http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/story/related/aid/621/id/601527/n/Sri-Lanka-s-New-Wave

http://groundviews.org/2012/08/29/open-letter-to-mark-davis-presenter-of-sbs-dateline-on-sri-lankas-new-wave/

[Editors note: Watch SBS Dateline's Sri Lanka's New Wave, broadcast first in Australia on 28 August 2012, here.]

Dear Mark,

I am intensely troubled by the tenor of your report on Sri Lankan Tamil refugees on today’s Dateline.

The picture you painted of the country doesn’t accord with any of the accounts I’ve heard, nor with well documented reports by international and local sources (eg. the Commission for Justice and Peace of the Diocese of Jaffna, Sri Lanka report). The government’s refusal to implement the findings of its own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission and the reception of the subsequent U.N Resolution alone should tell you something about the triumphalism and arrogance with which the state approaches the process of rebuilding.

The program of Sinhalisation and militant Buddhism now underway in Sri Lanka (including recent attacks on a Mosque) were not even mentioned, nor was the corruption within the ruling family and the sense of impunity with which it operates, as evidenced by the continuing disappearances of government critics (of all ethnic groups) – e.g. Ganesan Nimalaruban: A damning murder, funeral and silence and Not In Our Name: Campaign update and video. The interview with the Information Minister, one of a series of Comical Ali type apologists for the regime, was nothing less than grotesque.

Although I know you are not responsible for the promos for your report, I was extremely disturbed by the footage of two little children saying they wanted to go to Australia for a “good education” and “a good life.” It turned out this was a selective extract from a much more complex interview, but even had that not been the case, what else are parents supposed to promise their children? Do we really need to turn the words of little children against them, in order to support the line that they and their parents are exploiting Australia as a soft touch?

And speaking of a soft touch, haven’t you seen the other kinds of commercials that the Australian government runs in Tamil and other regional languages? I find it chilling that my government, the Australian government, could promote such images of terror to

in Sri Lanka and elsewhere. That people are drawn to seek refuge here is a measure of their need, not an indicator that we are a soft touch.

Is your account SBS’s attempt at “balance” to counter the effects of “Go back to where you came from?” If so it is a sad and dishonourable one.

Suvendrini Perera

Professor Suvendrini Perera

Director, Research & Creative Production, School of Media, Culture and Creative Arts

Deputy Director, Australia-Asia-Pacific Institute

Curtin University

ABC வானொலியில்

Lawyer says detained Oceanic Viking translator is being 'punished'

Sarah Dingle reported this story on Thursday, August 30, 2012 12:30:00

Listen to MP3 of this story ( minutes)

Alternate WMA version | MP3 download

ELEANOR HALL: Almost three years on from the stand-off over the Oceanic Viking, a handful of asylum seekers who were on that vessel are still in detention.

Now the lawyer for one of those asylum seekers is alleging that his client's ongoing imprisonment is payback for his role in the difficult negotiations.

The World Today has discovered that earlier this year, that detainee wrote to the Australian Government asking for a mercy killing if he couldn't be released.

Sarah Dingle has our report.

SARAH DINGLE: An ethnic Tamil, Sasi left Sri Lanka in mid 2005, spending several years as a refugee in Indonesia, before getting on a boat to Australia with 77 other asylum seekers.

Their boat was picked up by the Australian Customs vessel, the Oceanic Viking, in an Indonesian search and rescue zone.

The Australian Government tried to send the boat to Indonesia, but the asylum seekers refused to get off until they were guaranteed they would be processed in Australia.

Throughout the high-profile month-long stand-off, 'Sasi' emerged as the translator, according to his lawyer Stephen Blanks.

STEPHEN BLANKS: His English was quite good compared to the level of English of the other people of the boat and so he naturally became a person who was able to communicate between the asylum seekers and the Australian officials.

SARAH DINGLE: All asylum seekers on board the Oceanic Viking were eventually given a written guarantee of resettlement in Australia or another resettlement country.

The World Today has seen the document which says for UNHCR-recognised refugees like Sasi "you will be resettled within four to six weeks from the time you disembark the vessel".

The written guarantee makes no mention of an ASIO check. Almost three years later, Sasi is still in detention because he received an adverse ASIO assessment.

Stephen Blanks again.

STEPHEN BLANKS: It's a simple guarantee of resettlement, really in the circumstances, Sasi can rightly feel that he was tricked into getting off the boat. The ASIO assessment was made without ASIO ever interviewing him which is just extraordinary.

SARAH DINGLE: ASIO assessments are highly secret, even from the person involved. But Stephen Blanks says ASIO has provided its reasons for Sasi's rejection to the Department of Immigration where he says they're causing considerable unease.

STEPHEN BLANKS: Look I've heard that the reason for the adverse assessment is that Sasi was the so-called chief negotiator on the Oceanic Viking and that he's being punished for having achieved such an extraordinarily good deal for the asylum seekers who were rescued by that vessel.

All I can say is what I'm being told by people who I believe have had access direct or indirect to the actual reasons given by ASIO. If this information is correct, this is a personal and political punishment of somebody, it is not a genuine matter that goes to Australia's national security.

SARAH DINGLE: The World Today has seen Sasi's file from the UNHCR in Indonesia. It says that he was born in north-eastern Sri Lanka and recruited by the LTTE at the age of 16. He trained in arms and passed messages and pistols between LTTE contacts.

However, it also says that young Tamils were at risk of forced recruitment by the LTTE, and any Tamils from the LTTE controlled North East were at risk of harassment, arrest and killing at the hands of all sides, including the government.

The UNHCR found Sasi to be a genuine refugee in need of protection, and later the Australian Government granted him refugee status.

Christmas Island councillor Gordon Thompson, like other Christmas Island locals, took an interest in Sasi's case.

GORDON THOMPSON: Whatever happens in Sri Lanka, that war is over, it's finished, but significantly the Australian Government has never listed the Tamil resistance in the north-east of Sri Lanka as a terrorist organisation.

SARAH DINGLE: Gordon Thompson and was impressed by Sasi's work in a local school. But now Sasi is in a Melbourne detention centre, and his lawyer says his mental health is deteriorating significantly.

In March this year he wrote a letter to the Department of Immigration.

LETTER WRITTEN BY SASI (voice-over): If you're unable to grant me with a token to live a decent life in Australia like any other human beings, I beg you to kill me on a mercy basis now as I am unable to handle this anymore.

SARAH DINGLE: Stephen Blake says Sasi received no response. The Department of Immigration says it does not comment on individual cases. Refugee advocates say they fear Sasi could become a casualty while in detention.

ELEANOR HALL: Sarah Dingle reporting.

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2012/s3579279.htm