In a statement released today, the United States Tamil Political Action Council (USTPAC) welcomed high level US envoy visits to Sri Lanka, whilst reiterating calls to ignore the thinly veiled threats of the Sri Lankan government's lobbyists, and table a strong resolution at the upcoming United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) sessions seeking a credible international investigation to probe atrocities committed against Tamil civilians by parties in the ethnic conflict.

Highlighting the escalating militarised colonisation taking place in the Tamil areas, the US Tamil advocacy group, warned against giving Sri Lanka more time, arguing "more time will only lead to a point of no return in a country whose militarization in the Tamil areas has steadily increased since the end of the armed conflict, and has facilitated land grabs and creating demographic imbalance in favor of the Sinhalese under the guise of reconstruction."
 
Extracts from the statement are reproduced below.

“USTPAC condemns the Sri Lankan government for denying a visa to the Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues, Catherine Russell.”

“USTPAC is also alarmed by the statements of senior Sri Lankan officials that setting up international investigations would bring chaos to the country, a thinly veiled threat to the safety of Tamils in the island nation.”

“Almost five years since the mass atrocities of 2009, which led to killings of up to 70,000 Tamils, the Sri Lankan Government's reconciliation process has gone nowhere.”

“The Government of Sri Lanka and its military are among the accused, and cannot credibly investigate themselves.”

“Giving them more time will only lead to a point of no return in a country whose militarization in the Tamil areas has steadily increased since the end of the armed conflict, and has facilitated land grabs and creating demographic imbalance in favor of the Sinhalese under the guise of reconstruction.”

“Without making any attempt to resolve the underlying political grievances that led to the war, Sri Lanka is focusing on building new Sinhalese settlements in traditional Tamil areas. Rights activists fear that any extra time for 'reconciliation' will be used by Sri Lanka to expedite permanent demographic change”

“Recently, Lalith Weeratunga, secretary to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, has been lobbying Washington to convince US policymakers that more time is needed for Sri Lanka's National Action Plan to succeed. In an attempt to bargain for more time, Sri Lanka's Weeratunga has even implicated India for its role on the island in the 1980s, challenging India's support of the US-led resolution. And his comment that an international probe will lead to chaos in Sri Lanka is a thinly veiled threat of another pogrom against the Tamils.”