Tamil Justice

MEDIA RELEASE
3 September 2010

The Australian (01/09) - TONY Abbott has vowed to press ahead with tougher border protection promise

The Coalition will continue with its policy despite a threat from the Greens to block the reintroduction of temporary protection visas

As Labor and the Greens announced a new alliance to ensure stability in government, Greens senator Sarah Hanson Young confirmed her party would use its numbers in the house to disallow the controversial measures.

“There’s no way we would support any legislation measures that would allow for the reintroduction of TPVs — that includes regulations,” Senator Hanson Young told The Australian.

The Australian – Parliament could quash new temporary protection visa move: Chris Evans

SMH (01/09) – Lawyer hailed for pro bono work

A lawyer who defended David Hicks against the US military and who regularly works pro bono for refugees, asylum seekers and native title groups has been recognised for helping the disadvantaged.

Adelaide lawyer Stephen Kenny has won the Law Society of South Australia’s justice award for 2010.

Society president Richard Mellows said Mr Kenny should be praised for his selfless dedication and passion for helping others in the community.

Media Release from the Refugee Action Coalition

FREE THE REFUGEES: SYDNEY PROTEST SUPPORTS DARWIN ASYLUM SEEKERS

Refugee supporters will stage a protest at the Sydney offices of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, Lee Street, City at 12.30pm, Friday, 3 September. Speakers at the protest will include Sylvia Hale, Greens NSW MLC and refugee representatives.

“We strongly condemn the refusal by the police and the Department of Immigration to provide water to the protesting asylum seekers. It is another disgraceful episode in the mistreatment of asylum seekers. This deliberate ‘negotiating strategy’ has resulted in 15 asylum seekers being hospitalised for dehydration,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.

“Asylum seekers are not criminals. They have a right to protest,” he said.

Many of the Afghan asylum seekers were told they were on an ‘approval pathway’ when they were transferred to from Christmas Island to Darwin detention centre. Since the visa freeze announcement, rejection rates have dramatically increased, although up to 90 per cent of these rejection are being overturned on appeal.

The Refugee Action Coalition (RAC) has been told by Darwin detainees that a high number of Afghans received rejection notices in the last week or two. The legality of off-shore processing is the subject of a test case currently being considered by the High Court.

“The Afghan asylum seekers are the victims of mandatory detention and off-shore processing. Off-shore processing is obviously open to political manipulation. There is no other way to explain the increased rates of rejections,” said Rintoul.

“The uncertainty that surrounds their claims and the conditions inside the detention centre add to their distress. Mandatory detention is condemning
asylum seekers to months and years of detention. The ‘mental illness factories’ should be closed,” he said.

RAC welcomes the announcement that Labor and The Greens would combine to block any attempt by a minority Coalition government to re-introduce
temporary protection visas.

Friday’s protest will call for an end to off-shore processing, the immediate release of asylum seekers, and for the dropping of people smuggling charges against the Indonesian fishermen also incarcerated in the Darwin detention centre.

For more information contact Refugee Action Coalition, Ian Rintoul, 0417 275 713

The below post has been sent to us by a reader of TamilJustice.  Jasan’s poem is the first in this poetry series.

Victims Without A Voice
 
16 years after the world failed to stop mass atrocities against innocent civilians in Rwanda, the world’s response to the genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka is shockingly similar.
 
A poetry campaign by 1Voice, a coalition of writers, poets and activists, is launched this week to raise global awareness and consciousness of this humanitarian tragedy.
 
We witnessed during the Apartheid in South Africa that poetry is the language of hope. Poetry gave voice to those who suffered in silence and subjugation. The literature of activists such as Steve Biko, Mazisi Kunene and Dennis Brutus spurred on the political ideals of anti-apartheid popular movements. Many of their works not only infused solidarity in the face of harsh oppression, preserved cultural identity and galvanised audiences; but also drove the momentum for change. They needed a reason to speak, but none to keep silent. It’s time we too raised our voices!
 
Click here to learn more

Victims Without Voices

Like the last cries of a herd of sheep,
Facing cruel cull amidst baying wolves,
Stood thousands Tamils facing slaughter
Among murderous army with cynical laughter;
Gleeful of ensuing massacre of innocent lives.
Skyward, echoed around walls of power, yells
Of protest and plea for mercy of thousands.
No power on earth moved-so perished thousands.
Silenced by the very silence of flawed conscience
Of moral high landers and so born us -
The Victims without voices.

Beyond massacre, mass graves and genocide,
Beneath false surface of normalcy, besides ecocide,
Wombs of yesterday walk in search of off springs,
Mums-to-be reach post to post in search of husbands.
Barbed wires weep at those detained behind them.
Curbed villagers scorn at schemes which deny their homes.
Kids many that defied death in the murderous onslaught,
Sit in orphanages, a lot in shock, rest in mental drought.
Sky much our agony, so little known of this tragedy
Because, we are the – The Victims without voices.

A nation being decimated and destroyed,
While nations of goodwill seem to need steroid
To break their silence and speak for us – silent victims.
A community of people pushed to extinction
While people of conscience lack moral conviction
To break their silence and speak for us – silent victims
In these civil and morally defunct valleys perish we -
The Victims without voices.

Jay A. Jasan

© All rights reserved.

Inner City Press – On Sri Lanka, UN’s Holmes Speaks of Gov’t Shelling, Casualties, 2 Sides’ Propaganda

Asked about Sri Lanka on his final day as UN Humanitarian Coordinator, John Holmes offered a defense of his department’s funding of the government’s internment camps while admitting the government may have “deliberately shelled” civilians and hospitals.

Inner City Press asked Holmes about criticism of his and the UN’s actions in Sri Lanka, for example pulling out of Kilinochchi, funding the internment camps and failing even now to get to the bottom of the murder of the Action Contre La Faim humanitarian workers.

Holmes called this the “ACF massacre,” and said it has still not been explained or even investigated. He did not explain the Kilinochchi pull out, which has been criticized including the International Crisis Group.

He said there’s a need to know how many civilians were killed, when it was his OCHA unit which stopped reporting on civilians casualties when one of their reports was leaked to and published by Inner City Press.

Holmes began his answer by referring to the “heavy propaganda claims on both sides.” It was not clear if, beyond side of the the government and “Sinhalese extremists” — to use Singapore’s Lee Kwan Yew’s description of Mahinda Rajapaksa — Holmes meant the LTTE Tamil Tigers, or the Tamil diaspora.

As Inner City Press reported at the time, during Ban Ki-moon’s trip to Sri Lanka in May 2009, Holmes during an on the record briefing on the UN plane said that he got lots of email from the Tamil diaspora alleging for example bias by Ban’s chief of staff Vijay Nambiar. I just delete it, Holmes said of the e-mail.

Later after complaints, Inner City Press tried to soften the story. But that is what he said. And since he said it, information has emerged about Nambair’s still unexplained role in telling LTTE leaders who wanted to surrender to come out with white flags. They were killed, and the leader of the unit which did the killing is now reportedly coming to the UN as Sri Lanka’s Deputy Permanent Representative.

Holmes is headed to a think tank of sorts, Ditchley Hall. Perhaps he will write a book — and perhaps it will address these issues. We’ll be watching.

BBC Sinhala – Mannar – Tamil misery continues
By a special correspondent
Exclusive to BBC Sinhala service

Broken, torn buildings tower over the tiny UNHCR tents on the gardens and court yards. Hanging clothes, pots and pans and carry bags scattered around the land show signs of civilian life.

Thirty years of war has taken a lot from the lives of the Mannar farmers and they still await a sense of security.

“Be careful and watch your mouth. The government security forces are vigilant and they do not like us talking to outsiders,” my hosts warned.

The alert and watchful eyes of weary soldiers scanned every vehicle passing through the checkpoints.

They are tired but seem to be friendly. Especially after the moment they identify someone as a Sinhalese visitor from the south.

They are eager to share their war stories, explain the fighting and hardship they have undergone in the area. They see themselves still as victors. More

The Globe and Mail – Tamils of a different stripe

The Tigers are history and Sri Lanka’s ethnic minority remains under the government’s thumb. Think about it – who wants to portray the boat people as a security threat?
As the debate about Tamil boat people plays out, Canadians might ask themselves, “In whose interest?” Who has muddied the debate with suggestions that the boats are filled with criminals and terrorists, and why? Again, why all the fuss over an insignificant number of people, when Canada does not have a boat-people problem of the magnitude of Australia’s? Government of Sri Lanka warnings that Tamil boat people are a threat to Canada’s interests are calculated to provoke the kind of public response seen in recent weeks.

Canadians are right to be concerned about the security of their borders. Globalized terrorism is a threat to Canadians, as it is to Australians. And national identities are a precious commodity. In an unsteady world, and with a rising backlash in Europe directed at Muslim immigration, both Canadian and Australian governments are obliged to soothe these concerns, with measured immigration and refugee intakes. Both countries need strong border protection policies that deter human smuggling and provide a sense of security to their citizens. Somehow a balance must be struck with our international obligations. That is all the more reason why Canadians must resist letting the debate become confused by wild claims.

Sri Lankan government officials and self-proclaimed experts played the understandable worries of Australians like a fiddle as boats neared their shores. Australians were told that these were economic migrants, taking advantage of their country’s generosity and slack intake laws – in fact, among the toughest in the world. Sri Lankan diplomatic representatives asserted that those on board had terrorist links. Finally, the plainly unfounded claim was made that fully half were terrorists and criminals. Actually, nobody knew who was on board, why they were there or who was behind these voyages. More