of the Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice remain unmet. We therefore urge you to appoint a permanent Special Envoy who can maintain daily effective international pressure on the issue of accountability for war crimes, while also securing a well-organised release of the internees. This must include, as an urgent first step, publication of the names and locations of all those still held in camps of any kind, including LTTE suspects.
Sri Lanka is becoming a role model for other repressive regimes. Your remit to protect human rights and promote peace can only become harder in the future if the Sri Lanka Government goes unchallenged. Please act now.
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Click here to read the 9 demands of this Campaign
* Almost 100,000 innocent civilians who have survived a long and very bloody war are still imprisoned in detainment camps in northern Sri Lanka by their Government.
* These victims of war are being treated as prisoners and suffer from lack of water, sanitation and medical treatment, widespread disease and separation from loved ones.
* The Sri Lankan Government has severely restricted ICRC, UN and international NGOs' involvement, prolonging the misery and raising grave concerns about what is happening out of sight.
* Wartime policies continue with severe restrictions on the press and systematic use of extra-judicial murder and torture. Pro-government paramilitary groups have free run of the camps.
* The Government is now reportedly engaged in an ethnic 're-balancing' - moving Sinhalese and others into the region, while giving political control to Tamil war-lords it has selected.
But this is not just about Sri Lanka Today
* Sri Lanka - a conflict which has seen over 100,000 deaths over the last 25 years, with 20,000 civilians reportedly killed in the last days of this latest war - has been dismissed as too complicated and not important enough by foreign governments and the UN. The approval of a large IMF loan to Sri Lanka is evidence of just how little the international community cares.
* If this approach is allowed to continue, we are setting an awful precedent and forgetting everything that was said after Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur.
* The Sri Lankan 'peace through war' model is already being promoted in Burma, Pakistan, and elsewhere.
* Having won the war, the Government's support for the illegal use of force and violence is now sowing the seeds of the next stage of this conflict.
If all the people who read this choose to act & send this email, it WILL make a big difference. Many in power have effectively abandoned the people in these camps - please don't abandon them too.