An Open letter to United States of America Ambassador in Sri Lanka

Dear Mr. Blake,

I had an opportunity to review your later dated Janurary 18th, 2007 to the Island newspaper. Earlier, the Island newspaper (on January 16th) and an editorial (on January 17th) carried out lead news articles claiming that LTTE, with the help of some underground gangs, used information from the United States Entrance Visa application to abduct Sri Lankan citizens for ransom money based on the financial statement given by the Visa application. The Island newspaper futher claimed that this was done under your leadership with your full knowledge at the US Embassy.

In your response to the Island newspaper on January 18th, 2007 you continue your denial by stating,

"I am troubled by the false and irresponsible allegations made in your lead editorial of January 17, "The Visa Terror", about U.S. visa application practices and the claim that officials in foreign embassies in Colombo are providing information to criminals who abduct Sri Lankan citizens and demand ransom for their return.

The U.S. Government is alarmed by the large increase in kidnappings and abductions of Sri Lankan citizens in recent months. We have frequently expressed our concern about this trend. Your paper's effort to link these crimes to the financial data required by foreign embassies in their routine adjudication of visa applications is not supported by facts and is highly misleading.

The Island's lead story on January 16 carries unsubstantiated speculation that criminals are responsible for the rash of abductions in Sri Lanka may have access to documents collected by agencies that are contracted by embassies to schedule visa appointments. Your January 17 editorial goes one step further, accusing, likewise with no basis in fact, the employees of embassies of providing visa applicants' financial information of being criminals.

It is sad that once again you intentionally and maliciously mislead the American public in the facts regarding the numerous "Argentina style" disappearances of civilians in Sri Lanka.

1) Indeed if not all then mostly all of those who were abducted and later found dead in a street corner were Tamil civilians. You even to fail to mention that the abducted civilians were mostly Tamils. Sadly, they only attain Sri Lankan citizenship when they are dead. Shame on you for once again discriminating the dead. While you claim that you personally had expressed your concern about this trend of abduction of Tamil civilians, it is the contrary Mr. Ambassador. The fact that you have not only kept silent on the continuous Tamil civilian disappearances but at times have gone one step further by outright ignoring the disappearances ever took place tells the US public that you simply do not care about Tamil civilians.

To make my point clear: regarding the recent disappearance on December 15th, 2006 of the vice chancellor, Professor Raveendranath, of Eastern University in the capital, Colombo, you are silent to this day. Imagine for a moment, Mr. Blake, that the vice chancellor of the University of California was abducted in the heart of Los Angeles and no one knew about it for almost month. Your silence endorsed the abduction and the Island newspaper, an anti-Tamil Sinhala racist newspaper, implicated that the embassy staff under your leadership was involved in the abduction by giving confidential financial information for potential abduction by LTTE, an organization listed by the US state department as a terrorist organization.

If the news item from the Island paper was true, then it has far reaching implications to you in the United States of America. On the legal front, "knowingly aiding and helping a terrorist organization is treason" and carries a mandatory death penalty for you, Mr. Blake.

But luckily for you it was just a joke by the Sinhala racist anti-Tamil Island newspaper and the joke only got better when you responded to the joker. Sadly, the joke was not on you or on the Island newspaper, it was on the poor Tamil civilians who were blindfolded, raped, killed and left in the street corner for the dogs and then put the blame on the LTTE. The Facts are simple, Mr. Blake, Tamil civilians were targeted by the paramilitary and by security forces for their ideology of self-determination and abducted and killed in the name of safety by government sponsored security personnel.

2) Furthermore, I also note that in your response you never mentioned LTTE as culprits of the abduction, as was claimed by the newspaper, but instead stated that they were “criminal elements”. Was that a misprint on your part or do you know for sure who is responsible for the continuous abduction of Tamil civilians? The Tamil civilian abductions will continue even after you read this letter and your non response will continue the silent endorsement of terror by government security forces. It is still not too late to make a difference on behalf of peace loving American people to stop these abductions and killings.

You can do much better than writing letters to racist anti-Tamil newspaper, you can instead act on the clear Human Right Violations by the State of Sri Lanka. Stopping the military aid to Sri Lanka will be a good start in this New Year.

As a taxpayer of the US I am your indirect employer and it is about time that you reply to my letters which are propelled by facts and evidence; do not waste your time replying to joker newspapers throughout the world, after all how long can you be silent to the American public- your employer?

Sincerely,

Professor Aaron Rajah (employer of Mr. Robert O' Blake)

San Diego, California

The United States of America.

Published: Jan 20, 2007 3:20:14 GMT