Sat, 16 July, 2011

6:29:57

Passing out "Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields" DVDs in Washington DC, USA

"shan@sundaram-art.com" <shan@sundaram-art.

Dear Friends,

We made our first large-scale handout of DVDs of “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields” today. A friend of Tamils for Obama carried 110 DVDs down to DC where we passed them out at the Capitol Visitors’ Center, Congressional Auditorium and Atrium, yesterday, Friday, July 15, 2011. Attendees, mostly congressional staff and media people, were there to see a screening of this documentary. Our friend had DVDs ready to hand out to any of the viewers who wanted to be able to show this UK Channel 4 report to their friends and colleagues. The attendees were so eager to get them that we quickly ran out.

The event itself was a big success. The auditorium was packed and many powerful people from congress, along with their staffs, were close attention to “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields.” It was the first time in our memories that the heavyweights in Washington were gathered together to learn about and talk about situation of the Tamils in Sri Lanka. It is encouraging.

Some of our friends who asked for copies of this DVD have been getting impatient and are asking why they have not received their DVDs yet. If you are one of them, we apologize. This is a big job and we are just getting rolling on it. Your DVDs will be in the mail next week.

We plan to have copies of this DVD hand-delivered to the offices of every representative and senator. Each office will get two copies, one for the chief of staff and one for the representative or senator. We will also give DVDs to think tanks, government officials, influential citizens, church groups, libraries, colleges and universities, and any other person or institution we think should be aware of these matters. (We Tamils, of course, paid close attention to what was going on in Sri Lanka, but most of the world did not. If they heard the stories, they many have been horrified but they quickly forgot them. We want to them to hear and remember.)

We just got started on our project. Now, we have a lot to do. We asked our friends to let us know of anyone they believe can help us pass this important video along. Some have already responded. If you know of anyone who can make good use of the “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields” DVD and have not told us yet, please do it now. Thanks.

As we have said, in our opinion this is a worth-while project.

If you have not already added your name to our international petition seeking a referendum in northeastern Sri Lanka like the one recently held in southern Sudan, consider doing it now. The link to the petition is: http://www.tamilsforobama.com/Referendum2011/english.asp

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Tamils for Obama