VHeadline News Editor Patrick J. O'Donoghue reports: Replying to questions from VHeadline.com, a spokesperson has confirmed that the Canadian Humanitarian Appeal for Relief of Tamils known as Canadian HART sent a delegation to Venezuela, requesting that the government consider accepting Tamil refugees, currently located in Indonesia.

The delegation, VHeadline.com was told, has been well received in Venezuela and meetings with all sectors are described as "positive."

Canadian HART, the source indicated, is an independent grassroots humanitarian group organized by Canadian university students and activists in 2008 to educate on the situation of, and advocate for the human rights of the vulnerable displaced Tamil population of Sri Lanka.

Canadian HART, the spokesperson continued, it is an anti-imperialist, anti-oppressive, grassroots, solidarity based, non-partisan human rights organization and is in no way affiliated or connected with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) or the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE).

The group is concentrating its efforts to find shelter for Tamils forced to flee Sri Lanka and seek asylum abroad, especially those trapped on board a boat for more than nine months and currently contained in Indonesian detention centers where they face repatriation to Sri Lanka, possible persecution and physical reprisals.

Venezuela, the group stated, has already provided asylum to Palestinian, Colombian and Saharawi peoples that have been forced to flee their homelands.

Nearly one-third of the Tamil population in Sri Lanka has been displaced by the Sri Lanka State and 60,000 Tamils have fled the country.

Patrick J. O'Donoghue
news.editor@vheadline.com