Asoka Weerasinghe Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario . K1J 6G1 . Canada

November 13, 2009

Mr. Brad Adams
Asia Director, Human Rights Watch
350 Fifth Avenue, 34th Floor
New York, NY 101118-3299 USA

Dear Brad:

I have just come across your exclusive interview with the Sri Lanka Guardian by-lined Nilantha Illangamuwa titled ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” Rajapaksha lied to Ban Ki Moon ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” HRW.

I chuckled reading it. Coming out of HRW, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-see who is talkingƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚, I said to myself.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Reading the interview again I said to myself,

ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Bring on the circus clowns, Brad.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  You guys at HRW think that you are a bunch of circus trapeze artists pretending that you are a bunch of Gods, swinging high and swinging low claiming you have every right to pee all over Sri Lanka.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Hold your peeing just there, Brad.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  You and your colleagues at HRW, got it all wrong about Sri Lanka.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚

You at HRW have done it before.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Remember how you acted God and played Russian roulette with the lives of my people when you wrote a letter to the IMF Executive Directors on May 13 telling them, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-We urge you and other IMF members to delay approval of the standby arrangement (of the loan of US$1.9 billion emergency support) until the government of Sri Lanka takes the following steps to ease the humanitarian crisisƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚¦.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Oh Man, Oh Man! This Brad Adams really thinks that he is God isnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t itƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚, I thought.

Then you all had your South Asian Researcher Charu Lata Hogg who had an article published in a Japanese newspaper describing in a rather compelling detail what she called the scenes of death and destruction in the Vanni.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Dead bodies of civilians lie strewn along the dusty roads, she said.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Hospitals, play grounds and houses stand ravaged by rockets fired from multi-barrel launchers.

Hogg had managed to identify the weaponry used and even noted the dirt underfoot, as she must have had a very good idea of what was going on, except that she hadnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t been within fifty kilometres of the conflict zone. Unfortunately for me, I didnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢tƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ have a chance to meet her or else I would have asked what she had smoked that morning before she started writing her hallucinating article.

You said to the Sri Lanka Guardian, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-What we do demand, however, is that the government follows its own laws as well as international law at all times.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  International law does not allow a government to keep hundreds of thousands of people in detention just because it thinks that there are a certain number of criminals among them.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  That is collective punishment.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  ItƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s illegal, immoral and counterproductiveƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚¦ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚¦ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Not that they ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-thinksƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚, Brad, they bloody well know that there are thousands of hardcore Tamil Tigers among the refugees and they are being sieved out one by one.

You guys at HRW should demand nothing from the Sri Lankan Government knowing pretty well that the Sri Lankan Government has done a Gold Star performance in re-settling almost half of the 288,000 Tamils in five months, when the US took 21 years after the end of the Vietnamese War to make one more effort to return 37,000 Vietnamese to their homes in December 1996, who were still languishing in refugee camps in Asia.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ You know what I am talking about Brad, having been attached to the UNHCR in Cambodia as a senior lawyer.

I am sure this is not news to you Brad that the last of the Vietnamese refugees from Asian camps were expected to be sent to their homes by the end of 1995 but only 5,000 were returned.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  And that war ended in 1975.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  ArenƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t you ashamed trying to keep on hounding the Sri Lankan Government when you know jolly well that the Sri Lankan Government has been doing an amazing job to re-settle these IDP Tamils even after being handicapped with their constraints in trying to demine the terrain, for the most part manually, through where they would have to traverse to get to their refitted homes which had been pocked marked by bullet holes and roofless; casualties of a 30 year old Tamil Tiger separatist war?

Just cut it Brad.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  You guys should demand nothing from the Sri Lankan Government knowing damn well that the Sri Lankan Government has done a stellar performance worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize for its initiative to resettle the ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 288,000 Tamil people who ended up in welfare camps having been rescued from the Tamil Tiger terrorists by May 18 this year, ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ especially knowing that ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ the closing of the last Vietnamese Refugee campƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  of the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”boat people sagaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ in Hong Kong endedƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  25 years ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ after their war ended in 1975, when on Wednesday May 31, 2000 finally the curtain came down.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Twenty-five years have been a long time to resettle these refugees when you at HRW expect miracles from the Sri Lankan Government.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  ArenƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t you goody-two-shoe wannabeƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s from HRW ashamed to keep hounding and barking at the Sri Lankan Government a mere six months into finishing offƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  the Tamil Tiger terrorists militarily, and a separatist war that lasted 30 blood soaked years?

The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) says that Iraqis are currently the fastest growing refugee and IDP crisis group in the world with nearly 2 million people having fled the country, and 1.7 million internally displaced.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Knowing what is happening around Sri Lanka, I believe that the Sri Lankan government has done an exemplary job in resettling over half the 288,000 Tamil IDPs in six months.

Compared to the Buduburam refugee camp, the home for 42,000 Liberians which was opened in 1990; compared to the refugee camps in the south of Chad like the Breidjing Camp, hosting almost 250,000 refugees from Dafur region which was opened 2002, admit it Brad, Sri Lanka has done extremely well inƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  resettling the Tamil IDPs. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The forecast is that all of the IDPs, except for the hardcore Tamil Tigers; will be re-settled by the end of January 2010.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Well, stop hounding Sri LankaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s government as this miracle will happen.

Knowing all these facts Brad, bring in your HRW circus clowns.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Let me have another laugh.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  And when they want to pretend that they are circus trapeze artists swinging high and swinging low over Sri Lanka pretending that they are a bunch of HRW Gods, make sure that they wear diapers in case they purposely have an accident all over Sri Lanka, as they seem to be good at it.

Sincerely,

Asoka Weerasinghe