His Excellency Mahinda Rajapaksa,

President of Sri Lanka,

Colombo-03

 Your Excellency,

 SAVE  THE  IDPs  IN  DISTRESS

 I regret to note that my repeated requests to you to prevent the army from advancing further, had not been considered favourably.  Now that they are on the last lap of the war and the LTTE had taken their position in the midst of the innocent people, using them as a human shield, the casualty rate has increased many fold.  The lives of over two hundred thousand people trapped in Newmathalan, which is also a LTTE controlled area, are at stake.  We can’t expect the LTTE to conform to any norms but the forces can.  Having earned a good name for keeping the casualty rate at low level, by sacrificing several of their comrades, they cannot now, during the last lap of the war and in such a short period, lose it.  The situation is disastrous and is deteriorating day by day and your intervention cannot be delayed any more.  When the truth comes to light one day, the whole world will condemn us, the Government and the People.  Please rest assured that this advice is given with good intentions and should not be construed as something done for personal gains.

I have confirmed through various reliable sources that on 8^th April, 296 injured persons got admitted to the hospital of whom 47 had died, some of them are children.  This number is the record for one single day since the war started.  The number of casualties crossed 200 with over 30 reported dead yesterday, surprisingly a Poya day, on which even slaughter of cattle is prohibited.  Several people had died outside the hospital with no records maintained.  Due to whose shelling these people died or got injured is not the question the International Community will ask.  It is the Government that will remain condemned.  Allowing every one to condemn the International Organizations will prove counter productive.  On humanitarian grounds and also to save the good name of the country, you should without any delay:

1.      Advice the forces to stop shelling and firing forthwith. 

2.      Declare a safe zone or no-fire zone in an area fully under the control of the Government.

3.      To protect every citizen, is the Government’s duty.  I appeal to you to seek the assistance of the UN or any friendly country or countries including India and the United States, both of which as I understand offered to evacuate the trapped persons.  There are several instances in which countries had spent very large amounts to save just one life.  Failure to summon assistance to evacuate these people will be seriously blamed in the future.

4.      Conceding the fact that the people are on the verge of starvation, please take steps to send sufficient food items to meet the requirements of over 200,000 people and airlift sufficient quantity of milk food and other children’s requirements, since most mothers have lost their capacity to breast-feed the babies and they are now fed with only tea, till fresh stocks arrive from Colombo.

5.      Please take immediate steps to send an UN team to visit IDPs and to report on their number and their requirements.

 Thanking you,

 Yours Sincerely,

V. Anandasangaree,

President – TULF.