A response: ‘ The Silence of Sri Lanka’

An open letter to Dear Mr. Miliband,Member of Parliament for South Shields, The House of Commons

by Gaja Lakshmi Paramasivam

(June 22, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) I write in response to the above article by yourself and Mr. Bernard Kouchner, published yesterday in The New York Times.

You say in this article ‘In April 2009, we travelled together as foreign ministers to Sri Lanka, as 25 years of fighting between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers neared its end.

The remaining fighters were trapped in the northern most part of the country — along with large numbers of civilians. U.N. estimates put the numbers of civilians there in the last few months of the war at over 300,000.

Our purpose was simple: to draw attention to the human suffering, to call for humanitarian aid and workers to be allowed in, and to call for the fighting to stop.    Read More  
-----------------------------------------------------------------

The Silence of Sri Lanka

Published: June 20, 2011

By DAVID MILIBAND and BERNARD KOUCHNER

In April 2009, we travelled together as foreign ministers to Sri Lanka, as 25 years of fighting between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers neared its end.
The remaining fighters were trapped in the northern most part of the country — along with large numbers of civilians. U.N. estimates put the numbers of civilians there in the last few months of the war at over 300,000.
Our purpose was simple: to draw attention to the human suffering, to call for humanitarian aid and workers to be allowed in, and to call for the fighting to stop.     Full Story>>>