Tamils in Switzerland gathered Monday afternoon in front of the United Nations in Geneva demanding the immediate release of their brethren incarcerated in the Concentration Camps in Vanni. Holding placards depicting the plight of the Tamil IDPs, more than five hundred people formed a human chain in the UN Square around 4:00p.m.
Meanwhile, a deputation from Tamil Forum Switzerland met the OHCHR officials at Palias Wilson and handed over a memorandum urging Ms. Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, to take concrete diplomatic initiatives to release more than 260,000 Tamil IDPs detained in the Sri Lankan internment camps and keep their immense suffering in her attention during the ongoing Human Rights Council session.
The participants wow to continue their agitation in various form of actions until all the IDPs are released.
Full Text of the appeal handed over to Ms. Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
Office of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Palais Wilson
52 rue des Pâquis
CH-1201 Geneva, SwitzerlandGeneva, September 28, 2009
Urgent Call for concrete diplomatic initiative to release over 260’000 Tamil IDPs in Sri Lanka
Dear Ms. High Commissioner,
We, the Swiss Tamil Forum which represents the Tamil Diaspora in Switzerland, Tamil civil society and Non-Governmental Organizations, write this urgent call to take concrete diplomatic initiatives to release more than 260,000 Tamil IDPs detained in the Sri Lankan internment camps and keep their immense suffering in your attention during the 12th ongoing Human Rights Council session in Geneva.
We, the Tamil people in Switzerland and Sri Lanka, while appreciating your recent serious concerns and efforts in this regard, state that the plight of Tamil IDPs in Sri Lanka continues to deteriorate due to the intransigent attitude of Sri Lankan government with callous disregard to human rights of the Tamil people. As we all know, recent reports of international Human Rights organizations and other NGOs and emerging video footages and eyewitness accounts portray a very grim picture of those who live in the internment camps. An unimaginable humanitarian catastrophe have been brewing that might culminate in dire consequences.
Have we clearly learned the lessons from the mass atrocities against our fellow human beings since Srebrenica and Rwanda in our recent past? This will repeat itself if we, the international community especially UN, let it happen. The international community has left the Tamil people in Sri Lanka, who have already become unsung victims of crimes against humanity and war crimes, to their fate. Those suspected of war crimes and crimes against humanity must be brought to justice. Justice and accountability are necessary preconditions for an ever-lasting just peace. Tamil people earnestly appeal to the UN and other world bodies for a just peace with human dignity with recognition of their fundamental political aspirations. We do not need a peace of graveyard, but a just meaningful peace. The current humiliating and degrading conditions of the Tamil people in the internment camps risk to jeopardize any possible future peace making efforts and only cultivate resentment and hatred in the hearts of the Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka.
The Tamil people in those camps have reached their peak of suffering and are on the brink of collapse. If the UN are not ready for an urgent and concrete action, then who is? If not now, when? What is needed is the determination and willingness of the greater international community to act. UN inaction and conspicuous absence only leads to fail the people who suffer in the illegal detention camps. Those who suffer in a very hostile environment surrounded by barbed wires and Sri Lankan Armed Forces and Paramilitaries are undergoing very serious degrading human treatment which is a humiliation to the whole humanity and human conscience.
We, the Tamil people in Switzerland, earnestly plead you for an urgent action on the ground and take all necessary diplomatic initiatives in collaboration with other related UN bodies and EU to alleviate the plight of the Tamil people in the internment camps. We further believe that you keep their plight more focused during the ongoing 12th HRC session. Thank you for your urgent consideration and action.
Sincerely yours,
TAMIL FORUM SWITZERLAND
