Tamils are doing an online petition campaign which would be sent to obama.
Dear Mr. President and Madam Secretary,The people who signed this formal request are humbly asking you to take action to end the war in Sri Lanka.
The reasons you should take action are the following:
1. The war that has been initiated by Sri Lanka on the Tamils in its territory is a genocidal war. Its purpose is to uproot all the Tamils from the northeast of Sri Lanka. It has provoked a mass exodus and dispersal of Tamils from the island, analogous to the Roman dispersal of Jews from Palestine in the first century or any other ethnic cleansing meant to remove an entire population.
2. The war began almost the day Ceylon gained independence from Britain in 1948. It has involved grabbing lands from Tamils and resettling these lands with Singhalese convicts and/or Sri Lankan armed forces; discriminating against Tamils in employment and education; renaming Tamil areas with Singhalese names; and (for the last 25 years) bombing, shelling, and disappearing Tamil civilians.
3.The government made Buddhism the state religion and has bombed Hindu and Christian places of worship, frequently replacing them with Buddhist temples.
4. All efforts at mediation, negotiation, compromise, or peaceful resolution have failed due to stubbornness and insincerity by the Singhalese-dominated government.
5. All international efforts at bringing peace and humanitarian assistance have ended with refusal of the Sri Lankan government to cooperate and the expulsion (and sometimes killing) of international observers and helpers.
We hope that the new Obama administration will act promptly and forcefully to end this ongoing genocidal war.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Enitre petition can be seen at : http://www.tamilsforobama.com/sign/letter.html
What Exactly in srilankan-tamil issue
Abstract of issue is that srilanka historically was divided into two main groups..It was like two different nations is same island. While Sinhalese were majority group and controlled majority of srilanka , tamils controlled some of nothern and eastern part.
British when started ruling the island ,it made srilanka as one country (much like india) and latter when they left , srilanka got independence.
The conflict started later on . The major controversial things which let to conflict are as follows :
1948 – 1 million Tamils declared as non-citizens
1949 – Sinhalese colonization in traditional Tamil homeland
# 1956 – Sinhala made sole official language of the country
# 1970 – “ethnic standardization” slashes university admission to Tamils
* + same entrance exam, but Tamils need to score 30% more
# 1972 – New constitution without Tamils participation
* Unilateral name change from Ceylon to Sri Lanka
* Declaration of Srilanka as a republic
* Buddhism made state religion
# 1977 - Prevention of Terrorism Act
Since 60 years conflict is going on where sinhalese believe its tamil terrorism ,while tamils believed its discrimination by the government.
Norway has tried to work as meditor . India has been fixed in this issue. LTTE is banned in India and LTTE was involved in rajiv gandhis assasination. Tamil Nadu supports tamil cause and Recently Dmk led federation met Manmohan singh regarding this.
Lately Sri Lankan army has gone on full offensive and LLTE has had major set backs.
Sri Lankan government has accused LLTE for dis harmony in the country , terrorism and dead of many many innocent lives.
While USA ,EU have banned LLTE ,they acknowledge tamil issues ,concerns.
Whether this issue would get solved , when ,how and what would be the outcome ,we dont know. But this island has been suffering and has been included in failed state list.
Lets hope that this issue gets solved in peaceful manner.