Unsurprisingly, Australia’s latest refugee policy is thankfully slammed as a meaningless sham in an election year, with little care for the lives likely to be shattered: To the roomful of Sri Lankan refugees, little has changed for those left behind since they made their perilous voyage in a wooden boat to Christmas Island last year.…
Showing all posts tagged Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka and Afghanistan are not safe, better remind the Australian government
This is truly shameful and obvious political pandering. If the Australian government seriously believes that both Sri Lanka and Afghanistan are relatively safe for its citizens, perhaps some ministers should visit the war-torn nations and enjoy the local hospitality for a while. Without a security detail: Australia’s decision to stop processing all new immigration claims…
What Australia owes each and every asylum seeker
One of Australia’s leading human rights lawyers, Julian Burnside, skewers anybody who willfully misrepresents the flow of refugees into the country: Hazaras from Afghanistan are fleeing because the Taliban are increasing their control in Afghanistan. Tamils from Sri Lanka are fleeing because they face genocide in Sri Lanka, after the collapse of their long-running attempt…
Murdoch publishes pro-Colombo propaganda
What kind of newspaper publishes an article by an “expert on defence policy in the Indian Ocean” that argues post-war Sri Lanka is a place of harmony and peace, treating all its minorities with compassion and equality? Murdoch’s Australian. And the writer is Sergei DeSilva-Ranasinghe. The article is about as credible as Zionists claiming that…
How to watch the killers in Sri Lanka (via the web)
The beginnings of something positive in Sri Lanka (maybe). Accountability and transparency for human rights abuses is vital if the country is to have any chance of being respected again as a viable democracy. Right now, it’s a tawdry police state that tortures and murders with impunity: The Sunday Leader recently reported on a new,…
When a dictator asks the oppressed to trust him (welcome to Sri Lanka)
This is about as convincing as Israel’s racist foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman telling the people of Gaza that he loves them and they should embrace the Jewish state (oh wait, he has said the latter): Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Thursday promised voters in the minority Tamil city of Jaffna a role in solving…
Britain cares so deeply about human rights in Sri Lanka (it sells them weapons)
A clarifying fact that underscores the real killer in Sri Lanka: Britain licensed …£7 million worth of weapons and military equipment for export to Sri Lanka this year alone, it was revealed during a debate in Parliament Wednesday. The sum matches the amount of British aid provided in the wake of December 2004 tsunami. On…
Being Tamil in Australia isn’t a crime (pass it along)
Some timely reading on the ways in which Australia deals with the Tamil question. First, a reminder of what’s at stake (in Murdoch’s Herald Sun, no less): Thousands of desperate Tamil refugees in Sri Lanka have a stark choice: stay and be persecuted or risk the long, dangerous voyage to Australia. A senior diplomat, experienced…
Tamil supporters walk free in Australia
A victory for common sense, a profound defeat for the Australian government and many unanswered questions. How many more failed terrorism cases will it take before authorities recognise the problems with the current strategy? It’s possible to support liberation movements and not back the killing of civilians. Hard to understand for some, but there you…
Don’t trust our government to keep us safe from terrorism
Next step you hear something in the media about the Australian government being “tough on terror” (and the media cheer-leaders behind them), remember this: A Supreme Court judge has attacked the Australian Federal Police for bungling a two-year investigation into three men who sent funds to Sri Lankan Tamil Tiger separatists. The agents’ action included…