No mention of the camps by Kevin Rudd
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd joins ‘The 7.30 Report’, ABC, 2 November 09
(Click on the, “Prime Minister Kevin Rudd joins ‘The 7.30 Report'” link, asylum seekers issue starts at 3.25mins and goes for 5mins)
On asylum seekers, Kevin Rudd speaking with Kerry, says:
“… Remember, that what we’re facing with – faced with in Sri Lanka is 260,000 people displaced because of a civil war, hundreds of thousands seeking to return to the part of Sri Lanka they used to live in. The matters I discussed with their President this afternoon and the particular needs which exist within that country for housing. But on top of that, if you’re dealing with these challenges…”
Search underway for missing Sri Lankans
Brisbane Times – Search in dark for boat people
ABC Online – Air Force plane joins ocean rescue
SMH – One confirmed dead in Cocos search
The Associated Press – Rescue under way after boat sinks off Australia
Radio Australia – Concerns for a group of people feared drowned in Indian Ocean
ABC Online – Passengers feared drowned in boat disaster
The Australian – Fears for boat with 40 on board near Cocos Islands – report
News.com.au – About 20 asylum-seekers still missing after boat capsized during rescue
ABC – Passengers feared drowned after boat sinks
The Australian – Search under way for 25 asylum-seekers after boat sinks off Cocos Islands
US ‘to quiz Sri Lanka army chief’
Guardian – US to question Sri Lanka army chief over war crimes allegations
AFP – Sri Lanka protests at US plan to quiz military chief
Outlook – US to Interview Fonseka on War Crimes Issue: Report
BBC – US ‘to quiz Sri Lanka army chief’
Digital Journal – Sri Lanka Confirms US to Quiz Army Chief over War Crimes
No solution yet for Tamils on boat
The Australian – PM treads water with no solution in sight
Brisbane Times – Query over asylum seekers’ status
ABC Online – Indonesia must sign refugee convention: Greens
Sydney Morning Herald – Ready to risk lives and life savings
The Australian – Inertia as impasse enters third week
The Age – PM out of loop on Tamil asylum seekers
Sydney Morning Herald – Migration: the true story
Say no to Rudd’s Indonesian Solution
Rally to welcome refugees
Say no to Rudd’s Indonesian Solution!
Let them land, let them stay!
12.30pm Monday 2 November. Immigration Department, Lee St (Railway Square end of Central Tunnel), City.
Speakers include: Sylvia Hale (NSW Greens MP), Tamil Association, Ian Rintoul (Refugee Action Coalition). The bipartisan demonisation of asylum seekers has provoked feelings of deja vu among many people who thought we’d never again see Tampa-style dramas on the high seas. But as each day passes, it is becoming clear that Kevin Rudd’s ‘Indonesia Solution’ is every bit as inhumane (and expensive) as John Howard’s ‘Pacific Solution’. Despite the refugee rights movement winning victories such as children out of detention and the end of Temporary Protection Visas, it’s clear that we have a long way to go before Australia can claim it has humanitarian immigration and refugee policies.
Called by Refugee Action Coalition. Contact Ian on 0417 275 713
Outrage in SL over video of Tamil bashing
Tamilnet – Spectator video captures SL Police, SLA kill mentally ill Tamil youth
Sri Lanka Police and Sri Lanka Army soldiers beat a mentally ill Tamil youth and forced the youth to drown near the sea near Bambalapitya, Colombo, railway station Thursday. The youth was identified as Balavarnam Sivakumar, 26, of Ratmalana, according to media reports in Colombo, which belatedly listed the youth’s identity. “The entire country [Sri Lanka] watched in horror, as a group of heavily built men attacked the mentally unstable [Tamil] youth with wooden poles while he pleaded for mercy, when it was telecast on several news bulletins on Thursday night,” Daily Mirror said. More
Indonesia gives Australia another week
Radio Australia – Australia’s PM dogged by a fortnight of asylum seeker politics
ABC – Opposition: Oceanic Viking costing taxpayers $75K a day
Daily Times – VIEW: Where is Australia? —Farish A Noor
ABC – Asylum seekers fear forcible removal
The Australian – Tamils ‘concerned they will be removed’
BBC – Indonesia ‘might expel’ refugees
The Australian – Delegation visits in push for regional co-operation
The Australian – Kids destined for detention: Jakarta
News.com.au – Chilli weapon ruled out in asylum seeker boat standoff
Jakarta Post – Indonesia demands time line for Sri Lankan asylum seekers
The Australian – Indonesia gives Oceanic Viking another week
Brisbane Times – Asylum seekers showdown averted for week
The plea continues
Shout out from the Tamil asylum seekers
Press Release – TAMIL ASYLUM SEEKERS IN MERAK SAY IOM IS PRESSURING THEM TO LEAVE THEIR BOAT
Refugee advocates in Australia are concerned that the Australian government may be co-ordinating action to try and force the Tamil asylum seekers in Indonesia to leave their boats.
While media statements this morning refer to the threat to forcibly remove the 78 asylum seekers on the Oceanic Viking, a statement from the 250 Tamil asylum seekers stranded in Merak, Indonesia says that the International
Organisation of Migration (IOM) is pressuring them to leave the ship by cutting their supplies. More
Latest on the boat stand off
ABC – Asylum seekers fear forcible removal
The Age – Rudd must relent to avoid costly stand-off
The Australian – Tamils ‘concerned they will be removed’
Sydney Morning Herald – Tamils’ horrific treatment makes them desperate to leave
BBC – Indonesia ‘might expel’ refugees
The Australian – Indonesia ‘might expel’ refugees
The Australian – Caucus united on refugees
The Australian – Kids destined for detention: Jakarta
News.com.au – Chilli weapon ruled out in asylum seeker boat standoff
The Australian – The strange and puzzling case of Dr Kevin and Mr Rudd
New boat off Ashmore reef
Aussies plead with Rudd for compassion
- Read or download MAPW’s letter to Senator Evans.
Unions NSW – The Humane Solution
The Australian Government must immediately find a humane solution for the 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers aboard the Oceanic Viking, according to Unions NSW.
As the asylum seekers spend their 11th day aboard the Oceanic Viking, Unions NSW Secretary Mark Lennon supported calls to process them on Australian soil, under Australian law.
“The Prime Minister has a fantastic opportunity to step up and show us the high road to a humane solution,” Unions NSW Secretary, Mark Lennon said.
“This debate is becoming disturbingly shrill. Australia is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on Refugees, Indonesia is not.
“These people are desperate. Allow them to be processed under our laws.”
Mr Lennon said the Rudd Government had done much to improve Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers, particularly its efforts too ensure children were no longer locked up.
But the trade union movement would not sit by and watch the public debate degenerate.
Mr Lennon said the strong position taken by the likes of AWU National Secretary, Paul Howes and former Unions NSW Secretary John Robertson was typical of the support asylum seekers could expect from organised labour.
“Unions NSW has a long history of advocating humane asylum seeker policies and we were pivotal in the establishment of Labor for Refugees,” Mr Lennon said.
“Unions believe in a tolerant, compassionate and multicultural nation and will publicly advocate humane policies and solutions,” Mr Lennon concluded.
Oh the irony
Our life in Sri Lanka
Greens Senate motion on Tamils
Below is the motion put forward by Senator Bob Brown on 28th October 2009:
15 FOREIGN AFFAIRS—SRI LANKA
The Leader of the Australian Greens (Senator Bob Brown) amended general business notice of motion no. 597 by leave and, pursuant to notice of motion not objected to as a formal motion, moved—That the Senate—
(a) agrees with the recent European Union resolution on Sri Lanka of 22 October 2009, that:
(i) deplores the fact that more than 220 000 Tamil civilians are still being held in camps, and urges the Sri Lankan Government, in line with its public commitments, to return them to their homes and give humanitarian organisations free access to the camps and areas of return to provide necessary humanitarian assistance,
(ii) Tamil leaders should commit themselves to a political settlement and renounce terrorism and violence once and for all,
(iii) the Sri Lankan Government should respect human rights in the conduct of trials of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam members,
(iv) the Sri Lankan Government should cease its repression of the media in the name of its anti-terrorist legislation, and
(v) the Sri Lankan Government should put more effort into clearing minefields, which are a serious obstacle to reconstruction and economic recovery; and
(b) urges Sri Lanka to accede to the Ottawa Treaty (Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction).
Statements by leave: The Minister for Immigration and Citizenship (Senator Evans) and Senators Parry and Bob Brown, by leave, made statements relating to the motion.
Question put.
The Senate divided—
AYES, 7
Senators—Brown, Bob, Fielding, Hanson-Young, Ludlam, Milne, Siewert (Teller), Xenophon
NOES, 29
Question negatived.
Click here for summary
Refer here for full transcript of debate – refer pages 58 and 59
SL must be held to account
Crikey: Time to stand up for human rights in Sri Lanka — at last
Jake Lynch, director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPACS) at the University of Sydney, 29 October 2009
Sri Lanka Week has shrunk to a long weekend. The trade and investment shindig in Melbourne’s Docklands was scheduled to take place in June, but was called off amid outrage over the Sri Lankan army’s pounding of Tamil areas and UN estimates of 20,000 deaths. It’s back on, from Friday to Sunday, promising visitors “the opportunity to feel and experience the taste of paradise”.
Instead, we should remember 300,000 inmates who are being held against their will in a living hell — the giant internment camp at Menik Farm — in violation of their rights under international and Sri Lankan law. Alarming eyewitness testimony trickles out, of food and clean drinking water in desperately short supply, filthy conditions and — for any who might be tempted to protest to the occasional foreign visitor — the ever-present threat of disappearance.
That’s a fate that has befallen thousands over the years, in Sri Lanka’s dirty war with the Tamil Tiger rebels, which ended just over five months ago. Various commissions of inquiry were set up, only to fail in bringing any of the culprits to justice: a “sham”, in the words of Amnesty International. So the bullies carry on with impunity, and impunity incentivises repetition: we got away with it once, why not do it again? More
Women for Justice ‘Reclaim the Night’
Women for Justice perform “SURVIVAL” at “Reclaim the Night” Sydney this Friday 30th October 2009 @ Victoria Park, Sydney
To see details of the performance done a few weeks ago please click here
SL IDPs, war-crimes “smokescreen” & more
Tamilnet: Vanni IDPs in Jaffna not allowed to go to Vanni
28 October 2009
The Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) of Vanni origin detained in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) detention camp in Raamaavil in Thenmaraadchi have to stay in the camp if there are no relatives in Jaffna to take them over, according to Jaffna Secretariat sources. Though the government campaigns that Vanni IDPs will be resettled in their own villages, in reality they are not allowed to return to their homes, NGOs in Jaffna said. More
Tamilnet: 60 transferred IDPs arrested from transit centres in Trincomalee
27 October 2009
Sri Lanka Army Intelligence personnel have been ‘screening’ the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who were being transferred in recent days from Vavuniyaa internment camps to transit centres in Trincomalee and have arrested 60 IDPs for interrogation and ‘rehabilitation’. More
AFP: Sri Lanka’s war-crimes probe a smokescreen: activists
28 October 2009
Sri Lanka’s agreement to probe war crimes allegations related to its defeat of Tamil Tiger rebels is a smokescreen to avoid an international inquiry, a human rights group said Wednesday.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Sri Lanka of trying to buy time and questioned the sincerity of the government’s decision to investigate the allegations detailed in a US State Department report.
“The government?s committee is merely an effort to buy time and hope the world will forget the bloodbath that civilians suffered at the end of the war,” HRW Asia director Brad Adams said. More
HRW: Sri Lanka: Domestic Inquiry into Abuses a Smokescreen
27 October 2009
The Sri Lankan government’s proposal to create a committee of experts to examine allegations of laws-of-war violations during the conflict between the government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is an attempt to avoid an independent international inquiry, Human Rights Watch said today.
The government made its proposal in response to a report by the US State Department, published on October 22, 2009, that detailed hundreds of incidents of alleged laws-of-war violations in Sri Lanka from January through May. According to conservative UN estimates, 7,000 civilians were killed and more than 13,000 injured during that period, the final months of fighting. More
Zee news: UN official says will investigate Sri Lanka’s execution tape
28 October 2009
The UN Special Rapporteur on arbitrary executions has said he is initiating inquiries into the video tape showing incidents of alleged extra judicial killings by the Sri Lankan Army.
“I have begun to commission some analysis of that video tape because I do think it is incumbent upon me and I think I owe it to the government of Sri Lanka to try to probe more deeply,” Philip Alston told journalists here.
In August, footage surfaced showing a Sri Lankan soldier shooting at point-blank range a bound and blindfolded Tamil rebel. The video also shows eight bound corpses – reinforcing allegations about executions by Sri Lankan Army. More
Newstodaynet: Eelam the only solution: Vaiko
28 October 2009
In a fiery speech, MDMK general secretary Vaiko today declared only an independent state of Eelam would be a permanent solution to the long sufferings of Lankan Tamils who were now lodged in refugee camps in the island nation.
Speaking at an awareness meeting organised by Lankan Tamil Protection Movement, MDMK chief said at at time when the world nations have expressed sympathy and concern for the plight of internally displaced Tamils in Sri Lanka, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi was taking part in functions that eulogise him.
He cited a reported in London-based Times that said more than 20,000 bodies of Lankan Tamils were left to rot in the open land and corpses have spread out with bones sticking out on the surface. ‘Wheres the Indian media is under duress not to report such incidents in war-torn Lanka,’ he charged. Vaiko said more than a lakh of Lankan Tamils were killed during the ethnic genocide and it was claimed in posters that a four-day visit by Tamil MPs from India to Sri Lanka had given freedom to refugees in the internally displaced camps. ‘Those who are responsible for such posters must be sent to mental asylum,’ he said. More
Australia says it wont use force
Australian IT – Rudd confident of extension for Oceanic Viking
News.com.au – Stephen Smith plays boatpeople waiting game, rules out force to end standoff
Radio Australia – Australian PM faces mounting political storm over asylum-seekers
ABC – Heat on to end asylum seeker impasse
Wall Street Journal – Surge in Refugees Presents a Problem for Australia
Bloomberg – Australia’s Refugee Policy a ‘Laughing Stock,’ Opposition Says
Bloomberg – Rudd May Use Force to Remove Sri Lankans From Ship, SMH Reports
ABC Online – Australia and Indonesia to be patient on asylum impasse
AFP – Stand-off refugees can’t choose destination: Australia
The UN finally questions SL
Hindustan Times – UN questions rights probe by Lanka panel
The UN has questioned the credibility of any probe carried out by a Sri Lankan-government appointed panel into alleged human rights violations in the last phase of the war with the LTTE.
On Monday it was announced that President Mahinda Rajapaksa had decided to appoint an independent committee to look into the report of compiled by the US Department of State alleging that Sri Lanka has violated human rights.
The report alleged that at least 170 instances of human rights violations had been committed by both the army as well as the Tamil Tigers.
UN Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Philip Alston said the Sri Lankan government has an issue with credibility and raised doubts over the outcome of a probe on human rights to be carried out by a panel appointed by the government.
The Daily Mirror website reported that in response to a question on “self-investigations”, he said that military investigations of allegations against their own activities did not enhance credibility.
Australians for Tamil Justice 