Dr. Ellyn Shander: "We will never stop fighting for justice"
Full Text of Speech by Dr. Ellyn Shander MD at the “Tamils Against Genocide”, Washington DC rally, Feb 20, 2009:
VANAKAM
First I want to say how honored I am to speak at this rally.
I want to thank the organizers of this event who have brought us all together. I am so impressed with the number of people , who have traveled great distances, taken off from work, and put their lives aside to be here.. Look at us, thousands showing up in solidarity and giving voice to the Tamil people in this terrible crises.
WE have the power to change the present anguish and despair in Sri Lanka! WE WILL NOT BE DEFEATED!!!
[Dr. Ellyn Shander at a "Tamils Againt Genocide" media briefing held at National Press Club, Washington DC, Feb 20, 2009]
I dedicate this speech
- to all those who have died in the senseless violence since 1948,
- to all the Tamil victims of targeted persecution and murder,
- to all the brave heroes that have fallen in the struggle for equality AND
- to all the Tamils in SL, who can’t be here today and are suffering now in unbearable circumstances.
Let us take a moment of silence to pray for the restoration of hope, peace and dignity to the Tamil people of Sri Lanka. (Silence)
Most of you know me, as an American doctor, I went to the Northern coast of Sri Lanka after the tsunami and helped in a fishing village north of Killonochi. After my second trip back to the North, the government broke the ceasefire. Since then the war on the Tamil civilians has increased to a heartbreaking devastation.
The genocide of the Tamil people is personal for me.
I met hundreds of beautiful people in the North, but now it is over run by government savages.
My memories of Tamil children playing in the villages are covered with death and destruction. What kind of evil government kills its own civilians???
Saddam Hussein, govt of Sudan, Burma and the GOSL. All members of the Killing club.
We have all been shocked , saddened and devastated at the news that comes daily from the Vanni region.
-Incendiary bombs burning whole families as they sleep,
-civilians lying on the streets bleeding to death.,
-forced abortions of Tamil women,
-torture and rape in the new concentration camps for civilian Tamils who escape to Vavunia.
This ethnic cleansing of the Tamils is spreading as a bloodstain across Tamil land. It is masterminded by the President of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa, guilty of war crimes against the Tamil people.
The Sri Lankan government apologizes to no one.
They do not say that civilian deaths are “collateral damage,”
They don’t apologize for using cluster bombs on civilian areas,
They don’t apologize for using incendiary bombs on densely packed civilians,
They don’t apologize for threatening doctors to leave,
They don’t apologize for ordering the UN and all NGOS to leave,
They don’t apologize for closing off the whole area under attack from journalists or observers,
They don’t apologize for starving and killing over 300,000 Tamil civilians who have done nothing wrong except be born Tamil in the country of Sri Lanka.
The similarity to the Jews being killed in Germany is chilling.
The GOSL is acting just like the Nazi regime with plans to exterminate Tamils !!
And just as we can’t imagine the GOSL’s evil to get worse, he orders the shelling of civilian hospitals and then states openly that it was justified!!
These cowards claim they are waging a war against terror.
That is insane… just look at the pictures of the casualties. Old people, women and children. They are not killing terrorists , they are using this an excuse to ELIMIANTE EVERY TAMIL THEY CAN GET THEIR HANDS ON. This is genocide.!!!!
But one thing the GOSL never counted on was us!!
The Tamil Diaspora and friends.
Look around at your neighbor. Look at the faces of the other people in this crowd. You are looking at the faces of people who are dedicated and loyal to truth and integrity for the Tamil people.
The time to accuse us as terrorists is over! We are thousands strong as humanitarians.!!
All of you who come out and tirelessly write letters, organize rallies, come here to march and shout , AND send photos to journalists: all to make sure this genocide can not be hidden, can not be buried, and cannot continue!! We will make sure that the world knows what is happening to the Tamils.
WE WILL NEVER BE SILENCED! AND
WE WILL NEVER STOP FIGHTING FOR JUSTICE.
The GOSL never thought we would show up and expose their lies, but here we are: and in this darkest hour we will continue to make sure that people SEE what is happening.. THEY CAN NO LONGER HIDE TAMIL GENOCIDE, by accusing us of being terrorist supporters.
Even if they try to kill every Tamil in Sri Lanka and take their land.
We will not let them succeed in extinguishing the Tamils.
Because in this darkness, we will fight for the Tamils to be a presence in the world and never be forgotten.
WE .. you and I can do this.
In these darkest hours, we will collectively move to our highest selves and say to those Sinhalese Nazis.
YOU WILL NEVER KILL THE COLLECTIVE TAMIL SPIRIT.
WE WILL SHOUT TO STOP GENOCIDE NOW!
AND WE WILL REBUILD!
Although there is silence in Sri Lanka
We will never be silenced
Although they control Tamils there
We will never be controlled here.
Although they are torturing and killing Tamils there.
They can never kill our collective regroup and stay on the highest moral ground.
WE HAVE GOD ON OUR SIDE, as we come here today: to the capital of our great country and ask for help
President Obama we have come to you for help
Secretary of state Clinton we have come to you for help.
Pres Obama your words on your inauguration day spoke directly to the heart of the Tamil people’s struggle!!
You said:
“We must carry forward the precious gift, the noble idea, passed on from generation to generation. The God given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.”
Pres Obama we are asking you to make that pledge to the Tamil people.
We need your help!
Pres Obama: We have come here today thousands strong to tell the government butchers and masterminds of the Tamil final solution.
We will never stop fighting for the Tamil people, no matter where and when it is. You cannot break our spirit..
And on inauguration day, we heard your words Pres Obama, mirror ours
You said:
“And to those who seek to advance their aims by……slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that, "Our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken. You cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you."
President Obama we are asking you to make that pledge to the Tamil people.
We need your help!
From the worst violent struggles have come free nations.
The US in the revolutionary war
Israel in the war of independence
Etria from Ethiopia
Kosovo and on and on.
And as we saw after WW2, the worse mass extermination of a people, 6 million and yet the Jewish state was born from the ashes.
Know this, the Tamils will rise from these ashes as well.
President Obama we heard you say to governments like the GOSL
To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history,
At this rally today we say to you. …Mahinda Rajapaksa … you are on the wrong side of history! We will overcome you!
President Obama we are asking you to make that pledge to the Tamil people.
We need your help!
PLEASE insist on an immediate and unconditional ceasefire.
Please send an international presence to SL to bear witness and stop the genocide of an entire people before it is too late.
Please pressure the GOSL to open the conflict areas to humanitarian aid, international journalists and human rights activists.
Sometimes in life we get the rare opportunity to fight for integrity, and truth, and we are forced to go outside, really outside, our comfort zone. That is when it is a privilege to do service for a people and a cause.
Tamils worldwide and their friends, we have been given this privilege.
We demand that the Sri Lankan government stop the genocide…..and
We demand that the international community pressure this Nazi regime to stop the ethnic cleansing and send in humanitarian aid. It is time for the Tamil people to have their own state
But in this fight, we need help.. and once again Pres Obama we found a promise of hope in your words on January 20th. You said:
“know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and we are ready to lead once more.”
President Obama we are asking you to make that pledge to an independent Tamil nation.
We need your help!
And finally, President Obama you said on Jan 20th in front of millions of Americans and the entire world that
“this is a new era of responsibility …on the part of every American, …we ( must) be …., firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character than giving our all to a difficult task.”
Mr. President .. the Tamils are facing a very difficult task.. stopping the final solution .a genocide ..from a madness that is stalking their country.
You speak about giving America’s all to a difficult task.
Please,
President Obama we are asking you to make that pledge to the Tamil people.
We need your help!
And finally to all of you here today ….let me say, that I have met Tamil men, women and children. teens and elders from,
Sri Lanka, Canada, America, England, India and even Australia.
And what has impressed me most was their
Strength of character,
The tenderness of their hearts, and
The courage to go on under unspeakable sadness about the situation back home,
so one thing I know for sure
Tamils the world over and their friends
Will never give up the struggle
Tamils the world over and their friends
Will try and save every Tamil possible
Tamils the world over and their friends
Will overcome this darkness
And then Tamils the world over and their friends
Will rebuild in our hearts and then on the ground
A FREE INDEPENDANT STATE CALLED TAMIL EELAM
Thank you
[Dr. Ellyn Shander MD of Connecticut, USA is a humanitarian activist]
24 Comments
Thank you Dr. Ellyn Shander, for giving voice to the voiceless
I'm afaid she's being misinformed
What the learned MD did not understand is that the civilians are forcefully held by LTTE within the war zone and then the indiscriminate fire from Sri Lankan Armed Forces kills and maims the non-combatants. If LTTE wants to save the lives of Vanni Tamils they would have forcefully evicted them from the war zone; majority of them were herded by LTTE all the way from Mannar district via Klinochchi to Puthukudiyiruppu. It is on record that even ICRC was unable to evacuate their Tamil employees and their immediate relatives, around 70 people, from the war zone as LTTE did not issue permission to release them.
Therefore, culpability of the genocide of Tamil civilians in Vanni rests equally with both Sri Lankan Armed Forces and LTTE. Moreover, it is the sorry state of Tamil Diaspora all over the world that it is unable to persuade LTTE to release the innocent Tamil civilians from the war zone even at this wee hour of the crisis.
Dr. Ellyn Shander
we greatly appreciate your commitment. Soon you are going to get hate letters
from people support Genocide of tamils. please don't worry about them. They may
even call your medical board or your superviser to make your life hell. please don,t worry stand for humanity and what you believe. we ( TAMIL in Vanni and all over the world) will keep you in our prayer every day.
you proved that you are a doctor and well educated person. My sinhalease friends and some tamil it took sixty years to understand.
we hope international community, Co- chair ,UN, India will break way their calculated silence.
god bless you Ellyn
Rathi
this is the one of the best speech I ever read. thank you Dr.
It is time to accept the failures of the Tamil politicians and to work with the govt towards national peace.
Will fight for the Statehood
I was there at the rally. It was good to see a large number (nearly 7000) of people attending. I am seeing many Tamil people from the US who have not in anyway been pro-Tiger, not even Tamil nationalist, are now attending these protests.
They do so moved by the suffering of the civilians in the Vanni and with the understanding that the current regime in Colombo is an evil Nazi regime.
So the pro-SL governemnt and paramilitary propagandist claims that these rallies are held to save the LTTE won't wash.
And the following words from Dr. Shander should ring in everyone's ears: "Sometimes in life we get the rare opportunity to fight for integrity, and truth, and we are forced to go outside, really outside, our comfort zone. That is when it is a privilege to do service for a people and a cause. Tamils worldwide and their friends, we have been given this privilege."
Thanks. Now readers please google on "LTTE atrocities"
Americans and people of the west are not fools.
Hi Mr.Nakeeb M Issadeen,
Civilians are forcefully held by LTTE,ICRC was
unable to evacuate their tamil employees,Its a great fun.Definitely you are not an eye witness.Can any
independent media peep into wanni region throught the
iron curtain? ICRC have to dance to the tune of Mahinda & bros. If not, it will be thrown away out of the Island. Just do not swallow and digest the Goebbelized propaganda of sinhala regime,let that business to sinhalese mass. Please pray for Lasantha and other eighteen slaughtered journalist.
Well said Ellyn Shander.
The Rajapakses have beaten the 'glory' of Sadam and Hitler! They should be congratulated!
There is no point to talking to Dr Shander. She is brainwashed and listen to only what she like to hear. But Rathi- Please go to Sri Lanka and see.? Sinhala Children study Tamil in Sinhalese places as Horana, Galle etc. There are Tamil teachers teaching Tamil to Sinhala students because Tamil is a must learn language now. Why on earth we have to learn Tamil when you don't speak Sinhala. Majority language? Do Germans learn Turkish? Do Americans learn Spanish. For that matter HOW MANY Canadians speak French? How many Englishmen speak Welsh or Scottish?
We do. We have Tamils living among us. Come and see if You can. We have military check points to avoid suicide bombers. Most of the bombers are Tamil. So you have to go through some checking as in the West. Asians under more scrutiny than others because most suicide bombers are from South Asian origin. Apart from that your so called genocide happen in last remaining strongholds of LTTE territory because LTTE Saviors keeping people by force. It s easy for you to scream Genocide from the WEST. Those people suffer because of LTTE and LTTE IS KILLING them when they try to leave. That is the truth. We don't believe paid agents of Human Rights watch or stupid BBC who never say a word about sinhalese civilians killed by LTTE day before yesterday. But we do respect people like Rajan Hoole, UTHR(J) and Anandasangaree. When they voice opinion we want to do something about it. We want to help Tamil civilians as much we can and stop killing if that happens. (we don't believe SL Army deliberately targeting civilians. Sl army dying 50-60 a day because they use small arms fire instead of heavy artillery these days. Not to kill civilians.) But all the good work done by UTHR(J) and other moderates were being destroyed by people like Shander. Don't fall for this please.
Why this American Doctor only visited north? Sitting in USA how does she know
what is happening in the ground in SL?
Jaya,
You are right, Americans are not fool. While they search for that they will also google on "Sri Lankan government atrocities".........when they do LTTE is going to look like an angel compared to the Sri Lankan government.
Tamil people are unitied......they won't stop until Tamil Eelam is established......The Tigers won't be defeated until the 80 million Tamils around the world is wiped of from this planet. So Good Luck!!!!!
Nakeeb M issadeen,
You are talking like if you were there in Vanni overseeing all this drama that you are just throwing in this commentary section. I guess the Sri Lankan propaganda is working. Allow international media and independent monitors. I suggest your President to do that if all this accusations are true….if not weather you like it or not Tamil Eelam is the reality one way or another and Sri Lanka will only be found in history books. The unification of the 80 million Tamil people is more dangerous then the Tamil Tigers for the Sri Lankan state. Laughably Sri Lanka is not in the position to counter another struggle in any form by the Tamil people and their friends who support freedom/self-determination. Muslims on the island will have to decide their clear position instead of running to the side that looks as if it has the upper hand, Sinhalese have welcomed them because they need all the support (they have and will use them until they reach their objectives) but the Tamil people will only welcome them if their position is crystal clear.
Thanks Jaya for insight. You are one of those Sinhala Supremist preaching to kill the Tamils in the Name of LTTE and it is LTTE and LTTE is the Trouble and once thay are out we are back to normal. How long are you guys fool yourselves and the world at large. Whether your SLA wipe out the LTTE or wipe out the Tamil nation from the world map, the Truth cannot be burried and it is Too much for all of you to handle.
Thank you Dr. Shander for your commitment and taking time to participate in this rally.
The claim that the civilians are held by LTTE is a Sri Lanka government propaganda. The Sinhala government wants to lock them up, put them in the “Sinhala Nazi” camps. Why would anyone want to leave to be at the mercy of “Sinhala barbarians”
If the much hyped RP2 is anything to go about here (Sri Lanka) is one place that provides you with all the necessary credentials for action. Personally, I want physical intervention as the very last resort. It has not helped very much in other theatres. When that fine gentleman and former Aussie Foreign Minister Gareth Evans visited Cbo over an year ago he advised the Cbo administration to clean up their act - which was then showing signs of going out of control.
A few academics on the pay of GoSL then worked up the Buddhist Sinhala supremacist lobby against Evans and vent their anger on that talented lady Dr Rama Mani. She was ungraciously evicted from Sri Lanka on false excuses. The real cause of this controversy was the Post of head of ICES that went to Dr Mani by merit. If she remained in Cbo this indignity of the Senate hearing could have been avoided. But conspiracy and prejudice had the day and Dr Mani's learning and advise benefits other countries today. However, there is sufficient consciousness that has been raised in the right places in the world to warrant action.
The Senate hearings in the past few days when former US Ambassador Jeff Lunsteadt made an impassioned plea for justice to those suffering Lankans must drive sense into the thick skulls of the Cbo administration that their time is running out. One hopes Gothabaya Rajapakse reads the text of the addresses at the hearing where
his foolish remarks have brought shame to Sri Lanka.
That the hearing was graced by the presence and keen attention of such high profile men as the Hon'ble John Kerry, a former Presedential candidate, is evidence the lies of the Lankan amateurish Goebellesian clique is failing. How is that men in the helm of affairs in Sri Lanka currently - some citizens and others Green Card holders of the USA - who could not afford the US$180 monthly rent
in their Californian town-houses in 2004 come out buying mansions reported to be from US$2.6 million to US$4 million?
Isn't it the case the Lankan war is being dragged since the early 1990s only to make illegal fortunes to those at the top? If US justice means anything at all and if US authorities are sincere in their search and destruction of Crime money in that great country here are a few instances they must investigate transparently. If not, they shall stand accused of collusion. Elsewhere it has been suggested denial of visas, ban on air travel to our VVIPs are being considered in the lines of the punishment imposed on that rogue President Mugabe - who singularly destroyed an entire well-to-do country and made millions of middle class Zimbabweans come to the streets for basic food.
Over 3 million Zims are loafing the streets of South Africa as paupers. MR's administration has unfortunately taken this path. My comments are meant to advise them to be just and reasonable. Look at the hypocracy of our leaders. CBK, who was in the saddle for over 10 years and who could have caused a substantial dent in the ethnic issue during her period by enering into useful talks, now tells India and the world, in her recent visit to Delhi, the Tamil question could have been settled BY TALKS. O Tempora! O Mores! It is not the LTTE or the Tamils that ruined Sri Lanka but the hypocracy and dishonesty of our recent leaders - most of whom lined their pockets in a big, big way. And the result - the friendly Sinhala and Tamil people are at each others throats.
Dr Ellyn Shandler deserves the thanks of both the Sinhala and Tamil communities for her attempts to bring peace to Sri Lankan. I hope sufficient influence will be used on Secy/State Hillary Clinton and thence President Obama to very soon bring a sustainable peace to our lovely land and people.
ISS
The SL Government is Barbaric and inhuman.Selfish and Greedy SL Government of Rajapkshi should let the Tamils have Tamil Eelam with a Democratic independant Government.Rajapakshi did not keep his promise that he made before he became President of SL.God is watching you Rajapakshi!!!.
To that "Victim of State Terrorism" who has responded to my comment:
Sorry for being a victim. The problem is your concept of angles. These angles tie up bombs around their waist to appear like pregnant, go to the midst of some innocent women and children and explode themselves into pieces. These angles dash little babies on trees to save bullets. Your diaspora gather in small groups, watch the video and clap rapturously. If there are any angles in heaven I would rather choose hell.
Jaya,
Do you have any proof other then statements from government officials, state media and pro-government Sri Lankan Media?
Let the International media and International monitors into the country so that they can report without the government telling them what to write. If they report the same then I am willing to believe it, until then you can count the days and live in fear of the military setback. LTTE was in this position many times before; they only came out as stronger and more powerful, also forgot to mention the renewed and added support from the Tamil people which makes them immortals. With the support of the 80 million Tamils which is growing at an unprecedented rate sucking in non-Tamils as well, they are far beyond immortals.
Sinhalese people are scrambling on how to finance the food on the table for the day and dead scared about the next year’s bill payment for all the loans as well as this year which is yet to be paid. The last thing they need is LTTE who will not listen or talk. Also remember that the Tamil Tigers inside the island is a tiny force compared to the Tamil Tigers outside of the island.
I think this doctor is doing more harm to tamil people than GOSL
"Saddam Hussein, govt of Sudan, Burma and the GOSL. All members of the Killing club."
+
Rajapakses, the barbarians
Dear Madam,
I am wondering about u, we can keep our hopes alive because of Dr Ellyn Shander. Tamil community will be thankful to u.