Secretary Clinton spoke to the UN Security Council in September 2009 and urged the members to take a stand against sexual violence used as a tool of war. In Sri Lanka, armed forces are using it as a tool of political suppression. In a letter to Clinton on May 1, Tamils for Obama requested that Clinton use her influence to stop it“The Sri Lankan army is using sexual terrorism against Tamil women as part of their program of suppression,” said a spokesman for the US Tamil organization Tamils for Obama. “Mrs. Clinton has spoken out against sexual violence as a tool of war, and we hope that she will speak out against its use as a political tool.
“We reminded her that in September of 2009 she told the UN Security Council that ‘The dehumanizing nature of sexual violence doesn’t just harm a single individual… it shreds the fabric that weaves us together as human beings.’ We told her in a letter we sent her on May 1 that there is a particularly appalling example of government-backed sexual violence being carried out in the northeast of Sri Lanka, and we hoped that she would take action to stop it.”
“Our letter said ‘In Sri Lanka sexual violence is being used as a tool of political oppression. Tamil women in the northeast, usually war widows without homes and confined to “transit camps,” are visited and raped at will by Sri Lankan armed forces. These women lead lives of misery and fear; we at Tamils for Obama know because we have frequent contact with Tamils in northeastern Sri Lanka. Suicides, discarded new-born babies, and regular sexual extortion are part of these women’s lives.’
“We also mentioned in our letter that ‘Testimony gathered by Indian MPs who recently visited northeastern Sri Lanka seems to confirm these accounts.’”
The letter concluded “We hope that you can prod the forces of decency in the international community to intervene in Sri Lanka and put a stop to these horrors.”
To read the complete letter, go to: http://www.tamilsforobama.com/pressrelease/To_clinton_Stop_Rape_in_sri_Lanka.html
Sri Lanka: Women’s Insecurity in the North and East By International Crisis Group:
http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/asia/south-asia/sri-lanka/217-sri-lanka-womens-insecurity-in-the-north-and-east.aspx
Tamils for Obama is a politically active group of Tamil Americans. We supported Hillary Clinton and then Barack Obama in the Democratic primary and US general election in 2008. We believe that over 70,000 Tamil civilians were massacred during the last weeks of the Sri Lankan civil war. We have watched the behavior of the Sri Lankan Singhalese victors after the war, and we strongly conclude that Tamils in Sri Lanka will only be safe when this unfortunate island is divided into two states.
To contact the group, call at (617) 765-4394 and speak to, or leave a message for, the Communication Director, Tamils for Obama.
http://www.TamilsForObama.com
Email: info(at)TamilsforObama(dot)com
New York, NY (PRWEB) May 03, 2012