An open letter to Secratery Hillary Clinton

The writer's name is withheld for security reasons.

To: The Secretary of State, Hon. Hillary Clinton
Re: The End of the War in Sri Lanka
From: Concerned Voting Citizens of the USA and the Free World

(May 03, Washington, Sri Lanka Guardian) Madam Secretary, we address this response to you as registered Democratic Citizen voters of the United States and the Free World of Sri Lankan Origin. We value democracy and freedom for all people in Sri Lanka.

Your comment concerning the end of the war in Sri Lanka to quote your words, "I think that the Sri Lankan government knows that the entire world is very disappointed that in its efforts to end what it sees as 25 years of conflict, it is causing such untold suffering" is the most undemocratic statement we have ever heard from you having followed your political career with admiration. The entire nation of Sri Lanka's peace loving democratic voters of all ethnicities has suffered through that long 25 year period. We have all lost relatives and friends and fellow citizens over 25 years. The International community didn't come to help us and voice disappointment in the path taken by the LTTE when suicide bombers ran amok in the country and ethnically cleansed parts of it committing Genocide against Sinhalese and Muslims.

Madam Secretary, what you see now is the disruption of life in the Northern part of the country where civilians are being saved from the jaws of the most brutal Terrorist organization that has ever walked this earth in the history of mankind. We know that finally the people of Sri Lanka have a Government that has taken the situation in hand to end the suffering of all people. It is not a pretty picture but it is the creation of the LTTE that many fail to see. For the people of Sri Lanka the failure by successive governments that trusted the LTTE and thought they can be won over was a greater disappointment. Right now, the people of Sri Lanka are living in hope and that should not be a disappointment to anyone who is far removed from the suffering of the people there.

The civilians fleeing are being saved by the very forces referred to in the International Media as the Sinhala Buddhist Army of a Sinhala Buddhist Government. This is a misnomer. In Sri Lanka, there is far more diversity in all walks of life including the military than most countries in the world. That is how the people lived in Sri Lanka having fought for Independence from the British united as one nation of "Ceylonese" of diverse races. The Tamil leaders at that time didn't see a need to divide and the country as they were the privileged class. The Sinhalese majority was the deprived class. The current situation that leads to the final push against the LTTE is the result of the LTTE's drive toward hatred against all those who stood in their way. Death was inevitable to those who spoke out.

You are aware of the number of moderate Tamils murdered by the LTTE. You are also aware of the number of heads of state that were murdered by the LTTE under the orders of Prabakaran. You may not be aware that even in the evacuation there were three suicide cadres that exploded themselves and killed the fleeing civilians. The International Media fight shy to mention their atrocities within the NFZ and lay blame on the Government only for fighting back. The Special Forces took the risk of breaking the enforcement around civilians at 2 a.m. watched on camera by the entire Diplomatic Corps in the Capital Colombo. The Government lost 11 valuable officers. This is not something that should appear as a disappointment when for the first time video footage provided images of the fleeing civilians being received by the security forces. The footage clearly showed the LTTE cadres pointing their guns at the civilians and shooting some who tried to leave but never made it out alive. That is a great disappointment to be voiced in the International Media.

The Tamil Diaspora who financed the carnage of their own people has not come forward to launch a relief operation and assist the government to provide humanitarian aid. They provided plenty of funds to the tune of US$ 300 Million a year for the destruction of Sri Lanka. Where are they now if they are fighting a Tamil cause and worrying about the Tamil civilians? Actions speak louder than words and banners for political gain. The Tamil civilians are a mere pawn to seek a ceasefire for the escape of the Terror leader. They are poor, powerless and of low caste considered dispensable as collateral damage for saving the LTTE leader. When two of the LTTE's high ranking officers surrender and provided hospital care, there is plenty of evidence to believe that the Government is right in their action.

The LTTE moved their heavy artillery to the NFZ during the 2 day truce for the New Year celebrated by their own Hindu people. The World cried foul when the Government didn't bow their heads to a permanent Ceasefire. The Government knew from previous experience that it will only benefit the Terrorist Leader and the most brutal crew. They would have escaped in a shoot out when all the civilians would have been massacred by them just as they are shooting and killing the civilians trying to leave.

As the head of the Foreign Relations arm of the US, when President Obama and you are trying to mend the image of the US, Sri Lanka's image is being measured in different terms. A Democratic Government trying to save lives about to be destroyed by the LTTE, their own people is viewed harshly while the LTTE atrocities within the NFZ are also being attributed to the forces.

None of the International Agencies have thought about going to the grass roots of the problem to interview the civilians who have sacrificed children, husbands and their freedom under the terror of the LTTE. It is their voice that must be heard to learn if this exercise of eradicating the LTTE is a disappointment or not. The Tamil civilians have the real story that must be accurately made known to the world. Instead of expressing disappointment at the Government that has done what they had to do, please take a different view.

The LTTE promised to reward the Diaspora with a bigger and grandiose separation and eventual take over of an entire nation to ethnically cleanse all non-Tamils as they did in the North and East of Sri Lanka not long ago. Consider the region. The minority is the 16 million Sinhalese people who have no other country. The 2 million Tamil people in Sri Lanka have support from Tamil Nadu with about 70 million people. However, Tamil is not the official language in Tamil Nadu while in Sri Lanka; Tamil Language is the official language for business purposes for Tamil speaking people. Any Tamil Citizen can study in the Tamil language from kindergarten to university.

I am Americanized enough to quote to you a common phrase we use in America, "You got to do what you got to do" and that is exactly what Sri Lanka is doing right now. This is not a fight to discriminate against Tamils. This is a fight to free the Tamils from their own oppressor.

I wish to remind you of the countless number of suicide bombings instigated by the LTTE chief against innocent civilians in public places of worship, markets, trains, office building, buses, oil installations, airports, army headquarters, and congested streets in traffic jams the list goes on and on. Don't the citizens of Sri Lanka have a right to live in peace? What you call a disappointment is an effort at liberating the hostages. They may be undergoing hardship but their lives were spared. Many of our kith and kin didn't have anyone to spare them when LTTE suicide bombs killed people on the streets in peace time and in areas well outside of their claim of a homeland.

Even today, people worry about leaving home for a work day or sending children to school. Young children kiss their parents and leave homes not knowing whether they will return alive because bombs are planted in buses and trains that carry school children.

The innocent Tamils who have come out in this rescue now speak about the brainwashing they went through to be told of hatred against them. It is that same hatred that has been fed to International Media and International politicians who have been bankrolled as referred to in the recent issue of the Economist. It is a US Citizen Bruce Fein who is in the enormous pay of the LTTE that has visited all the legislators to gain support for brazen lies with donors posing as supporters when the funds came from the LTTE. Brazen lies because over 50% of the Tamil people lived freely in Sri Lanka enjoying the best of homes, cars, jobs, education and privileges in areas outside the LTTE dominated region.

The very blood, sweat and tears of the Tamil people went into the coffers of the LTTE in the form of their earnings, their children, their freedom and their lives. The Diaspora fed the coffers living in Western nations chosen for economically favorable refugee and asylum privileges. I ask how so many are spending so many days on the streets of London, Toronto, Ottawa, Washington, New York among many other cities, when those of us who work in countries like the US cannot miss a day of work without hindering the productivity of our employers.

These are now citizens of foreign countries, living out of the benefits provided to them and their productivity is expressed in time spent supporting a terror organization that has violated every human right in the book to be banned in 32 countries. While the fund raising and protests go on, they raise the violent symbols on their flag ignoring flag etiquette that must be followed in venerating national flags of nations.

The US is the leader of the world. Although terrorism from the Tamil Tigers did not come to our doorstep, do not disregard their invisible hand in the suicide bombs invented and now used against our American and NATO forces. Isn't that enough to stir feelings among the American people? The US is democratizing countries to liberate them from tyranny. Why is there less support for the Sri Lanka Government which has preserved Democracy that the silent majority relishes when they are being liberated from the tyranny of an internationally proscribed terrorist group? Just as your support is extended to Pakistan to eradicate terrorism, Sri Lanka's scenes of carnage look the same but are not acknowledged as terrorists causing the same damage as we see on the news media.

Madam Secretary, as a Democrat who believes that your party and President Obama care about immigrants like me, we the people who support Peace, Unity and Harmony in Sri Lanka where our families wish to co-exist with all ethnicities and religions believe the Sri Lanka Government is doing the rights thing.

It is we who are disappointed in your statement of disappointment in seeing suffering when that suffering for the people of Sri Lanka is coming to an end after nearly 30 years. More than the majority community, we are happy to see the innocent voiceless people of Tamil origin who will utter the words of Rev. Martin Luther King and tell the world that they are "Free At Last" and if there is life, we can rebuild a united nation in an era of Peace.

A United Sri Lanka is nothing new. We had it and lost it when the LTTE took some of the Tamil people on the wrong road preaching hatred and lies while a majority of them enjoyed the fruits of freedom in the south. The Diaspora who laid the foundation for their prosperity using the privileges provided by Sri Lanka denied admitting that they had equal opportunity for education and employment and used that education to go overseas and finance the use of terror against their own people. The road to violence leads to nowhere. The future of the people of Sri Lanka has to lead somewhere as a reward for their endurance and we call upon your good offices to help that island to rebuild and move on.

-Sri Lanka Guardian