Gerry Georgatos
Post-CHOGM Perth, a large billboard in Colombo displays Julia Gillard shaking hands with Percy Mahendra Rajapaksa. To the Sinhalese of Colombo the billboard sends a message of validation of President Rajapaksa.
In a dark twist following Sri Lanka’s horrific civil war, the acknowledgment of the 'Killing Fields', the horrific evidence for all to see on YouTube and in various documentaries, and condemnation by major international human rights watch agencies including Amnesty International and the United Nations, Sri Lanka has secured CHOGM 2013, and is a strong contender for the Commonwealth Games 2018.
“The Tamil areas are under the heel of one of the most ruthless and irresponsible armed forces anywhere in the world, and one of the most brutal, racist, and oppressive regimes ever to run Sri Lanka,” said physician, Sinhalese-born and Australian resident Dr Brian Senewiratne.
“The mass slaughter of some 40,000 unarmed Tamil civilians, with another 160,000 unaccounted for, was carried out in just five months, January to May 2009, in a mass murder with witnesses excluded from the conflict zone by the Sri Lankan Government.”
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/sri-lankas-killing-fields/ (This documentary with horrific graphic footage of the ‘Killing Fields’ is disturbing)
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/sri-lankas-killing-fields/4od
Are the Commonwealth nations trying to encourage Sri Lanka to scrub up and release more Tamil prisoners, and to retreat from its ethnic cleansing madness or has Sri Lanka secured the CHOGM because of its geopolitical bearing? And has it Australia’s support so the ‘favour’ can be returned to Australia with a vote for Australia in our Government’s bid for a seat on the United Nation’s Security Council?
South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu has called for war crimes to be laid against the Rajapaksa Government.
Federal deputy opposition leader Julie Bishop says the Federal Government should no longer grant refugee status to people from Sri Lanka because the country's civil war is over. Are all Tamils free from persecution?
Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop says many Sri Lankan asylum seekers turn out to be economic migrants, not refugees. Really?
Ms Bishop says Sri Lankan asylum seekers should be deported before they get access to Australia's legal system.
"Sri Lanka is already making a significant effort by preventing many boats from leaving their shores, however those who make it through should be the subject to an immediate arrangement to be transferred back to Sri Lanka without coming to Australia," Ms Bishop said.
"There is an extremely high rejection rate for Sri Lankan asylum seekers with the vast majority proving to be economic migrants," she said.
The rejection rates are higher than before however the evidence, gathered by international mainstream agencies, including the United Nations describe 2011 as a horrific year of unwarranted mayhem, violence and murder in Sri Lanka, with more than 40,000 murdered, and Sri Lanka continues as the second most likely nation in the world for ‘disappearances’.
CHOGM 2013 could well be the chance to hold Sri Lanka to account. In the bid to secure CHOGM, September 2011, Sri Lanka released 1,000 former Tamil Tiger fighters. President Rajapaksa forewarned of a need for ‘rehabilitation’ and to “not dwell on the bitter past.”
Sri Lanka is far from a protective democracy and instead is bitterly divided, politically and racially.
The United Nations has confirmed that Sri Lankan government murdered more than 40,000 people in the closing period of the ‘civil war’ however rather than holding the Sri Lankan government to account, the international community has welcomed them on to the international stage, and the Commonwealth Nations have given them CHOGM.
Prior to Sri Lanka attending the CHOGM in Perth, in 2011, a letter from the world’s major human rights groups was sent to Commonwealth governments:
“We are gravely concerned about the ongoing discussion on holding the 2013 CHOGM in Sri Lanka… The Panel of Experts appointed by the UN Secretary-General to advise him on the status of allegations of war crimes during the last weeks of the conflict in Sri Lanka has concluded that serious abuses were committed by the government and by the LTTE, and warrant an international investigation.”
One of the few Australian parliamentarians of moral fibre Senator Lee Rhiannon has consistently criticised Sri Lanka for its murderous rampages. She hosted a roundtable of experts in September 2011 at Federal Parliament which finished up calling for Sri Lanka’s suspension from the Commonwealth, however fell on deaf ears.
Unfortunately for Tamils, the British government has been accused of backing the Sinhalese government’s war against the Tamils, and naturally one of the critics of the British government, and in exposing this, is David Milliband.
What is concerning for Australia is that our government is rejecting more and more Asylum Seeker applications from Tamils. It is obvious that ASIO security assessments are heavily prejudiced by information, forever secret, from Sri Lankan government authorities to ASIO. 51 Tamils continue to languish in indefinite detention in Australia. However in late 2011, Australia’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Kathy Klugman was recently reported saying, “close to 100 Sri Lankans have been returned from Australia in the past few years.” Human Rights groups, including Amnesty, are concerned not only for their welfare however for their very lives.
https://indymedia.org.au/2011/08/23/hra-media-release-chogm-a-welcome-ma...
August 23, 2011
“Australia cannot criticise others when it haunts the Australian landscape with a myriad of ugly human rights abuses, and when it consigns itself to open discrimination and racism.”
“Prime Minister Julia Gillard will be in the company of Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Australia will respect an individual who led a country where its Army in 2009 shelled hospitals and held back humanitarian aid to people. The shelling and fire by the army killed tens of thousands of civilians. The Sri Lankan landscape is littered with security forces arbitrarily killing people, unlawful killings. People to this day live in abject and acute persecution.”
Amnesty International’s submission to the UN Universal Periodic Review, October-Nov 2012 in reference to Sri Lanka has recorded its concern concerning torture, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and the prevailing impunity and lack of accountability. Amnesty has called for the release of all detainees, including all persons held in “rehabilitation camps” unless they can be charged with “recognisable crimes” and with a full conformity with international standards for fair trial and without recourse to the death penalty.
On September 15, 2011 an International Crisis Group generated the following report:
http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/key-issues/sri-lanka-post-war-progress-rep...
“More than two years after the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war, the political situation in the country remains deeply worrying.”
“Finally, widespread scepticism within Sri Lanka about the government’s willingness to devolve power is also based on the highly authoritarian, centralised and militarised way in which the Rajapaksa regime governs the whole country. Since the end of the war in May 2009, power has been further centralised in the hands of the president, his brothers and the military, both through the eighteenth amendment to the constitution in September 2010 and other administrative changes.”
The ICG stated, “There are strong grounds to question the government’s claim of progress on crucial post-war issues such as the state of emergency and repressive anti-terrorism laws, militarisation and insecurity, resettlement of internally displaced persons, reintegration of alleged ex-combatants and a political settlement on devolution and minority rights.”
“The risk of an eventual return to violence is growing again.”
Amnesty International reported in September 2011, “Amnesty International urges the international community not to be deceived that (Sri Lanka’s) Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) – the latest of a long line of failed domestic mechanisms in Sri Lanka – will deliver justice, truth and reparations.”
The deluge or international reports and the groundbreaking UK Channel 4 News video have unequivocally captured the graphic horror and the swell of persecution that has devastated Sri Lanka.
Journalists Without Borders reports horrific murders and disappearances of journalists.
More than a million Tamils have left the country. Sri Lanka has the 2nd highest rate of involuntary disappearances, 2nd only to Iraq. Most of the disappearances are Tamil males, and Amnesty International has confirmed this is continuing.
Sinhalese Australian resident and physician, 80 year old Dr Brian Senewiratne has long spoken out against the Sri Lankan Government’s attrocities. He said, “The humanitarian situation in the Tamil-speaking are in the North and East, more than two years after the so called ‘end’ of the war, between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Tamil people, is the most serious the Tamils have faced in their 2,500 years of recorded history. In the six decades that I have campaigned for the rights of the Tamils to live with equality, dignity, safety, and now to live at al, I cannot think of any period in which they have been in such a dreadful situation.”
“The Tamil areas are under the heel of one of the most ruthless and irresponsible armed forces anywhere in the world, and one of the most brutal, racist, and oppressive regimes ever to run Sri Lanka,” said Dr Brian Senewiratne.
Ms Gillard and Ms Bishop have demonstrated extraordinary hospitality to the Sri Lankan Government while violating the right to life of Tamils who are returned to Sri Lanka. They have disregarded the United Nations reports. In the Report to the Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka (March 31, 2011) it is reported, “The Panel’s determination of credible allegations reveals a very different version of the final stages of the war than that maintained to this day by the Government of Sri Lanka.”
It recommends that the Secretary-General, “should immediately proceed to establish an independent international mechanism whose mandate should be to collect and safeguard for future use, information provided to it.”
The international community, and Australia foremost in terms of geopolitical proximity needs to lead the way by speaking out about the peace that continues to elude Sri Lanka’s Tamils, and Sinhalese, and to criticise the Sri Lanka Government for its war on peace. Australia Governments cannot put welcome mats to brutal dictators or seek their favour, the moral high-ground comes first, always, nor can Australian Governments validate oppressive regimes, we’ve had enough of this farce for far too long and finally Australian Governments should not be basing any Security Clearance assessments of Tamils and Sinhalese Asylum Seekers on what the agencies of the Rajapaksa Government have to say, or of his person in Canberra, Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner, Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe, a person himself with a very troubling past. No-one should be deported back to Sri Lanka and finish up persecuted, as a disappearance, like 160,000 others, or found dead, like so many tragically lost in a vacuum of inhumanity.
The Australian Government has to stand up for what is right and not believe it can do business through dubious diplomacy and that in can shift paradigms through cultures of favour dispensation. These premises have cost millions of lives and human dignity.
LINKS:
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/sri-lankas-killing-fields/4od
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_p1TfTguW0
Human Rights Council convened in Geneva to watch the hour long documentary from the UK's Channel Four - The UN said it appears to be evidence of prima facie evidence or war crimes
http://srilanka.channel4.com/
Sri Lanka's Killing Fields
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2011/s3257956.htm
Four Corners investigates Sri Lanka's Killing Fields
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/callum-macrae/sri-lankas-killing-fields_...
The boy's name is Balakandran Prabhakaran, and he is the 12-year-old son of the Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. It is May 2009 and we are in the final few hours of the brutal 26-year-old civil war between government forces and the secessionist rebels of the Tamil Tigers, (LTTE).
These few moments of video footage - which we will be revealing for the first time in our new film, Sri Lanka's Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished, to be broadcast at 10.55 this Wednesday on Channel 4 in the UK - represent more than just a record of a grotesque individual crime. They represent the latest in a mounting catalogue of evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity; evidence which points - ever more firmly - to the highest levels of the Sri Lankan government.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/qa-sri-lanka%E2%80%99s-killin...
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-26/gillard-rules-out-sri-lanka-chogm-...
Prime Minister Julia Gillard says there are no plans to relocate the next Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), which is set to be held in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka is due to host the forum in 2013, but some leaders are concerned about the country's human rights record.
Former prime minister Malcolm Fraser has called for the meeting to be deferred until the country deals with allegations of human rights abuses and war crimes from its decades-long civil war which ended in 2009.
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2011/s3348919.htm
The Queen has arrived in Perth to officially open CHOGM, where Julia Gillard has quizzed the Sri Lankan president about progress in post-war reconciliation.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/national/10884295/embattled-sri-lan...
Much criticised Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has defended his country's human rights record and accused critics, including Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, of being taken in by propaganda.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/tamils-want-sri-lankan-pr...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rbqRGu1Neg
https://indymedia.org.au/2011/10/29/perth-rally-for-justice-sends-its-me...
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-27/fears-for-tamil-deported-to-sri-la...
Refugee advocates fear a Tamil asylum seeker deported from Australia has been detained by Sri Lankan authorities.
On Wednesday the man was put on a flight from Melbourne via Bangkok to Colombo, despite a last-minute appeal from the United Nations that he not be returned to Sri Lanka.
Known as Mr X for safety reasons, he fled Sri Lanka, saying he had been arrested by the army and tortured due to alleged links with the Tamil Tigers, and had been in Australia seeking asylum since 2010.
But he was deported on Wednesday after the Federal Government ruled that the process had been exhausted.
Refugee Action Collective spokeswoman Sue Bolton says the man's family in Sri Lanka waited for more than 14 hours outside the airport but were given no news about him.
She says they are concerned he has been detained by Sri Lankan police.
"They fear the worst, they fear torture, they fear interrogation, they fear indefinite detention, they fear just straight out disappearance," she said.
"There have been many, many Tamils who have just simply disappeared since the end of the war."
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen's office has released a statement saying: "The individual has been through an exhaustive assessment process, which is specifically designed to take into account any risk on return to Sri Lanka. That process has determined the individual does not engage Australia's protection obligations."
Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison says Australian authorities did the right thing in returning the man to Sri Lanka.
"The process is designed to ensure that people make an assessment about whether people would face execution and the process run by the Government found that not to be the case," he said.
"So if the person is not a refugee, then they should be returned."
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/more-may-follow-as-tamil-de...
More may follow as Tamil is deported
Comments
Treating people like they are nothing
http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/51767
Watching Syria, blind eye to Sri Lanka
As attention is riveted on the bloodshed in Syria, another confict, far more deadly, is still happening in Sri Lanka
About the LLRC
Rather than tackling allegations head-on with a truth commission or criminal investigations about what's occurred and still happening in Sri Lanka, about the more than 40,000 dead and 160,000 missing, Sri Lanka created a 'Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission' whose mandate, composition and methods all cast serious doubt on its willingness to uncover what really happened in those fateful months.
True peace need but UN a talk shop
If there is to be true peace in Sri Lanka there has to be the accountability.
The UN has acknowledged much and done nothing.
Geoffrey Robertson QC, a world expert on human rights, who was interviewed by the BBC on July 2 2009 after the so-called end of the slaughter of Tamils in Sri Lanka said that the UN Human Rights Council is effectively useless. He said, "The Human Rights Council is a highly politicised body. It is made up, not of experts on human rights, but of paltering diplomats."
myths and facts about asylum seekers
http://www.asrc.org.au/media/documents/myths-facts-solutions-info.pdf
Abbott backs push to say no to flood of Sri Lankans
http://www.watoday.com.au/opinion/political-news/abbott-backs-push-to-sa...
at least 300,000 refugees in sri lanka
Sri Lanka has 250,000 - 300,000 internally displaced peoples, mostly in the Northern parts of the country especially in Vavuniya, due to the fighting between LTTE and Sri Lanka Army
JULIE BISHOP SUPPORTING GENOCIDE
The Refugee Rights Action Network condemns Julie Bishop and Tony Abbott’s latest comments advocating for the deportation of Tamil asylum seekers back to Sri Lanka.
Ms Bishop made these claims on the basis that the civil war is now over and that most Tamils are economic migrants and not ‘genuine’ refugees. Tony Abbott has recently come out to support these claims.
RRAN condemns these statements as ignorant and politically motivated. As Australia and the government is well aware, 40 000 Tamil civilians were murdered during the civil war in one of the worst acts of genocide by war criminal Rajapaksa who ordered the shelling of civilian hospitals in government designated no fire zones.
Many other Tamils who have fled to Australia are victims of kidnap, interrogation and torture by the Sri Lankan army prior to and during the war. It is not only dangerous but inhumane to deport someone back into the hands of a government that tortured them. Still today, Tamils who have been returned to Sri Lanka have gone missing, presumed kidnapped or dead.
To advocate for the deportation of Tamils back into the custody of a country who tried to kill them – merely a few years ago – is to aid the perpetrators of genocide and to condemn Tamil asylum seekers to possible torture or death.
In response to these politically and racially motivated statements, the Refugee Rights Action Network will be mobilising outside Julie Bishops office this Friday at 12 o’clock to present her with the numerous, easily accessible and widely circulated Amnesty International and Human Rights watch reports that state the continued dangers for Tamils in Sri Lanka and to demand that she answer to her public statements and to her support of Tamil genocide.
The Refugee Rights Action Network
Rran.org - 0417 904 329
Letter to Julie Bishop from the Human Rights Law Centre
http://www.hrlc.org.au/files/Letter-to-Julie-Bishop-re-Sri-Lankan-asylum...
Snap action this Friday, September 7, noon - JB's office
The Tamil people in Sri Lanka face a level of systematic human rights abuses that has been labelled genocide by some observers.
The Sri Lankan government has been accused of war crimes & crimes against humanity by every major human rights organisation on the face of the planet.
Tamils continue to flee systematic dispossession and attempts at religious and cultural annihilation.
BUT JULIE BISHOP, SCOTT MORRISON & TONY ABOTT WANT TO DENY ALL TAMIL ASYLUM SEEKERS THE RIGHT TO HAVE THEIR CASES HEARD AND TO SYSTEMATICALLY DEPORT THEM ALL "BACK TO WHERE THEY CAME FROM" TO FACE TORTURE, IMPRISONMENT & POSSIBLY DEATH.
REFUGEE RIGHTS ACTION NETWORK IS OUTRAGED AT THIS ABSURD AND DISGRACEFUL POSITION THAT REPRESENTS A FRESH ATTACK ON THE RIGHTS OF REFUGEES.
SO WE WILL BE LETTING JULIE BISHOP KNOW THERE ARE AUSTRALIANS OPOSED TO THE REFOULEMENT OF REFUGEES
JOIN US
FRIDAY SEPT 7
NOON
JULIE BISHOPS OFFICE CNR NICHOLSON & ROCKABY ROADS IN SUBIACO
Incredibly: Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop and opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said Australia should reach an agreement with Sri Lanka for the "immediate transfer of people intercepted" back to where they came from. She has claimed they are "economic migrants" and get regularly deported anyway (a lie: one this year one last year) She says this despite the United Nations Human Rights Commission, Human Rights watch and Amnesty International all clearly stating that Tamils remain at extremely high risk in Sri Lanka & despite the refusal of the government in Sri Lanka to permit international observers in to monitor the situation. There remains grave concerns over summary executions and use of torture.
Tony Blair, war criminal - Archbishop Desmond Tutu
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/03/tony-blair-the-hague...
We're one crucial step closer to seeing Tony Blair at The Hague
Tamil Community response to Julie Bishop's comments
•ATC response to Julie Bishop's comments: www.australiantamilcongress.com/en/media/press-release/241-coalition-cal...
Report on Sri Lanka
The report on Sri Lanka can be found at
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/HCA/2012/31.html
Youtube of protest outside Julie Bishop's Subiaco office
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA6YlqSTcK4
How does Julie Bishop know Tamils are safe when human rights organisations and the United Nations don't know and are instead worried?
RRAN - Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
RRAN Film Fundraiser: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
6.30 pm. Friday, 14 September 2012. This Friday!
Level 1, 97 William St, Perth.
Uniting Church in the City, about half way between Murray and Hay on William st.
There will time for questions and answers relating to the issue of asylum seekers, refugees and Australia's policy response to them.
There will be pizza and drinks.
Cost $10-$20 at the door, depending on what you think you should pay.
If you can't contribute to the campaign as much as you'd like, then help fund the work that RRAN does by coming along. Our work includes, protests, visiting people in detention, the dictionaries for refugees project, advocacy, raising public awareness among other things.
Official Synopsis:
When she was 9, Zainab's parents made the heartbreaking decision to leave their home in northern Afghanistan. They set out on a journey across the globe, putting the fate of their family in the hands of strangers
Across borders, behind bars and onto a smuggler's boat the family chased freedom.
'Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea' tells Zainab's story, and the story of many others who have trodden the same path.
Jessie Taylor and Ali Reza Sadiqi travelled across Indonesia and met with 250 asylum seekers in jails, detention centres and hostels.
Through candid interviews, hidden camera footage and in the words of asylum seekers themselves, the story of the 'refugee' is told. What pushes people to leave home? What do they leave behind? What do they fear? Why did they choose this path? And what does it take to turn someone into a 'boat person'?
Meet the human faces behind the most controversial issue of our time.
You can watch the trailer here:
http://www.deepblueseafilm.com/
Manus and Nauru
Hi all, as you have undoubtedly seen, the Gillard government has awarded the $24.5million contract for "catering, cleaning, security, transport and facilities" on Nauru and Manus Island to Transfield. International Health and Medical Services got the $22 million "health care" contract, while The Salvation Army has the "social services" one. These dollar figures are for the first six months.
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2012/s3587179.htm
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/transfield-contract-for-na...
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/companies/transfield-wins-nauru...
This link has the offices of Transfield in Syd, Melb, Bris, Perth and Adelaide. http://www.transfieldservices.com/page/Contact_Us/Enquiries_General_and_...
And here is a list of their corporate directory, according to their 2011 annual report: http://www.transfieldservices.com/page/AR2011/Corporate_directory/
As an aside, earlier this year Transfield also won the contract from the NSW government to run Sydney Ferries: http://www.smh.com.au/business/transfield-contract-to-transform-sydney-f...
Sydney RAC has brought forward its action at DIAC re sending the first asylum seekers to Nauru by the end of this week to Friday 4-5.30pm. https://www.facebook.com/events/344206175670529/
But we are open to an action at Transfield down the track.
Jakarta Globe - Indonesia must protect child asylum seekers
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/international/indonesia-australia-must-pr...
Naura and Manus by the end of the week
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/asylum-seekers-to-arrive-in...
Asylum seekers will be transferred to Nauru by the end of this week, Immigration Minister Chris Bowen announced today.
Mr Bowen told reporters in Canberra that asylum seekers would be transferred to the island nation by plane in the ''latter part of this week''.
As the federal government moves to revive offshore processing, Mr Bowen this morning signed the legislative instrument designating Nauru as a regional processing country under the Migration Act.
The Immigration Minister will move a motion in the House of Representatives after question time today to ''officially authorise'' the designation.
This will pave the away for up to 500 people to be processed on the island. Mr Bowen said it was an ''immigration [department] decision'' as to who would be transferred to Nauru.
He would not comment on who would be in the first transfer.
Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said earlier today that the government was taking too long to reopen Nauru.
''There should be no more delay on this, there is no need for delay, it must be done today,'' Mr Morrison told ABC Radio.
''It should have taken place weeks ago.''
Transfield Services have been contracted to provide cleaning, catering and security on Nauru and International Health and Medical Services will provide medical support.
Mr Bowen said the Salvation Army would also be contracted to work on community liaison, case management and community activities.
He said there were already ten Salvation Army personnel on the island and others would follow, but said they would not be be ''proselytising''.
Mr Bowen said he had ''full confidence'' that the Salvation Army would provide their services without ''fear or favour''.
Work is also continuing to reopen offshore processing on Manus Island.
Over the weekend, Prime Minister Julia Gillard struck a new written agreement with Papua New Guinea to allow processing on Manus Island.
Mr Bowen said the ''next step'' would be for 30 Australian Defence Force personnel to be deployed to PNG in coming days along with two Immigration Department staff.
This comes as two Australian navy patrol boats rescued 80 asylum seekers from a boat that was in distress off the coast of Java yesterday.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority said it was unable to confirm media reports of a second incident involving BASARNAS.
The ABC says Indonesian authorities rescued 54 asylum seekers, including a women and a baby girl, from a sinking boat near Sulawesi overnight.
Four other boats carrying about 240 people have arrived in Australian waters since last Friday.
The Greens are calling for the federal government to set up an independent expert panel to protect the mental and physical wellbeing of asylum seekers sent to Nauru and Manus Island.
The party will table a bill in the Senate today, urging it be dealt with immediately.
Greens immigration spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young said the expert panel would have open access to detention facilities and report directly to the parliament every six months.
It would be made up of health professionals, including psychiatric and childcare experts, and ensure asylum seekers were treated humanely.
''In the years that refugees were detained on Manus Island and Nauru, there were many individuals left without assistance,'' Senator Hanson-Young told reporters in Canberra
''At the very least, let's put back some humanity back into this policy.''
With AAP
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/asylum-seekers-to-arrive-in...
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/asylum-seekers-to-arrive-in...
Nauru and Manus full
GOVERNMENT DISCRIMINATION OVER NAURU TRANSFERS
With the arrival of three more asylum boats in the last 24 hours, the
total number of asylum seekers reaching Australia since 13 August is
now over 2100 – enough to fill both Nauru and Manus Island.
“The Minister’s announcement that asylum seekers will be moved to
Nauru is just shabby political posturing,” said Ian Rintoul speaking
on behalf of the Refugee Action Coalition.
“Chris Bowen has already said that neither Nauru nor Manus Island will
be operational for months – meanwhile Australian detention centres
will fill with long-term detainees.
“After capitulating to the Opposition over Nauru, the government’s
Pacific Solution 2.0 is already in tatters. Asylum seekers sent to
Nauru will be paying a high price for the government’s policy
disaster. Condemned to tents for months, they will face shocking
conditions as the wet season runs from November to April. Nauru and
Manus Island will become long-term refugee prisons.
“The government’s own policies are pushing more people into asylum
boats. Despite the announcement that 400 UNHCR refugees would be
brought from Indonesia immediately, nothing is actually happening to
bring the UNHCR refugees from Indonesia. Tamil refugees who were told
in January that they had been accepted by Australia are still waiting
in Indonesia. Many of them now believe that the only way they will get
to Australia is get a boat and come via Nauru.”
The Refugee Action Coalition is also concerned at what criteria the
Minister and the Immigration Department is using to select the
individuals for transfer to Nauru.
“We are looking at a highly selective, punitive and potentially
discriminatory process. Without the criteria being made public, we
cannot be confident that individual asylum seekers or groups of asylum
seekers are not being discriminated against.
“Are Iranians, Tamils or stateless people likely to be selected
because the Minister thinks that primary acceptance rate or the
likelihood of coercing people is an acceptable basis to select those
to be taken to Nauru?” asked Rintoul.
Interview with Dr Brian Senewiratne - and going viral
www.greenleft.org.au/node/52164
Open Letter to Mark Davis, presenter of SBS Lateline
http://groundviews.org/2012/08/29/open-letter-to-mark-davis-presenter-of...
Tamil Nadu activist Meena Kandasamy speaks out
http://www.meenakandasamy.com/mk/Profile.html
YouTube interview with Meena Kandasamy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcKtfq0Jbcs
Senate inquiry into harassment of Tamils in Australia
Melbourne lawyer Rob Stary calls for Senate inquiry into ASIO harassment of Tamils in Australia:
www.greenleft.org.au/node/52039
Why Bishop is wrong
Bishop wrong on Sri
Lankan refugees
It was with astonishment that I
heard the news that Liberal deputy
leader Julie Bishop announced that
the Australian government should
no longer accept Sri Lankan refugees
as the civil war had ended and
that the refugees coming here were
economic not political refugees.
I wonder where Ms Bishop is getting
her information - from President
Mahinda Rajapaksa himself or maybe
his brother Gotabhaya Rajapaksa
the Defence Secretary or their representatives
in the Sri Lankan High
Commission, as she is certainly not
getting it on the ground herself from
the Tamil people in the north and
east of Sri Lanka. Ms Bishop is also
unlikely to be able to visit these areas
of the country as it is under military
control.
Has Ms Bishop been to the
Special Economic Zone on the coast
at Sampur where in August 2009,
5,000 acres of land was seized from
the traditional owners of the land
who were Tamils and 500 houses
destroyed? Or maybe Thirumurgandy
village where army camp buildings
have been built on land previously
designated for resettlement by
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)
or the people of Mullikkulam village
in the Mannar district of northern Sri
Lanka who were asked to leave their
homes for three days by the military
and have not been allowed to return
home after fi ve years?
Maybe Ms Bishop has read the
report of the UN Secretary General’s
panel of experts on Accountability
in Sri Lanka dated March 31, 2011?
I call on Julie Bishop to either
declare who gave her this information
about the plight of the Tamil
and Muslim people in Sri Lanka
and that it is safe for them in their
country and therefore they should
not consider seeking political refuge
in Australia or she should go there
herself? If she does not wish to do
either then she should resign as she
is clearly not acting in the interests
of the Australian people. She would
also be acting against the rights and
freedoms of the Tamil people-and
many of the Sinhalese majority in
Sri Lanka who do not support the
actions of their government but are
made to feel scared and intimidated
for speaking out.
Richard Titelius
WA
How can they think it's safe to send ppl back to this nightmare?
How can anyone think it's safe to send anyone back to this nightmare? What is wrong with our politicians?
Because many people don't care and this has to be said
Because many people don't care and this has to be said
Tamil Tigers are Terrorists they have safety in India
Tamil Tigers are Terrorists they have safety in India and only come to Australia for economic reasons!refugee's I think not!!!!!!
Gives us the ammunition and the outrage to never give up
Excellent article and great concentration of resources- its a pity that those who should read it won't, but still it gives the rest of us the ammunition and the outrage to never give up until the criminals responsible for these crimes -no matter how high their status- are brought to justice