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Date: Tue, Oct 4, 2011 at 3:00 PM

Unfortunately not granted vis= for Sri Lanka this week

To: MURPHY Paul <paul.murphy@europarl.europa.eu</A=&GT;


Dear friends,

As you know, I was meant to travel to Sri Lanka =his week as part of an official delegation from the GUE/NGL (Left group in European=20 Parliament). The idea to travel to Sri Lanka came from the meeting I hosted=in the Parliament a few months ago about the massacre of Tamils in Sri Lanka. =y wish to go was strengthened by the many meetings I have had with the Tamil=20 Diaspora, and others active on the issue of Tamil rights, in the recent per=od.

Two years after the end of the Civil War, I want=d to see for myself how the situation in Sri Lanka had developed. I had hoped to undertake an independent visit and to meet with both Tamil and Sinhala spea=ing trade unionists and civil society organisations.

I wanted to travel to the North of the country a=d had requested access to the detention camps. Furthermore, I wanted to meet Gunasundaram Jeyasundaram, an Irish citizen of Tamil origin who has been detained without charge in Sri Lanka for more than 4 years. The visit would=have greatly assisted in deepening my understanding of the situation in Sri Lank= and the Tamil Community in particular.

However, the Sri Lankan Embassy informed me last=week that they would need more time to consider my visit to decide whether to gi=e me a visa. I attach the letter I received. While I believe that the Embassy´= answer is largely motivated by political reasons, I will contact the Embass= again this week to reaffirm my wish to travel to Sri Lanka and to provide t=em with all the information needed in order to grant me a visa. I will also be=20 raising this today at a meeting of the South Asia delegation in the Parliament.

I am very disappointed that I was not able to tr=vel this week and I know many other people will be disappointed too. I want to reass=re you that I still intend to visit Sri Lanka and that I will do everything possible to make this happen. I was looking forward to meeting with many activists on the ground in Sri Lanka and am very grateful to you for all th= support you have offered me in terms of facilitating meetings with activist= in Sri Lanka.

In the meantime, I will continue to highlight an= speak out against what I consider to be war crimes of the Rajapakse regime and to=20 defend the right to self determination by the Tamil people in Sri Lanka. I =ill also continue to speak out against the ongoing militarisation of Sri Lankan=20 society and against the repression used against any opposition to the Sri L=nkan regime. The whole of the working class, poor farmers and poor people, Sinha=a and Tamil, are victims of this repressive government in my opinion.

On Wednesday, October 12, I will participate in = public screening of the Channel 4 documentary “Sri Lanka´s Killing Fields&q=ot; and in a panel debate that is taking place in the European Parliament in Brussels. T=e meeting is initiated by Amnesty international, Human Rights Watch and the International Crisis Group. Callum Macrae, the editor of the Channel 4 Documentary will be present as well.

I would be very pleased to meet as many of you a= possible at this public screening.

The Screening will take place between 13.00 -15.00 in =AN 4Q1, Sandwiches will be provided. However, you need to register at <= title=”mailto:advib1@hrw.org” href=”mailto:advib1@hrw.org” target=”=blank”>advib1@hrw.org=font size=”3″ face=”Times New Roman”> as soon as possible (within days=. You will need to give your name, date of birth, place of residence and passport/ID number. Please also send a copy to paul.murphy@europarl.europa.eu.


Please feel free to get in touch with me or my o=fice if you have any questions.

Best wishes

Yours in solidarity

Paul Murphy