Campaign Against Sri Lanka at Cricket World Cup

Ira De Silva London, Ontario, Canada

To Amnesty International

Re: Campaign Against Sri Lanka at Cricket World Cup

Dear Sirs:

I am writing regarding Amnesty's disgraceful conduct at the 2007 cricket world cup matches being played in the West Indies. Amnesty's campaign says "play by the rules". The question I have for your organization is why does Amnesty not follow this principle and not mix international sports with biased, vindictive propaganda against Sri Lanka and the Sri Lankan cricket team? As almost all Sri Lankan's disagree with your campaign, wholeheartedly support their team and object to Amnesty mixing sports in general, and cricket in particular, with human rights advocacy, perhaps Sri Lankans should start a campaign to get rid of Amnesty from Sri Lanka as your organization is certainly not "playing by the rules". and your campaign is certainly "not cricket".

It is easy to understand why this campaign was launched given that your organization has advocacy directors and others who are closely linked to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a group recognized as terrorists even in the U.K., your home base. Perhaps Amnesty also needs an independent human rights monitor to ensure that :

It is not biased towards terrorists
Identify terrorist supporters within Amnesty and get rid of them
Review it's "old mandate" created at a time when international terrorism was not the order of the day
Establish "rules" as to how it deals with terrorists groups and not merely target governments challenged by terrorists

In the case of Sri Lanka, why is Amnesty violating the human rights of the Sri Lankan team?
Has Amnesty been paid to "fix matches" against Sri Lanka?
What has Amnesty done to "pressure" the internationally recognized terrorist group the LTTE which is the root cause of human rights violations in Sri Lanka as indicated by other human rights groups in the world?

Practice what you preach - if you can violate the rights of the Sri Lankan's what right do you have to "preach" to Sri Lankans and the elected government of Sri Lanka? "Monitor" your self first BEFORE you try to monitor others.

Yours truly,

I. de Silva
London, Ontario, Canada