Take Action

We strongly urge you to converse your house represenatitive to co-sponsoring Reps. Danny Davis and Sheila Jackson-Lee’s recently introduced House Resolution 711 “Calling on the United States Government and the international community to address the human rights and humanitarian needs of Sri Lanka's Tamil internally displaced persons (IDPs) currently living in government-run camps by supporting the release of such IDPs, implementing and facilitating an independent oversight of the process of release and resettlement, and allowing foreign aid groups to provide relief and resources to such IDPs.”

Three hundred thousand Tamils are interred indefinitely in camps with no freedom of movement, surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by the Sri Lankan military. Amb. Lunstead, who served in Sri Lanka during the peace process, has said that Tamils are being interred ‘simply because they are Tamils.’

Human Rights Watch on Aug. 17 said, “In violation of international law, the government has since March 2008 confined virtually all civilians displaced by the fighting between government forces and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in detention camps, euphemistically called "welfare centers" by the government. Only a few thousand camp residents have been released and allowed to return home or to stay elsewhere. “ The government promised both US SC Ban Ki-moon and US Asst Sec Eric Schwartz that 80% of those interred would be released and returned/resettled during 2009, but is now backtracking from those promises.