A spokesman for the Tamils for Obama organization urged President Barack Obama to delist the Tamil Tigers from the US Terrorism list, EIN news reported.
Many Tamils are suffering from the listing of Tamil Tigers, Tamils for Obama spokesman pointed out. Because of the listing of Tamil Tigers, it creates pain for many US Tamils when they travel to abroad and when they return to US. They have to go through many hours of interrogation. Some US Tamils have asked us to convince President Obama to help us by removing Tamil Tigers from the list, the spokesperson also said.
Obama can give Tamils a little relief by de-listing the Tamil Tiger during this Christmas and giving season, the request urged.
Tamils for Obama also said that the Tamil Tiger group is now defunct and no Tiger activities reported for last seven years. There is no reason to keep them on the list, they said.
The spokesman continued that “The European Union's top court took a step on September 2016, towards confirming the removal of the Tamil Tigers from an EU terrorism blacklist, despite protestations from the Sri Lankan government. The Sri Lankan government had said in 2014 that it would provide the evidence which the EU court found lacking to support sanctions against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Judges of the General Court ruled that EU leaders relied too heavily on media reports rather than their own investigations.
“New York Brooklyn judge Dearie said on October 2016, during a trial of three men convicted of being Tamil Tiger terrorists that ‘Now that we’ve become a little bit more sophisticated in our thinking about what is and is not terrorism, now that we know a lot more about the conflict in Sri Lanka and the horrors visited upon these people, perhaps there’s a way to provide a fair measure of justice to all without condemning these men to essentially a life behind bars.’
“Further the judge Dearie continued ‘This case has just taken over my head, to say that I’m troubled is to put it mildly.”
Tamils spokesman said that “Further EU and Brooklyn judge both are convinced that before we blame others, we need to investigate. It was a media propaganda by Sri Lanka that made us blind in our thinking and empathy for Tamil innocents.”
