Dear Mr. Ambassador:
It is an honor to extend an invitation to have you come to the AU Washington College of Law to brief the campus community on the Sri Lankan conflict and its ongoing process of reconciliation, as you offered to do on April 5, in your letter in The Eagle.
In your letter, you voiced your concerns regarding an op-ed published in the paper protesting your participation in the Intercollegiate South Asian Arts Festival (SAAF), which took place on the University’s campus on April 6. I am one of the authors of that op-ed and I am writing to accept your offer for a fact-based discussion by inviting you back to AU to have this dialogue.
AU, along with its faculty and its students, takes great pride in its reputation as an institution that defends and promotes open and honest discussion and debate on human rights, both locally and across the world.
Many of AU’s faculty and students came to this school to pursue skill sets and knowledge for the advancement of human rights and to benefit the international community.
We hope that you will join us and assist us in our pursuit by allowing us to accept your offer.
Your participation would be extremely meaningful and significantly add to the international discourse surrounding the history of events endured by the Republic of Sri Lanka, as well as its ongoing reconciliation process.
It would also serve as a gesture to affirm the Sri Lankan government’s commitment to human rights and open discussion.
We look forward to your response and to engaging in a fact-based dialogue with you on this extremely important issue.
Ali Beydoun is the director of AU Washington College of Law’s UNROW Human Rights Impact Litigation Clinic.
edpage@theeagleonline.com
