A sample letter has been written below.
This is all you have to do.
- Go to http://findyourmp.parliament.uk/
- Find your MP, click on their website and get their email address.
- Copy ad paste the sample letter filling in the gaps below. (**MP NAME**, **YOUR TOWN**, **YOUR NAME**)
Your MP, by law, has to respond to your query. Once you’ve sent your email leave a comment at the bottom.
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Thank you
Dear **MP NAME**
As a member of your constituency in **YOUR TOWN**, I am writing regarding the recent devastating evidence that Channel 4 News has aired as part of the ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’ programme first broadcast on 14th June 2011. I hope you have had a chance to watch the documentary- it is an important piece of journalism, and the concerns that will be expressed in my letter would be clearer perhaps within the context of the footage shown.
The documentary showed a series of clips and other evidence complied by the Channel 4 team, all of which, has been deemed credible and accurate by the UN and other independent experts. The evidence supports the accusations of war crimes and crimes against humanity, which have been levied against the government and its forces.
These include allegations of maximising civilian loss during the last phases of the conflict with the LTTE in 2009. As you are probably already aware, this is criminal conduct by internationally accepted standards. They are deemed to have done this by employing a variety of despicable and inhumane measures including deliberately targeting and bombing hospitals, concentrating civilians in ‘safe zones’ and then focusing their artillery bombardments in those areas, using rape as a weapon of war and conducting summary executions.
The Tamil Diaspora, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, other media sources and even the UN commission have made similar claims in the past. Unfortunately the UN has ignored its own commission’s report. Ban Ki Moon has suggested he has no power to do anything unless Sri Lanka complies (unlikely given that they think no civilians were killed in 2009 and they continue colonising and militarising the Tamil homeland on the island). This would place all power with the Security Council. Of which of course, the UK is a member.
The UK’s response to this crisis has not been sufficient. You may remember the Tamil protest in Westminster at the time that the massacre was taking place. The government chose to largely ignore what has turned out to be our very valid and reasonable concerns then. You cannot allow it to happen again. The role that our government has played in this has been particularly worrying. At the best, we have tacitly supported the Sri Lankan government, engaging in a country-specific, selective human rights policy- we must intervene in Libya to save Benghazi but really it is ok if a few (tens of thousands) Tamils are butchered in Asia somewhere. At the worst, we have been wholly supporting this Sri Lankan initiative, having provided £13.6 million in arms sales to the Sri Lankan state and continuing to pour money into their coffers for purposes of ‘rehabilitation’ and recently ‘reintegration’. Clearly that is not happening, so what are we funding?
We have also been deporting Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka back to the island where they are almost certain to face persecution, degrading conduct and perhaps even death. The protection of these people and their lives is a responsibility which we cannot shirk. In fairness, it is something that must be open to judicial review.
I hope you will join me in calling upon our government to stay true to the ideals that Britain is supposed to be about. We urge the government to:
- Take the lead in pursuing an international investigation into allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sri Lanka
- Seek the suspension of Sri Lanka’s membership of the Commonwealth
- Impose sanctions on Sri Lanka, including in the fields of arts and sports, until the government there cooperates with international investigations, and
- Immediately cease the deportation of Tamil refugees to Sri Lanka
As you can probably gauge, the Tamil Community as a whole are feeling disillusioned and utterly disheartened with what has come to be viewed as corrupt politics. Give us a reason to believe again.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Kind Regards,
**YOUR NAME**
