Oprah Give Us A Voice

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We are a group of student from various Canadian colleges and universities determined to bring much-needed attention to the humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka. We have begun a campaign in which we will walk from the US Consulate in Toronto to the ‘Oprah Winfrey Show’ at Harpo Studio in Chicago, IL. The trip is 840 kilometres and is expected to take approximately 2 months. Although we hope to turn Oprah’s attention much earlier to our efforts, and in turn to the sufferings of Tamils in Sri Lanka, we will continue our campaign tirelessly until we get an audience with Ms. Winfrey.

We embarked on this campaign out of utter urgency. After over 25 years, Asia’s longest-running civil war has reached a crucial point in Sri Lanka. The war between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has already cost the lives of over 70,000 people. However, in the last couple of months, UN estimates that over 1200 civilians, mostly Tamil, are being killed every month. Currently, hundreds of thousands of civilians, mostly Tamil, are internally displaced without proper food, medicine or aid.

In December, the Genocide Prevention Project labelled Sri Lanka as a country on red alert for possible or ongoing genocide, yet the Sri Lankan government has banned independent witnesses to the war by barring NGOs and media access to the conflict areas. The only information available to the public about the conflict is filtered through the government. Journalists critical of the government’s handling of the war have been assaulted and murdered. On many occasions, these journalists have been labelled traitors and/or terrorists. There is yet to be a prosecution for the assaults or murders on journalists. Consequently, Sri Lanka, purposely or unwittingly, has created an atmosphere of impunity for these perpetrators. Reporters Without Borders has ranked Sri Lanka 165 of 173 in its 2008 World Press Freedom Index, the lowest ranking of any democratic country in the world.

Freedom of press and free speech lay at the heart of democracy. Sri Lanka needs someone to restore its heart. The Sri Lankan government, through their repeated actions, has shown that they have no will or desire to do so. We believe that Ms. Winfrey is such a person. Her long history of providing a voice to people without one has inspired us to seek her out. Given Ms. Winfrey’s magnitude and stature and being only a small group of young students, we understand the enormity of the task before us. However, young David did not allow the sheer size of Goliath to dissuade his determination, and neither shall we.

A unified voice is needed to make our journey successful and to help bring an end to the humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka. We ask for your support in making this endeavour a success by providing a voice to the voiceless. Please send your e-mails to the Oprah Winfrey Show encouraging them give an audience to our collective voice.

If you have any further questions regarding this, please feel free to contact us at the information provided below.

Thank you,

Kannan Srekantha Kris Balasingam
Tel: 416.258.7957 Tel: 647-449-4637
Email: kannan@oprahgiveusavoice.com Email: kris@oprahgiveusavoice.com

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