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+--- Thread: Re. Tsunami Relief in Sri Lanka (/showthread.php?tid=5016)
Re. Tsunami Relief in Sri Lanka - eelapirean - 02-25-2005
Dear Friends,
We are facing a very sad and serious development. Sri
Lankan government's actions in the aftermath of
Tsunami disaster has take a turn for the worse.
It is now preventing all relief efforts to the Tamil
speaking Northeastern province. There are more than 50
containers of relief goods for Northeast being held in
Colombo customs. This includes shipments from TRO USA.
Sri Lankan government is asking $10,000 in duty or tax
for each container load of relief goods containing
mostly food, medicine and clothing.
Tamils Rehabilitation Organization has asked its
affiliate organizations abroad and well wishers to
hold back shipments to Colombo until this problem is
resolved.
Write or call your representatives
(congressman/senator) urging them to contact the Sri
Lankan ambassador and to put a stop to the
discrimination in Tsunami relief to tamil speaking
people.
A sample letter is attached below for you to modify
and send or have some idea on what should be done.
Please act immediately to this urgent appeal.
Thank You.
------------------------------
Sample Letter
(date)
The Honorable..............................
House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Re. Tsunami Relief in Sri Lanka
Dear Sen./Rep. …
I am writing to you with deep concerns about the post
Tsunami relief efforts in Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan
Government is preventing any substantial help from
reaching the Northeast where two thirds of the
casualties and damage occured. Please assure that US
and international assistance for reconstruction is
equitably distributed to the survivors, particularly
funds in the supplemental spending bill now before
Congress.
The government has failed to provide timely assistance
to the northeast, focusing its efforts on the southern
part of the island instead. Government officials and
the armed forces have virtually blocked aid from
reaching the Northeast, going so far as to pirate
lorry loads of privately-rendered relief supplies.
In efforts to divert attention from the northeast, the
Government did not allow either UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan or World Bank President James Wolfenson to
visit nrtheastern Sri Lanka.
Over 50 containers of urgently needed relief supplies
that were sent for Tsunami victims of the Northeast
have been sitting idle in customs in Colombo for well
over one month because of the obstructionist attitude
of the Sri Lankan Government. These containers hold
tents, medicines, food, and clothing that were donated
by an unprecedented outpour of sympathy and
overwhelming response from Americans and others for a
very deserving humanitarian cause.
The new ruse to obstruct assistance are taxes on
humanitarian relief being sent from abroad.
The Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) is the
only effective Sri Lankan NGO working in the
NorthEastern Province. TRO Colombo has asked all its
well wishers in the USA, UK, Europe and Australia to
hold back shipping supplies until the present policy
of the Sri Lankan Government is reversed.
In addition, a joint mechanism for the equitable
distribution of international assistance needs to be
speedily agreed on between the Sri Lankan Government
and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who hold
substantial sections of the Northeast.
As an expatriate from Sri Lanka, I am anxious to help
my kith and kin way back in Sri Lanka and would urge
you to use your good offices to speak to the Sri
Lankan Ambassador and remedy the situation.
Yours respectfully,
__________________________________________________
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- ramani - 02-25-2005
*****