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Urge the UN to Invoke the Responsibility to Protect for Tamils in Sri Lanka

April 15, 2009

I am writing to you regarding the Sri Lankan government’s recent 48-hour ceasefire in Northern Sri Lanka, which was declared in order to allow Tamil civilians to flee the “safe zone,” an area where the Sri Lankan military has cornered up to 300,000 civilians.

While the UN has welcomed this as a positive first step in addressing the suffering of Tamil civilians, this professed “pause” in Sri Lanka’s military offensive barely addresses the enormous scale of suffering that Tamils inside the safe zone are experiencing. Local reports say the government has continued its intensive shelling of the region, despite its declaration of a 48-hour ceasefire. A permanent ceasefire is required in order to address the needs of thousands who are injured, malnourished, and traumatized from the Sri Lankan government’s aerial bombing and shelling campaign. Once a permanent ceasefire is implemented, international aid agencies, medical officials and independent journalists need clearance to access the conflict area.

A health official in the conflict zone recently reported that 69 percent of children under age 5 are malnourished. The health official stated that food supply is inadequate and several people have died due to starvation. On April 8, Sri Lankan army shelling killed 20 people who were waiting on line to receive milk powder from a mother and baby clinic in the “safe zone.”

Recent reports of government “internment centers” for the displaced civilians – in which civilians are denied their liberty and freedom of movement – are a worrying sign of things to come for the thousands of civilians still within the conflict zone. During the first day of the ceasefire, only 18 people left the “safe zone” despite reports from local sources that the government has continued to shell the region. Local reports reflect the overwhelming fear Tamil civilians are currently experiencing: both of the constant artillery shelling in the “safe zone” and of the internment camps in government-controlled areas.

There have been reports of the LTTE preventing civilians from leaving the “safe zone”, however local authorities in the “safe zone” state that there are civilians choosing to remain there in fear of abuses by the Sri Lankan government in the internment camps.

Secretary Hillary Clinton, British FM Miliband, UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay and others have already urged the GOSL not to fire into the “Safe Zone.” The Sri Lankan government’s willful disregard for the safety of civilians creates the need to invoke the Responsibility to Protect. R2P transfers the obligation to provide safety for civilians onto the international community when a sovereign state is unwilling or unable. Sri Lanka has repeatedly and deliberately attacked Tamil civilians and has thereby flouted its international obligations.

With the recent decision by the Sri Lankan government to end Norway’s role as peace broker there has never been a more urgent need for international leadership. We urge you to hold a special session on Sri Lanka at the UN Security Council to invoke the Responsibility to Protect. Immediate, drastic political, economic and possibly military action is needed to prevent a bloodbath of up to 300,000 Tamil civilians. The Sri Lankan government must agree to immediately implement a permanent ceasefire that would allow for international aid and monitors into the conflict zone.