Click to Email campaign - Urge Prime Minister Rudd to take action to bring war criminals to justice

 
Dear Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Hon members of Parliament,
 
Milan-based Permanent People’s Tribunal has delivered its verdict - The Sri Lanka Government is guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The tribunal also concluded that the charge of genocide warrants further investigations.
 

Eye-witness testimonies from escapees were the representations for the thousands of victims who perished in Mullaitivu ‘No Fire Zone’ where more than 20,000 Tamil civilians were allegedly slaughtered by Sri Lankan Government forces during the final week of war in mid May 2009. The Dublin report also quotes “Video and photo evidence included large collection of video footages of bombing, killing and wounding of civilians and destruction of hospitals; video footages of desecration of dead bodies of women taken by mobile phone cameras of the soldiers and photographs of desecration of dead bodies taken by soldiers”.
 
Scholars, human rights organizations, NGOs, eye-witness accounts, satellite imagery, videos and other credible evidence held by the UN and some countries has long pointed to heinous war crimes which have now been proven true by the Permanent People’s Tribunal verdict on January 16, 2010.
 
Would Australia act now and reconsider it’s stance on a policy of appeasement of the Sri Lankan regime. Would Australia call for international war crimes investigations that are long overdue?
 
It is historically understood that justice must be served before the advent of peace. Without punishment of perpetrators of war crimes, there are no assurances that the carnage will not repeat in the future. The direct or indirect abetting of war crimes and understating the death toll or grievances are unacceptable at all levels.
 
Therefore, considering, that (i) the Sri Lankan Government is guilty of war crimes (ii) the Sri Lankan Government is guilty of crimes against humanity and (iii) omnipresence of evidence of war crimes and knowledge thereof, I urgently call upon you to:
 
1. Act responsibly and ethically to promote human rights by supporting all efforts and initiatives to bring the war criminals to justice.
 
2. Join scholars and human rights organizations to support and recommend to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to commence proceedings against the Sri Lankan government political leaders and military commanders for crimes against humanity.
 
3. Grant asylum to ethnic Tamil refugees fleeing persecution from the Sri Lankan government
 
4. Implement sanctions in addition to the European Union GSP+ trade benefits termination and suspension from the Commonwealth until Sri Lanka's human rights record substantially improves and ethnic Tamil civilians are freed from internment camps to express their rights without persecution and are able to live in peace with honour and justice.
 
Justice delayed is justice denied. Please act now.
 
Yours Sincerely,