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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 COLOMBO 000979 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR SCA/INSB, S/ES-CR 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PREF PHUM PTER EAID MOPS CE
SUBJECT: TEXT OF TNA LEADER SAMPANTHAN'S LETTERS TO 
PRESIDENT OBAMA AND SECRETARY CLINTON 
 
¶1. (SBU) During an October 19 courtesy call on Ambassador 
(septel), Tamil National Alliance leader R. Sampanthan passed 
copies of letters he and other Tamil members of parliament 
sent to President Obama and Secretary Clinton in January 
¶2009.  The following are the texts of those letters for the 
official records. Grammatical and other irregularities in the 
originals have been preserved. 
BEGIN TEXT OF LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA 
 
Parliament 
2D Summit Flats 
Kepitipola Mawatha 
Colombo-5 
 
21 January 2009 
 
His Excellency Barack Obama 
The President of the United States of America 
The White House 
Washington D.C. 
U.S.A. 
 
Dear Mr. President, 
 
THE TAMIL NATIONAL QUESTION IN SRI LANKA 
 
We write to you as the representatives in the Parliament of 
Sri Lanka of the Tamil people of the Northeast region 
comprising the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri 
Lanka-the areas of historical habitation of the Tamil 
speaking people. Of the 23 Tamil representatives elected to 
Parliament from the Northeast, 22 belong to our party. 
 
May we extend to you our warmest congratulations and very 
best wishes on your assumption of office as President of the 
United States of America. 
 
Your election to office of President of the USA is a source 
of hope, encouragement, and inspiration to all peoples who 
seek to be freed from injustice. 
 
We write to fervently appeal that your administration should 
address the Tamil National Question that has plagued Sri 
Lanka ever since the country attained independence over six 
decades ago in 1948. During this period the Tamil people have 
suffered much injustice. 
 
May we briefly outline the causes for this conflict and its 
continuance. 
 
¶1. Sri Lanka is inhabited by two distinct Nations of People, 
the larger Sinhala speaking people and the smaller Tamil 
speaking people. The Tamil speaking people have been an 
overwhelming majority in the Northeastern region just as much 
as the Sinhala people have been in the rest of Sri Lanka. 
Instead of recognizing this reality, the Sri Lanka State 
whilst trying to portray an inclusive Sri Lankan civic 
identity, in fact is entrenched with a Sinhala Buddhist 
supremacist nationalism that wants exclusive control over the 
entirety of Sri Lanka. Consequently the Sri Lankan State has 
failed to enact constitutional provisions that give the Tamil 
speaking people the right to internal self-determination in 
the area of their historic habitation-the Northeastern 
region. This supremacist form of nationalism has resulted in 
the Sri Lankan State altering the demographic composition of 
the areas of historical habitation of the Tamil speaking 
people through State aided Sinhala colonization. Despite 
this, the Tamil speaking people remain a significant majority 
in the Northeast. 
 
 
COLOMBO 00000979  002 OF 004 
 
 
¶2. Flowing from 1 above, the denial to the Tamil people of 
physical security and the denial of the security of their 
homeland; the Tamil people have been subjected continuously 
to racial pogroms first in 1956, and thereafter in 1958, 
1961, 1977, 1981, 1983 and such violence continues against 
the Tamil people up to the present. Following such continuous 
racial pogroms large numbers of Tamil people have left the 
country and continue to do so. 
 
¶3. Flowing from 1 above, the discrimination in the fields of 
education, public sector employment, health care and social 
services, economic empowerment and development, and in the 
utilization of the natural resources in the Northeaster 
region, to the detriment of the historical inhabitants-the 
Tamil speaking people. 
 
¶4. The prosecution of the war in the Northeastern region, 
purportedly to militarily defeat the Liberation Tigers of 
Tamil Eelam (LTTE), with total unconcern for the immense harm 
inflicted on the non-combatant Tamil civilians resident 
therein by aerial bombardment of, and the firing of multi 
barrel rocket launchers and heavy artillery into Tamil 
civilian populated areas resulting in death and injury to 
substantial numbers of Tamil civilians including women, 
children and infants, the destruction of valuable civilian 
assets both residential and occupational and the inexorable 
reduction of a people who have led respectable and contented 
lives in their historical habitations to a state of 
destitution and penury. It is our submission that the Sri 
Lankan State prosecutes the current war in the manner 
outlined above in the pursuit of a given ideological 
position-the assertion of a Sinhala Buddhist supremacy 
throughout the whole of Sri Lanka, and that in order to 
achieve that objective a process of Genocide of the Tamil 
people is in progress. The media does not have the freedom to 
cover the war zone. The United Nations agencies and 
International Non-Governmental organizations have been 
directed by the government to leave the war zone. 
Consequently no independent information is available to the 
outside world, thereby facilitating the implementation of the 
government's objectives. 
 
¶5. Sri Lanka's record on human rights is one of the worst in 
the Comity of Nations. It consequently failed recently to 
succeed in its attempt to be re-elected to the United Nations 
Human Rights Council. The repeated requests of the UN High 
Commissioner for human rights to set up a UN human rights 
monitoring mechanism in Sri Lanka to monitor the grave human 
rights situation particularly in view of the prevalent state 
of impunity, has been consistently rejected by the Sri Lankan 
State. An International Independent Group of Eminent Persons 
(HGEP) was appointed consequent to international pressure, by 
the government of Sri Lanka to ensure that a local Commission 
of Inquiry appointed to investigate certain identified 
violations of human rights, functioned in keeping with 
international norms and standards. Consequent to unwarranted 
government interference the HGEP have withdrawn stating 
publicly the reasons for their conclusion that the Sri Lankan 
State does not have the political or institutional will to 
inquire into human rights violations in keeping with 
international normal and standards. Recording of evidence 
through teleconferencing was being done in two cases. (i)The 
assassination of 5 students in Trincomalee. (ii) The 
assassination of 17 aid workers of the INGO "Action Contre la 
Faime" in Muthur, Trincomalee. In both these cases witnesses 
had left the country consequent to intimidation. The 
recording of evidence by teleconferencing has been stopped 
due to government interference. Four members of the 
Commission of Inquiry too have subsequently resigned 
presumably also due to such unwarranted government 
 
COLOMBO 00000979  003 OF 004 
 
 
interference. A bill entitled "Protection of Victims of Crime 
and Witnesses Bill" was tabled in Parliament to afford a 
measure of protection to victims and witnesses. The bill has 
now been abandoned. The Commission of Inquiry which was the 
Sri Lankan State's only visible exercise on human rights has 
thereby lost credibility. Extra judicial executions, enforced 
disappearances and other grave human rights violations 
continue to be a regular feature in Sri Lanka. 
 
¶6. Sri Lanka's purported steps to evolve an acceptable 
political solution to the Tamil National Question are no more 
than a mere charade to mislead the international community 
into the belief that the State is committed to an acceptable 
political solution. On the contrary the Sri Lankan State has 
reneged on commitments already made such as the purported 
de-merger of the merged Northern and Eastern provinces, which 
were constituted as a single politico-administrative unit 
under the Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement of 1987, on the 
incontrovertible basis that the said two provinces 
constituted the areas of historical habitation of the Tamil 
speaking people. Sri Lanka seeks thereby to unilaterally 
abrogate an international treaty which it cannot do under 
International Law. The merger of the Northern and Eastern 
provinces was accepted by the international community as the 
corner stone of the peace process, and the purported 
de-merger is despite the strongest advice by the 
international community that the merger should not be 
disturbed. 
 
The Sri Lankan State we submit is committed to perpetuate the 
ideology of a Sinhala Buddhist supremacy with all its 
consequences throughout the whole country. This we submit is 
the prime cause of the conflict. 
 
The Sri Lankan State today pursues its policies clearly on 
the basis that it is answerable to no one for whatever it 
does. This we submit is a very dangerous trend and will 
inevitably cause immense harm to the Tamil speaking people 
living in Sri Lanka, instability in the region, and promote 
majoritarian ethno religious nationalism, authoritarianism 
and hegemony. 
 
Consequently, we would like to urge that the policy of the 
United States of America towards the resolution of the Tamil 
National Question reflects the existence of two distinct 
Nations of People inhabiting Sri Lanka and where these two 
nations are encouraged to associate with one another by 
pooling their sovereignties to form the State. 
 
We would earnestly urge you to utilize your good offices to 
ensure that the Sri Lankan State in the words of President 
Abraham Lincoln "thinks anew and acts anew" to ensure justice 
to all its peoples. 
 
Whilst we sincerely appreciate the very onerous nature of the 
duties that you have assumed, we seek your indulgence to 
state that the Tamils in Sri Lanka face extinction as a 
People. In the circumstances, may we most earnestly urge that 
our appeal receives your earliest possible attention and that 
as a first step to a final acceptable resolution of the Tamil 
National Question, the current war be brought to an end. 
 
Thanking you and with our warm regards. 
 
Yours sincerely 
(signature) 
¶R. Sampanthan M.P. 
Parliamentary Group Leader 
Tamil National Alliance 
 
 
COLOMBO 00000979  004 OF 004 
 
 
END TEXT OF LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA 
 
 
BEGIN TEXT OF LETTER TO SECRETARY CLINTON 
 
Parliament 
2D Summit Flats 
Kepitipola Mawatha 
Colombo-5 
 
21 January 2009 
 
Ms. Hilary Clinton 
Secretary of State 
The Department of State 
Washington D.C. 
USA 
 
Dear Secretary of State, 
 
THE TAMIL NATIONAL QUESTION IN SRI LANKA 
 
We write to you as the representatives in the Parliament of 
Sri Lanka of the Tamil people of the Northeast region 
comprising the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri 
Lanka-the areas of historical habitation of the Tamil 
speaking people. Of the 23 Tamil representatives elected to 
Parliament from the Northeast, 22 belong to our party. 
 
May we extend to you our warmest congratulations and very 
best wishes on your assumption of office as Secretary of 
State of the United States of America. 
 
We annex herewith a copy of the letter we have addressed to 
President Barack Obama. 
 
We would earnestly urge you to use your good offices to 
address the issues that we have raised in the said letter. 
We are confident that during your term as Secretary of State 
there can be a turnaround in the Situation in Sri Lanka. 
 
Thanking you and with your warm regards. 
 
Yours sincerely 
(signature) 
¶R. Sampanthan M.P. 
Parliamentary Group Leader 
Tamil National Alliance 
 
(attachment: copy of letter to President Obama) 
 
END TEXT OF LETTER TO SECRETARY CLINTON 
BUTENIS