Boycott Sri Lanka

The world watched as the Government of Sri Lanka systematically attacked thousands of ethnic Tamils early in 2009. As many as 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed as the Sri Lankan Government unleashed a military offensive involving ground and aerial assaults, against Tamil combatants and civilians alike. However, the genocide of Tamils did not start there; nor did it culminate on the Tamil killing fields. More than 60 years of systematic discrimination and violence sponsored by a mono-ethnic Sinhalese nationalist government has illustrated the intent of Sri Lanka to eliminate its Tamil-speaking Hindu, Christian, and Muslim population.

Capitalizing on the Bush administration’s language of ‘War on Terror,’ the Government of Sri Lanka justified its mass killings of innocent Tamils civilians as a means of defeating terrorism. Its indiscriminate bombings of schools, hospitals, and 'safe zones' proved that this was not merely an attempt to defeat terrorism; this violence was a means of destroying a rich culture, a classic language, and a native people.

As the ‘victory’ of the war was being celebrated by the Government of Sri Lanka, a quarter of a million Tamil people were illegally herded into internment camps. There they were kept under heavy military supervision and denied full access to their families, humanitarian aid, journalists, and human rights monitors. There were allegations of rapes and murders committed by the armed security forces guarding the camps. Sexual violence, demonstrated by Sri Lanka's systematic use of rape as a weapon of war, has long been a feature of Sri Lanka's conflict and is a clear attempt to destroy the foundation of Tamil society.

The meaning and classification of genocide is subject to intense debate - and often lives are lost in the meantime. Determining which conflicts are genocide and which are not; identifying when individual acts of repression turn into a concerted campaign to exterminate a people; these are highly politicized discussions. Often the question is of the scale and speed of the crimes - when the world sees tens of thousands killed in one day, they take notice. But when the killings occur over months or even decades, they often pass with little note. Genocide, however, is not a question of scale - it is a question of intent.

The Government of Sri Lanka showed its intent when it declared an area a "safe zone", shepherded civilians into it, and then proceed to shell the area.

They showed their intent when they ordered all international NGO’s out of a region when civilians desperately need their help.

They showed their intent when they disappeared their critics, silencing them forever.

They showed their intent when journalists are suppressed, when orphanges are bombed, when aid workers are killed and when hospitals are shelled.

The Government of Sri Lanka has made its genocidal intent clear.