US Tamils are disappointed in Obama’s human rights record, but they (Tamils for Obama) cited President Obama sending Samantha Power and David Pressman, two of the administration’s senior foreign policy advisors, to Colombo to confer with Sri Lankans.
The US Tamils see these as positive signs that the Obama administration is likely to pay closer attention to Sri Lankan affairs during his next two years in office.
The Bush administration, the Tamils say, was never on their side and so they don’t expect the Republicans to be friendly or helpful to them in the future, which they think is another reason to vote for the Democrats.
“US Tamils should vote for the Democrats this year,” a spokesman for Tamils for Obama said. “We have reasons to hope that the Obama administration will take actions that will help Tamils in Sri Lanka if they still have a cooperative Congress. We have no expectation that the Republicans will help us, so we hope they don’t get control of Congress.
The spokesman for American Tamil group also noted that two senior administration foreign policy advisors had recently been in Sri Lanka. “They talked to Sri Lankan foreign policy officials, but they also went to Tamil areas and talked to civilians and Tamil leaders. We are encouraged because this is evidence that the Obama administration is now turning their eyes in the direction of Ceylon.
“We hope and expect that the island of Ceylon and its long-running civil war—we fear that the current quiet is only a pause in the violence—will now get some serious attention from the US. Maybe the administration will encourage a partition in Sri Lanka as they are doing in the Sudan.”
The US Tamils have little hope for help from Congressional Republicans. “The Bush administration saw our resistance to oppression by the Singhalese majority government as a terrorist movement, and they gave their support to Colombo. We have not heard anything that indicates the Republicans have changed their minds, so we continue to support Obama and the Democrats.”
“We cannot hide that we are disappointed in this administration’s human rights record, but we have hope that this will change if the administration still has a Democratic Congress to fall back on. We think that our Tamil friends in Sri Lanka will benefit from the change,” the spokesman concluded.
(PR Web reports)
