Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa – invited to the Queen’s Jubilee

Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa – invited to the Queen’s Jubilee…
Help Tamil Solidarity stop this war criminal!

In 2009 the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) carried out a genocidal slaughter against the Tamil-speaking people in the north and east of the country.
The Sri Lankan military massacred more than 40,000 people in the final phase of the war that ended in May 2009. They constantly bombed hospitals, schools, temporary shelters and so-called ‘no fire zones’. Every single one of 400,000 refugees was then taken to ‘detention camps’ with no proper facilities. Deaths and gross humanitarian abuses took place during the transportation and in the camps.
Outrageously the president and warmonger-in-chief, Mahinda Rajapaksa, has been invited to attend the Queen’s Jubilee Celebrations in June.
Tamil Solidarity, a campaign that fights for the rights of Tamil-speaking people, condemns this invitation. We support all the protest plans to expose his blood-soaked record and to stop the visit from taking place.
If the British government had any concern for human rights it would not be planning to meet Rajapaksa but would block this invite. If they will not do this a citizen’s arrest should be made so that Rajapaksa can be tried for war crimes.
If you agree – join the Tamil Solidarity protest actions!

Urgently we call on young people to join with Tamil Solidarity to block this visit.
When the eyes of the world are on the Queen’s Jubilee let’s remind everyone about who these people are. Get in touch.
Tamil people cannot continue to passively hope that politicians in the British parliament or other governments will act on our behalf. Tory Prime Minister David Cameron’s weasel words calling on the GoSL to “improve human rights” mean nothing. We want to see action taken.
Disgraced former defence minister Liam Fox is a close friend of Rajapaksa and defended the GoSL. Even though he has been forced out his foreign policy continues. Over the last few years, including in 2009, millions of pounds worth of weapons have been licensed for export to Sri Lanka.
Channel 4’s Killing Fields documentaries show how tens of thousands of Tamil people were cornered in a tiny area in the north of Sri Lanka, hunted down, deprived of food and medical supplies. Summary execution, sexual violence and torture were meted out to those who surrendered. The documentaries show that all this took place under the watchful eye of the United Nations (UN) and its member states.
But governments and international bodies are not the only powerful forces on the planet. Last year we saw mass movements of ordinary people topple brutal dictators in Egypt and Tunisia.
In Tamil Nadu in India it was ordinary working and young people who applied the pressure that forced the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to pass a resolution in March criticising the government of Sri Lanka. Although welcome, it is nowhere near enough.
Tamil Solidarity has always explained that any government that oppresses or attacks its own people cannot be trusted to take any interest in challenging oppression elsewhere. Time and again it has been shown that corporate interests lie behind government actions.
How can any serious activist, for example, hope that the British government, that continues to viciously raise student fees, take away EMA, close libraries, cutting other public services, jobs and benefits too, while reducing the tax burden on the richest, will come to the aid of the Tamils and oppressed in Sri Lanka?
But through struggle, internationalism and solidarity we can prove for future generations that horror, as in Sri Lanka, will not go unanswered; rather it will further intensify the fightback. To effectively resist the continued repression there can be not one iota of trust placed in the so-called ‘international community’, either the governments of the west, of India or the UN.
Through democratic discussion, united action and studying of history we can together work out what is required to win.
In Britain that means linking up with trade unions and other bodies fighting austerity and defending our rights. It is trade union action, for example in Greenwich, that has stopped the cuts to library workers’ pay and conditions.
Governments currently in power stand up for the interests of the rich. Working class organisations stand up for ordinary people – here and internationally.

What we say:
 Withdraw the troops from the North and East, for immediate rebuilding of homes under the people’s control
 Stop the settlement-occupation programme
 Shut down the official and unofficial prison camps. Immediate release of all prisoners
 For the full disclosure of those disappeared or held by security forces
 End the deportation of Tamils from Britain to Sri Lanka and sale of arms
 For a full, international, independent inquiry into war crimes
 For freedom of speech and other democratic rights in Sri Lanka
 Help the campaign for trade unions, fully independent of state interference
 End Rajapaksa’s authoritarian regime
 For the right to self-determination for Tamil-speaking people

Get involved:
 Log on to the Tamil Solidarity website to check on our campaigning activity here and internationally:
www.tamilsolidarity.org
 Please sign: Independent, international investigation into war crimes in Sri Lanka: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/14586
 Join us in our campaigning work by emailing us your details:
info@tamilsolidarity.org
 Get your student union, community group, or trade union to back the campaign.
 Donate to our campaign fund. We urgently need financial support to maintain our important work. You can make payments via the website.