Tamil Justice

The Age – Tamils have no voice in Sri Lanka

Damien Kingsbury & David Feith

Results from last weekend’s referendum by Australia’s Sri Lankan Tamil population have given almost unanimous support for the proposal for an independent Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka. The vote by Australian Sri Lankan Tamils follows those in seven other countries, including Canada and Britain, each of which have produced a 99 per cent vote in favour of Tamil independence.

The vote might seem redundant, following the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in a bloody, dirty war in Sri Lanka that ended in May 2009. However, Sri Lanka’s large Tamil diaspora have long played a critical role in the lives of Sri Lankan Tamils, not least in actively supporting the more than three decade long struggle for independence.

Many people in the Tamil diaspora fled Sri Lanka after the violent anti-Tamil riots that erupted in Colombo in July 1983, and spread to other parts of the island. In those riots Tamils were systematically targeted, and their homes and businesses destroyed. An estimated 3000 people were killed, and thousands more fled to safety in other countries. More

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Tamilnet (27/03) - Sydney launch of CJPD’s book on Sri Lanka

“Sri Lanka 60 Years of ‘Independence’ and Beyond” a publication by Switzerland based NGO, Center for Just Peade and Democracy (CJPD), and edited by Program Director at CJPD, Ana Pararajasingham, was launched at the popular Gleebooks bookshop in the heart of Sydney Friday. John Murphy, Member of the Australian Parliament, David Feith, an academic attached to Monash University, and Professor Bruce Kapferer who were contributors to the publication, and Gordon Weiss, the former UN diplomat, attended the event.

Asian Human Rights Commission (08/03) – ASIA: A general view of the conditions of women in Asian countries

International Women’s Day–2010

Today the world is looking to women for change in what remains a situation that offends human rights on a daily basis. In its work as a listener and voice to claims of human rights violations, the Asian Human Rights Commission regularly quotes statistics such as in Madhya Pradesh, India, 67% of the people live below the poverty line and 60% of the children are undernourished while 73.9% of tribal women are anaemic. In various statements and Urgent Appeals the AHRC has reported five women were buried alive in Pakistan and a girl was mauled by the dogs, in Thailand, there was impunity for the influential perpetrator of a rape and murder, and even crimes of a medieval nature; in Nepal police fail to charge those who accused a Dalit woman of witchcraft and forced her to eat human excreta. Out of the deluge of cases comes a clear pattern of abuse against society’s most vulnerable and they are kept vulnerable through lack of education, inequality and fair employment opportunities. In Sri Lanka where reports of forced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, endemic torture and problems of displaced persons are common, the women remain the main victims directly or indirectly.

Reuters  (04/03)  - Q+A-Sri Lanka IMF loan delay and parliamentary election

Sri Lanka will initiate economic reforms in its next budget following a parliamentary election in April, after the IMF delayed a tranche of a $2.6 billion loan to add pressure on the government to rein in a budget deficit.

IRIN (25/02) – SRI LANKA: Former rebel capital struggles with returnee influx

The northern Sri Lankan town of Kilinochchi – former capital of the defeated Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) – is struggling to address the needs of thousands of returnees.