PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
EALAM TAMILS OF SRI LANKA (21 July 1999)

That this House is deeply concerned that, during the last 20 years of ethnic cleansing of homeland Tamils in Sri Lanka, over 60,000 Tamil civilians have lost their lives, up to a million have been internally displaced, while over 450,000 have sought refuge in Europe and elsewhere; notes that the US Department of State Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1997 asserted that 'police and Army and navy personnel committed extrajudicial killings in both Jaffna and the eastern Provinces (predominantly Tamil areas of Sri Lanka)'; regrets that during the first year of the present government 67 export licences were granted for the sale of military equipment to Sri Lanka, rendering it the fourth most popular destination for UK arms in that year; believes that Her Majesty's Government's stated objective of obtaining a just and lasting peace in Sri Lanka is not furthered by sending British Army officers to Sri Lanka to assist in the establishment and running of an army staff college; asserts that it is wholly undemocratic to offer partisan support in an ethnic war to a state which continues to perpetuate gross violations of human rights; and calls on Her Majesty's Government to impose an embargo on the export of arms to Sri Lanka and a moratorium on all removal notices on Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seekers.

Sponsored by:
Mr Elfyn Llwyd (Plaid Cymru)