With Sri Lanka dealing with dissent as robustly as its head teacher, Israel, this letter in today’s Melbourne Age perfectly captures the necessary sentiments:
With the Sri Lankan military having recently perpetrated what Noam Chomsky has called a ”Rwanda-like atrocity” against its Tamil minority; with 300,000 Tamil civilians confined in concentration camps; with the sudden emergence of film showing bound and naked Tamils being shot in the head by Sri Lankan troops; with Tamil journalist J. S. Tissainayagam being sentenced last week to 20 years’ hard labour for writing critical editorials; and now, with Australian UNICEF official James Elder being expelled from the country for speaking out about the ”unimaginable hell” faced by Tamil children in Sri Lanka (The Age, 7/9), why is it that all the Rudd Government can find to talk about so far with the Sri Lankan regime is how it can best protect us from Tamil refugees?
Colin Andersen, Lapstone, NSW