October 29 2009 – epolitix
While the guns may be silent in Sri Lanka for the first time in 26 years, the price of peace could not be higher, a Labour MP said yesterday.
Introducing a Westminster Hall debate about the internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in Sri Lanka, Joan Ryan (Lab, Enfield North) accused the country’s government of having no regard for the welfare of the 300,000 civilians being detained.
October 30 2009 – SMH
The “tough talk” over the case of Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seekers by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Australia’s abrogation of its responsibility to these people in deals with Indonesia (which have turned sour) has left me puzzled and disappointed.
Where was this “tough talk” when Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka were being relentlessly shelled by the Sri Lankan military in the war earlier this year? What practical measures has the Australian Government taken to address the suffering of Tamil civilians in the internment camps in Sri Lanka since the war ended in May? More than 250,000 Tamil civilians have been detained since May in barbed-wire fenced internment camps, where they are subject to massive overcrowding, shortage of food and medical facilities, abductions, including the abduction of children, rape, torture, disease, and when the monsoons set in, flooding.
It is the extreme, so-called “push factors” and the entrenched discrimination against Tamils in Sri Lanka that leads to desperate acts, such as embarking on a dangerous voyage on unsafe vessels.
October 30 2009 – Daily Mirror
The Colombo Crimes Division (CCD) has begun an investigation over an incident where a man was “forced” to drown in Bambalapitiya this morning in front of several onlookers.
Police spokesman senior DIG Nimal Madiwaka said that the victim was believed to be mentally retarded and used to throw stones towards trains and vehicles passing by.
Earlier today the victim had reportedly thrown stones towards the Bambalapitiya police before jumping into the sea and drowning, the police spokesman quoted the Bambalapitiya police as saying.
October 30 2009 – Reuters
Indonesia has set a deadline of a week for an Australian ship moored in its waters carrying 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers to leave, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Friday.
The fate of the asylum seekers rescued by an Australian customs vessel nearly two weeks ago has piled political pressure on Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, a year out from an election.
Australia insisted on Wednesday that the asylum seekers would not be taken to Australia. It has said there was an agreement with Jakarta for the Sri Lankans to go to Indonesia to be processed.
October 30 2009 – indymedia
During the Sri Lankan civil war, the Sri Lankan government established refugee camps in the north of the country. Now, five months after the end of this conflict, over 250,000 people, are being held against their will in these government run camps. As these people are tamils the government wants to screen the refugees, including 50,000 children, for involvement with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE, “Tamil Tigers”). While this screening slowly progresses, the conditions in the camps have been described as a humanitarian disaster. Currently the camps are closed to aid workers and journalists so the exact details are unknown. However, reports from escapees describe a lack of basic sanitation, overcrowding and insubstantial medical care. With the monsoon rains imminent, the camps are also at severe risk of flooding and action is imperative.
At a demonstration in Cambridge Market Square on October 26th, Local Amnesty International (AI) members called for the UK government to increase international pressure on Sri Lanka to release detainees from these refugee-turned-detention camps. AIUK’s Sri Lanka expert, Yvonne Taylor attended the demonstration and addressed the crowd on the serious nature of the crisis and the suffering of the people trapped in the camps. She encouraged people to take part in Amnesty’s postcard campaign, directly asking the Sri Lankan government to unlock the camps. Richard Howitt, MEP for the East of England, also spoke in support of the Campaign and local MP David Howarth came along to sign the petition.
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