Human rights advocates criticize Shuler's trip to Sri lanka

by Suranee | June 4, 2009 at 09:17 pm

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UPDATE 1:

A retired U.S. Foreign Service Officer has criticized Mr. Shuler's silence on the human rights violations committed on the Tamil civilians. Mr Petrequin said Shuler was gullible and naive and was not at all qualified to speak on behalf of human rights violations.

In the wake of these atrocities comes Rep. Shuler on a trip paid for and carefully orchestrated by the Sri Lankan government during which he was given a guided tour of refugee camps holding survivors. The conflict is now ended. Rep. Shuler is two months late if he were interested in protesting genocide. I would like to ask him how many wounded and maimed Tamil women, children and elderly lying in hospitals and clinics outside the camps he was allowed to interview.

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Human rights advocates are criticizing Mr. Shuler for praising the treatment of refugees during his visit to Sri lanka.

The Director of the Human Rights Watch said Mr. Shuler was used.

WASHINGTON — Human rights advocates are criticizing Rep. Heath Shuler, D-Waynesville, for taking a trip to Sri Lanka last week — paid for by the Sri Lankan government — during which he praised the treatment of refugees in the war-ravaged country.

“He just got used,” said Tom Malinowski, Washington director of Human Rights Watch.

Mr. Shuler said he made the trip to check on the genocide of the civilians which he had been hearing about from church groups.

He was one of the several members of Congress who wrote to Hillary Clinton to express concerns about the conditions in the country.

Shuler, who is not on the House Foreign Relations Committee, said he visited Sri Lanka to check out concerns he had been hearing from church groups that genocide was going on in the camps. Earlier in the year, he joined several members of Congress in writing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to express concerns about the conditions in the country.