US TAMIL DIASPORA GROUPS URGE IMF TO CONDITION AID TO SRI LANKA WITH TAKING STEPS ON ACCOUNTABILITY FOR ATROCITY CRIMES.

In a united initiative by key Tamil Diaspora organizations in the US today, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is being called upon to promote accountability and protect human rights by imposing conditions to any aid to Sri Lanka.

This urgent request is in view of Sri Lanka’s serious economic crisis and the country asking for a bail-out from the IMF.

“As members of the diaspora, we have strong empathy for the hardships caused to the people — our family, friends, classmates and former neighbors — by the current financial crisis on the island. However, we believe that unconditional aid will not alleviate the suffering of the people nor address the subjugation of the Tamil People, nor the discrimination against Muslims and Christians,” noted Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran, Prime minister of the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE).

In their letter the Tamil American organizations cite a litany of reports, namely those by the UN Secretary General’s Panel of Experts, the UN Internal Panel Report, the Berlin Peoples’ Tribunal’s findings and successive UN Human Rights Council’s resolutions beginning from the Resolution 30/1 in 2015 to the damning Resolution 46/1 in 2020 calling upon international entities to impose sanctions on Sri Lanka for abuses against inhabitants.

The Tamil diaspora organizations namely Federation of Tami Sangams of North America(FeTNA), Ilankai Tamil Sangam, Tamil Americans United PAC, Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam, United States Tamil Action Group ,and World Thamil Organization pointing out the institutional impunity which is a result of Sinhala Buddhist ethno-nationalism, requested the IMF to urge Sri Lanka to ratify the Rome Statute retrospectively and avail itself of the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court as a condition for any economic recourse from the IMF.

The Tamil American organizations, pointing out also Sri Lanka’s intensification of demographic change in the traditionally Tamil lands through land grab and colonization and the May 2019 anti-Muslim violence, requested the IMF to condition any aid to halting the demographic change of the Tamil areas and to accountability for the crimes committed against Muslims.

The Tamil organizations also requested the IMF to condition aid to the repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). The diaspora organizations end their call to the IMF, quoting from Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen in his book ‘Development as Freedom,’ by echoing the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and citing a news letter of the IMF itself (December 2001, Vol.38, No. 4) which argued “for a better integration of human rights in development strategies.”

Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam
TGTE