Blood Money is Not Cool – HR Activists Cautions Marks & Spencer

Blood Money is Not Cool

HR Activists Cautions Marks & Spencer

April 25, 2008, Toronto, Canada. Human Rights activists in Canada have called on Marks & Spencer, England’s premier retailer to reconsider its decision to open a new factory in the war torn Sri Lanka.

Ms. Valli Siva, a spokesperson for Blood Money is Not Cool campaign in Toronto said “We would like to remind Marks & Spencer that only recently a Britain based Tamil-spearheaded coalition had gone public requesting an economic embargo until the Government of Sri Lanka begin respecting human rights and freedom of all the people”.

It was reported in a Sri Lankan daily, “dailymirror.lk” that the “… new green model manufacturing garment factory in Sri Lanka that will be opened by Marks & Spencer tomorrow will become a benchmark for its factories globally.”

According to a news item published in the popular www.news.TamilCanadian.com news board, “The move by Marks & Spencer comes at a time when Sri Lanka is facing an uphill challenge in retaining the duty free status. Recently Feizal Samath for the IPS news service had written ” duty free access it enjoys to European markets will soon be cut as a result of alleged human rights violations related to the government’s pursuit of a military solution to a long-standing ethnic conflict”.

As recent as last week, a much respected Human Rights activist and a Catholic priest, Rev. Fr. X. Karunaratnam was assassinated by the Sri Lankan soldiers, in broad day light, as he was making his way to his home from his Church in the Northern region of Wanni in Sri Lanka.

“Opening a factory when the whole world is calling for tougher sanctions against Sri Lanka is much worse than making money from the deplorable sweat shops being operated India, Mexico and other such developing countries. Marks & Spencer may be cool but blood money is certainly not cool” opined, Ms. Siva.

Sri Lanka has been waging war on the Island’s ethnic Tamil community for more than thirty years. The Government of Sri Lanka, under the leadership of President Mahinda Rajapakse, has been criticized for its horrendous human rights records. Over the past thirty years, more than 85,000 Tamil civilians have been killed by Government forces of Sri Lanka.