Daya Gamage – US Bureau Asian Tribune
Washington, D.C. 14 May (Asiantribune.com): The United 
United States President Barrack ObamaStates president Barrack Obama made the following statement on the situation in Sri Lanka in the White House lawn Wednesday, 12 May.
The President: Hello, everybody. Sorry to keep you guys waiting. Good to see you. I want to take a few moments at the top to talk about something that, with all the big issues going on, hasn't received much attention, but I think is worth talking about briefly.
As some of you know, we have a humanitarian crisis that's taking place in Sri Lanka, and I've been increasingly saddened by the desperate news in recent days. Tens of thousands of innocent civilians are trapped between the warring government forces and the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka with no means of escape, little access to food, water, shelter and medicine. This has led to widespread suffering and the loss of hundreds if not thousands of lives.
Without urgent action, this humanitarian crisis could turn into a catastrophe. Now is the time, I believe, to put aside some of the political issues that are involved and to put the lives of the men and women and children who are innocently caught in the crossfire, to put them first.
So I urge the Tamil Tigers to lay down their arms and let civilians go. Their forced recruitment of civilians and their use of civilians as human shields is deplorable. These tactics will only serve to alienate all those who carry them out.
I'm also calling on the Sri Lankan government to take several steps to alleviate this humanitarian crisis. First, the government should stop the indiscriminate shelling that has taken hundreds of innocent lives, including several hospitals, and the government should live up to its commitment to not use heavy weapons in the conflict zone.
Second, the government should give United Nations humanitarian team access to the civilians who are trapped between the warring parties so that they can receive the immediate assistance necessary to save lives.
Third, the government should also allow the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross access to nearly 190,000 displaced people within Sri Lanka so that they can receive additional support that they need.
The United States stands ready to work with the international community to support the people of Sri Lanka in this time of suffering. I don't believe that we can delay. Now is the time for all of us to work together to avert further humanitarian suffering.
Going forward, Sri Lanka must seek a peace that is secure and lasting, and grounded in respect for all of its citizens. More civilian casualties and inadequate care for those caught in resettlement camps will only make it more difficult to achieve the peace that the people of Sri Lanka deserve.
- Asian Tribune -
Comments
The government reluctance to
The government reluctance to allow international community to the war zone was not taken lightly. Over the years the very same international community has been very bias to the Tamil Tigers, they let them arm themselves to the hilt by providing war material, and never been critical about it. None of them are on record as to the illegal activities of Tamil Tigers, though they were given a free hand to alleviate sufferings of Tamil people by the Sri Lanka government. The foreign governments particularly Norway has been supporting the tigers by providing them with high level printing facility, a radio station and perhaps technology to sustain superior military capability over the government forces. They may even have provided high level government policy decisions to the LTTE including Military Strategies over the years. If you see the Cease Fire Agreement former Prime Minister signed with the Tamil Tigers with the auspicious of Norway, even a child can understand how one sided this document was. Then again when Tamil Tigers went on breaching this agreement more than 9,000 times, Norwegian monitors just did nothing. How can a government trust the foreign personnel in this area to exaggerate and twist the stories in Tamil Tiger favor?
President Obama: Over
President Obama:
Over 120,000 thousand civilians have escaped from the clutches of the LTTE and it is the Sri Lankan military who facilitated their escape. The persons now remaining are mostly hard core cadres and other devotees of the LTTE. With a ratio of 100 civilians to 1 (the nos per the UN are 50,000 civilians and 500 cadres), if more wish to escape they can do so, therefore one can conclude that those remaining have OPTED to remain.
They are part of the "human shield" constructed by the LTTE and are committed to their Leader and prepared to give their lives for him at the hands of the military or through suicide. They are therefore part of the LTTE's military apparatus which can be engaged with by the GOSL military under the rules of engagement.
Despite this, the military has moved with utmost caution to allow any persons, cadre or civilian, who wishes to escape, do so. Beyond that, the military cannot be expected to not advance in its mission to bring the LTTE to heel and if possible, capture its leaders.
The LTTE will of course say that every [person killed is a "civilian", but surely we must know better than that!???
The LTTE will also send pics of "staged" attacks by the military, and the world's naive continue to find them to be credible evidence!
A simple question: Why should the military continue to target a "makeshift hospital" (which strangely remains standing despite several claimed artillery attacks, to be hit again and again??) with its injured and maimed people? It is preposterous that the world believes the crudely concocted stories emanating from the LTTE.
Also, Mr. Presidnet you request that Humanitarian agencies be allowed into the NFZ. Do you not realize the hostage capital these persons would provide to the LTTE? If the human shield of Tamil civilians is worth managing to extend the life of the LTTE, the internationals taken hostage would certainly be valuable enough for the LTTE leaders to bargain complete amnesty!
No, Mr. President, neither Sri Lanka nor the world can be so naive!!
The world must recognize the LTTE for what they truly are, TERRORISTS, who do not care A HOOT about the civilians other than to have them serve as a human shield for the protection of the rebels themselves. The world cannot allow this to be considered a humanitarian drama and provide example for the human shields path to be ever used again by terror groups.
AML
Obama and Bush: two sides of
Obama and Bush: two sides of same coin!
Imagine what it would be
Imagine what it would be like to be the president of SriLanka today.
Mr. Obama can only dream how it is to be the president of United States that brought Al Queda to its knees and all of its leaders perished and the movement in disarray.
US could not do it.
What is happening in SriLanka is the turning moment of the war against the terrorism.
This will set the president, to resolve issues peacefully.
The thing that I do not
The thing that I do not understand why UK,US and International Community want to make sure that NO harm is done to Prabakaran? Why is he such a treasure that the Sri Lankan Government have to deal be careful when dealing with him?
He is just another terrorist sabbotaging the peace of the tiny island. Why are UK and US having such double standard?
America is the nation that started the so called "war against terrorism" so why can't they just let an independent country deal with their own parasites. Why are they insisting that foreign aid workers should be placed in the midst of a war?
All these foreigners are doing is to create false propaganda and make the LTTE look like heroes.
The tamils are suffering but demonstrations in Europe,pointing fingers and false propaganda are not helping them...
very well, today in
very well, today in defence.lk, we find images of white phosphorous barrels clearly marked with words "USA", and US army is known to use this banned substance in Iraq.
May be they exported some to LTTE!. Why would USA want to save the LTTE now?
Mr. Obama has no business in
Mr. Obama has no business in asking a poor nation fighting for survival in their own land against the most ruthless terrorist force in the world. What is happening in Sri Lanka is an internal matter of Sri Lankans and Obama shall respect the democratic will of the Sri Lankans to eliminate Tamil Tiger Terrorists (also proscribed in US) without any delay. May be he should look more in to recent killings of civilians in Afghanistan before preaching the world. Practice what you preach.
Another American Joker has
Another American Joker has came in to the stage.
Why these people can not look after thier own busuness.
They have killed thousands of people in many countries for the name of terorrisum..
But these people are not allowing us to take actions against LTTE..
What is this Joke..
What Prez Obama has said
What Prez Obama has said about the unfolding tragedy in Sri Lanka is what numerous other sane and responsible people all over the world have stated about this matter in recent times. Obama states that what is necessary now is to put aside the political issues that are involved here and put the lives of men, women and CHILDREN who are innocently caught in the crossfire.
Note that Obama is not taking sides on this issue. He has condemned the forced recruitment of civilians and the use of civilians as human shields by the LTTE.
Obama's call to the GoSL to allow UN humanitarian teams access to the trapped civilians is a reasonable request.
And anyone who has been following events in Sri Lanka over the years should know that the people who the GoSL thinks are in this zone are probably no longer there. This is just a hunch on my part. The point is that innocent civilians, INCLUDING CHILDREN, are being slaughtered by the GoSL which is in the pursuit of people who very likely are no longer in the area. And this is a worse tragedy when one considers the misery being inflicted by the GoSL on innocent civilians. I am not arguing that the LTTE has not inflicted misery on the civilians. And Prez Obama also concedes this fact. But this fact does not exonerate the Rajapakse Administration which is only interested in PRETENDING to follow the precepts of Buddha.
Dear President Obama: There
Dear President Obama: There are a thousand things we the peace loving people of Lanka, almost 20 Million of us, would like to tell you - how we are caught up in Agendas & Desires of elements with interests that are non-national. Suffice to say, at present, that Lanka's Army is a first class force, and does not shell hospitals or harm innocent civilians. If the Free World (of which Lanka is a part of), can advice the GoSL how to save the trapped civilians and at the same time make the ltte surrender, we shall be truly grateful. The second way the Free World can help Lanka is by aiding with the re-hab work with the IDPs, & also eliminating forever the terror network of the ltte and their front organisations in the west, in Europe especially. It should be noted that Sri Lanka, after all, is only attempting its best to conform to the the democratic ideals of the Obama Administration.
This is the very first time
This is the very first time that an open statement about Sri Lanka has ever been issued by the most powerful office in the world. It is regrettable that GoSL's Media Minister has wholesale rejected the US President's plea to allow UN personnel as "that is not possible". The rejection is an unwise policy move that is bound to have severe international repercussions for the island. I sincerely hope that GoSL will be more flexible and work co-operatively with the West-US-UN to bring about joint resolution to this crisis. The seemingly rigid anti-West-US-UN stance on the part of GoSL, especially after yesterday's UN and US Presidential pleas, will have extreme negative effect on the Sinhalese and give significant credibility to the Separatist's claim that the Sinhalese are an intransigent and unjust people. This perception will be hugely damaging to the Sinhalese in a future political settlement. This is the moment to prove the Sinhalese 'sense of fairness' and cooperate with the West which treasures democratic values and fundamental human freedoms. I urge GoSL to rethink its responses to US President's pleas.
President Obama knows the
President Obama knows the right side of the tale it seems.
Your intelligence services afterall are working well Mr.Obama otherwise you wouldn't have asked the tigers to surrender.What a turn of events this is.
Now the Tamils dispora who marched the toronto crying for their relatives the same day got the slapped hard across the face.
It should also should be pointed out that the CP 24 a canadian T.V channel who sensationalized the whole event the whole night was careful enough to avoid part of the Obama's speech where he asked the tiger's to lay down arms.My guess is that this particular channel has been paid by theLTTE agents in toronto to broadcast this while no other channel give prominence to this event.Even the reports were disgustingly biased .I am not surprising with the canadian situation where they sell their own mother for money did this.This white gentlment will go to any level just for the sake of money.
It seems all the whites in the West can easily be fooled with some fabricated lies just like what happened the otherday in Toronto.
I appreciate that the whole
I appreciate that the whole world wished to see an end to this crisis. The West had 5 full years (2002-2005)and what we saw was LTTE strengthening to fight the armed forces of the Govt and nothing more.
Although GOSL has saved over 117,000 civilian hostages and provided refuge for nearly 200,000 civilians in Internally displaced camps, West is continuing to make unfair demands on the GOSL.
Although their concerns for civilians may be genuine, they must make reasonable demands from Govt. If the armed forces vacate a small areas, LTTE terrorists will occupy that area. If the armed forces stop fighting, LTTE will kill all of them. If the armed forces do not attack LTTE, the LTTE will attack anyway.
So, what do Mr. Obama and the West expect the GOSL to do. Simply give in to terrorists? When will terrorism end that way? What about the 20 millions of civilians who have suffered for the last 30 years?
As another commentator wrote earlier, "Why should the military continue to target a "makeshift hospital" (which strangely remains standing despite several claimed artillery attacks, to be hit again and again??) with its injured and maimed people?"
Why do the world believe in this type of stories? Am I to believe that the West is not intelligent enough to understand the truth?
After reading this article, I have more questions than answers.
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