EUROPEAN UNION & THE TAMIL STRUGGLE
'Do
not send Tamil refugees back'
Rev.S.J.Emmanuel writes to European Commission
29
June 2000
The
President & Members of the European Commission
200 Rue de la Loi
B – 1049 Brussels, Belgium
Dear Sir/Madam
Stop Kfir Bombing in North Sri Lanka -
Do not send Tamil Refugees back
With a heavy heart I draw your attention to two events about which you and your
European partners can come to the help of a country committing genocide as well as a
national suicide.
1. In recent months when the ethnic
conflict has escalated very much and Tamils in all
parts of Sri Lanka, especially in Colombo, are arrested in their hundreds and subject
to detention and torture as acknowledged by
independent bodies like the Amnesty International,
many hundreds of Tamils are forcibly deported back to Colombo. From Germany’s NRW
region alone many hundreds are already deported and still about five thousand are to
follow according to press information. Most of them are arrested at the Colombo airport,
their documents confiscated, after a few days freed and then again arrested and so on.
Please take into consideration the security situation of these Tamils and postpone the
immediate deportations.
2. All EU countries are convinced that the
holocaust must never be allowed to happen in their land. It is also your duty to see that
the holocaust does not take place outside Europe and that your country by its foreign
policy does not in any way support the genocidal policies of governments like Sri Lanka,
which is spending over 30% of its Budget for a senseless war called “War for Peace”. Eight Israeli Kifir jets bought by Sri Lanka last
month are bombing civilian areas in the North of Sri Lanka. According to the Catholic Bishop Rayappu Joseph of
Mannar, within a week about 500 civilians have been killed. Because of the strict media blockade imposed by the government
of Sri Lanka for the last three years, the western media is not informed. Please take into
your kind consideration the ongoing genocide of the Tamils in Sri Lanka and exert maximum
pressure by sanctions within your power to stop
the indiscriminate aerial bombing of Tamil areas.
As a group of nations responsible for the human and just demands of a people to
survive with human dignity and human rights, I appeal to you to send your own team on a
fact finding mission to all parts of the island (including Wanni and Jaffna) and inform
yourself before sending back Tamil refugees or continuing your support to the Sri Lankan
government.
Yours respectfully,
S.J.Emmanuel |
