Which country does this remind us of? The Sri Lankan government today angrily rejected a US state department report containing allegations of human rights abuses in the final days of the country’s civil war, saying the document would fan further conflict. According to accounts said by a senior US state department official to be “credible…
Showing all posts tagged Sri Lanka
The result of Sinhalese repression year after year
Why are so many Tamils fleeing Sri Lanka and wanting to come to Australia? Here’s why.
The Tamil youth creating a new future
The crisis in Sri Lanka and the government’s role in causing mass carnage against the Tamils is now well known. Australia is not immune from the crisis. This long Financial Times essay on the Tamil Diaspora in the UK heralds a new generation determined to continue the struggle for an independent Tamil homeland or at…
Australia damns refugees because they’re not white
Australian journalist Laurie Oakes on our government’s stance towards Tamil refugees. We learn nothing from history except that bashing aslyum seekers is allegedly popular with the electorate. The shame: We’ve… heard Kevin Rudd promising tough action to stop asylum seekers coming to Australia by boat. We’ve heard him condemn people smugglers as vermin. What we…
Sri Lanka can’t kill civilians and get away with it
A day will come, and soon, when Israel will also face these criticisms and pay a price for abusing human rights: A European Union probe has found Sri Lanka in breach of international human rights laws, meaning the South Asian country is likely to lose concessions worth over $100 million for its top exports to…
The truth of the matter in journalism
The following interview is published this week in the literary journal, Quill: SYDNEY-BASED ANTONY LOEWENSTEIN is the author of the best-selling book,… My Israel Question, a controversial discussion of one of the most important issues of our time, as well as… The Blogging Revolution, a searching examination of the ways the internet is threatening the rule of…
Don’t ignore the Tamil calls for justice and peace
The situation in Sri Lanka remains desperate (the issue of war crimes was discussed in my essay in the Daily Star last week.) Australian Tamils remain determined to keep the issues in the public domain. Tamils in Canada are continuing to protest… and raising their voices for the close to 300,000 Tamils locked up against their…
Sri Lanka should be excluded
A letter in the London Times from one of my co-members of the Sri Lankan Campaign for Peace and Justice: Sir, Since your report on Sept 15 (“EU sanctions on Sri Lanka to hit ”˜cheap’ clothing over human rights abuses”), diplomats in Colombo have been quoted (Reuters, Sept 29) as saying that the EU is…
Neither Sri Lanka nor Israel should have impunity in their ‘wars on terror’
My following article appears in today’s Lebanon Daily Star newspaper: Israel’s war against the Gazan people in December and January devastated the tiny Strip, killing over 1,400 people, a majority of whom were civilians. The Western powers, including America, England and Australia, backed Israel’s battle against Hamas and shared its belief that destruction of the…
Sri Lanka and Israel should get a room
Sri Lanka and Israel use terror in similar ways: the “war on terror” they’re both fighting causes nothing other than mass destruction and hatred. Some victory. The relationship is murky and ever-deepening. This headline is revealing: S.L. Govt. uses Israel to soften American pressure