In a strongly worded statement sent to the World Media, the International Association of Tamil Academics (IATA) have expressed their distress and anger at some of the bogus Associations that claim to work for the promotion of Human Rights in the developing world. They have also written to Mr. Pierre Louette, CEO of AFP, the oldest news agency in the world and also the largest French News agency that its Sinhala correspondent Amal Jayasinghe is serving as a mouth piece of the Sinhala military establishment dolling out fiction and diatribes. We reproduce here some extracts.

The International Association of Tamil Academics condemns the government of Sri Lanka for the cold-blooded and most cruel murder of 15 Tamil employees of the French humanitarian organization Action Contre la Faim (ACF) in the town of Muttur in the Eastern province of Sri Lanka. By their despicable and calculated silence, Amnesty International and the New York based anti-Tamil organization called, Human Rights Watch have indirectly condoned the murder of these employees of International NGO named, Action Contre la Faim (ACF). The murder took place a few yards away from Sri Lankan military camp in Muttur.

The International Committee of the Red Cross was the only Intergovernmental Organization that unreservedly condemned this heinous act perpetrated by the Sinhala military and their armed mercenaries. It is reported that HRW's self-proclaimed and ill informed researcher Jo Becker at the advice of the pack of Tamil mercenaries who are her research subjects is looking for evidence to label these innocent NGO workers as retired Tamil Tiger rebels.

In a world where Human Rights advocacy is increasingly becoming a lucrative industry the inaction of HRW and AI is understandable. HRW and especially its Anti-Tamil Sri Lanka project manager, Jo Becker has more serious obligations to the government of Sri Lanka having lavishly enjoyed many months of Sinhala hospitality in the leading five star hotels in Colombo. IATA laments the fact that organizations like HRW have made a mockery of Human Rights both in the developed and developing world. When money becomes the determining factor of Human Rights advocacy the poor and the vulnerable have no space or place in the agenda of these advocates and that describes the fate of the fifteen who were killed in Muttur.

Despite the fact that Action Contre la Faim (ACF) is a French NGO, Amal Jayasinghe the paid reporter of AFP, a French New agency did not see it fit to report the truth of this incident because it was perpetrated by his Sinhala military. On the contrary as a committed Sinhala extremist he fabricated a story about a hundred refugees being gunned down by the tigers.

Source: International Association of Tamil Academics
Date: 08 August 2006