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ஏ.பி.சி செய்திச்சேவையில் வெளிவந்த தற்போதைய உண்ணாவிரதப் போராட்டம் பற்றிய செய்தி

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  • கருத்துக்கள உறவுகள்

ஏ.பி.சி செய்திச்சேவையில் வெளிவந்த தற்போதைய உண்ணாவிரதப் போராட்டம் பற்றிய செய்தி

Tamil protesters vow to remain at Kirribilli

Posted 9 hours 4 minutes ago

Updated 2 hours 5 minutes ago

The protesters are staging sit-ins near the Sydney residences of the Prime Minister and Governor-General. (ABC TV)

Video: Tamils protest in Sydney (ABC News) Related Story: Kirribilli protest as Tamil ceasefire declared Tamil protesters outside Kirribilli House have vowed to remain there until the Australian Government takes some action about the conflict in Sri Lanka.

Three of the protesters are on a hunger strike that started on Saturday, and have also said they will continue until their demands are met.

Around 150 protesters are staging a sit-in on the roads outside Kirribilli House and Admiralty House (the Governor-General's Sydney residence), calling on the Australian Government to push for an immediate and permanent ceasefire between Government forces and the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka.

The protest started yesterday, with police estimating a crowd of about 800 people gathered outside Kirribilli House at the peak of the demonstration.

Detective Inspector David Maguire says a decision was made to let the protesters stay.

"It's been a peaceful demonstration about what's happening in their homeland, and they wish to get a message across to the Australian government," he said.

"There's a lot of families here, a lot of children, a lot of women, and so there's no intention at the moment to forcibly remove them."

The only major moment of tension this morning came when a man tried to carry an anti-Tamil Tiger sign into the protest, but he was stopped by police.

The protesters want Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to call for an immediate cease-fire in northern Sri Lanka and for the Government there to allow media to enter the conflict zone.

Sri Lanka's President has ordered Government troops to halt their offensive against cornered Tamil Tigers rebels for two days to give tens of thousands of civilians a chance to escape the fighting.

The United Nations has welcomed the pause in fighting, and the UN's emergency relief coordinator says he hopes it will mean more aid being allowed into the conflict zone.

Hunger strike

Three of the men at the protest are on a hunger strike that started on Saturday evening.

The men say they are not eating or drinking until the Australian Government takes diplomatic action to improve the situation for Sri Lankan Tamils.

A doctor at the protest confirms that the men have not eaten or drunk since Saturday, and the ABC's reporter at Kirribilli says they look weak and were having trouble concentrating when answering questions.

Sutta Thanavalasinean, a 27-year-old student, says he started the hunger strike on Saturday night because he is concerned about his family.

"Cause my family's inside of that conflict area, I couldn't contact them for six months," he said.

Protesters demand further action

A spokesman for the protesters, Adrian Francis, told ABC News Breakfast that the conditions of the weekend's temporary two-day cease-fire in Sri Lanka were unacceptable.

"This cease-fire provides no comfort whatsoever to the Tamil people standing here today," he said.

"Providing Tamils and civilians in the north and east of Sri Lanka 48 hours to escape, and nothing else, does not meet our demands whatsoever.

"We demand that there's a cease-fire that incorporates Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam [Tamil Tigers].

"We demand that there's urgent food and medicine that should reach the Tamil civilians, we demand that the Tamils have the right to self-determination - they have the right to live where they want to live - and we also want the international community to know there is a serious genocide happening against the Tamil people in Sri Lanka at the moment."

Mr Francis says the protesters are worried about family members caught up in the conflict.

"Many of these people are motivated for two main reasons: there's a hunger-strike that actually started at 5:00 pm on Saturday at Parramatta's Church Street Mall, and we have three boys that have refused food and water due to the fact they're demanding that the Australian Government provides them with four basic needs," he said.

"[Those basic needs] as was mentioned before - immediate cease-fire with the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE, food and medicine, vital services, and also the right of the Tamil people to choose where they live.

"The second reason is many of the Tamil people here have family members who are caught up in the conflict. They have not been able to contact them at all due to the lack of independent media and international organisation presence in Sri Lanka.

"So these people are frustrated and actually are in grief at the fact that they cannot contact family members, they don't know whether they are alive, whether they've been injured, they have no idea whatsoever about the plight of their brothers and sisters, their fathers and mothers."

Tags: government-and-politics, federal-government, foreign-affairs, world-politics, unrest-conflict-and-war, australia, nsw, sydney-2000, sri-lanka

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/04/13/2541277.htm

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