தடுப்புமுகாம்களில் அவுஸ்திரெலியாத் தமிழர்கள்

Search goes on for Aussies in Sri Lanka

Australia is continuing the search for three NSW residents thought to be in refugee camps in northern Sri Lanka, where Tamils are being kept following the end of the civil war.

Human rights groups have labelled the camps a disgrace, urging Sri Lanka to free the 300,000 displaced people being held there.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith put Sri Lanka on notice that it would be judged according to how it dealt with those in the camps.

"We think the Sri Lankan government and the Sri Lankan authorities will now be judged on two things - how they manage and deal with the vast number of people in the displaced camps," he told reporters.

"And ... how they move to a reform program that enables all of the Sri Lankan community to feel that they have a share in a democracy in Sri Lanka."

About 300,000 people are being held in the government-run camps following Colombo's defeat of the Tamil Tigers' long-running rebel campaign.

The government is keeping people in the camps until they determine whether they are members of the Tamil Tigers.

The three Australians - two women aged 26 and 29, and a 62-year-old man - believed to be in the camps are all from NSW.

Mr Smith said there was nothing to suggest they weren't safe.

"We currently have officials in the north of Sri Lanka to seek to locate the whereabouts of three Australian citizens who we believe are in one of the displaced persons camps," he said.

"We don't have any information that would cause us to believe that the three aren't safe.

"It's just we haven't been able to locate them, either through the UNHCR ... who are working in the displaced camps, nor have we been able to locate them through Sri Lankan authorities, but we are working very hard to do that."

The Tamil community in Australia is continuing to pressure Canberra to speak out about human rights in Sri Lanka.

It held a forum at Parliament House on Wednesday where community leaders spoke of the plight of the Tamils.

John Dowd, president of the Australian section of the International Commission of Jurists, told AAP the federal government needed to do much more to draw attention to the problems in Sri Lanka.

"They should be talking out volubly so that the rest of the world knows that Australia is concerned," he said.

"Its approach has been far too muted. The Australian government has conveniently not made as much of a fuss as it ought."

Paediatrician John Whitehall, an associate professor of public health at James Cook University, said it was a euphemism to call those in the camps displaced people.

"They are inmates of concentration camps and history has few precedents for incarcerating all the people after a civil war indefinitely and isolating them the way that they have," Dr Whitehall said.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/565913...s-in-sri-lanka/

Wrong priorities in Sri Lanka

A MONTH after Sri Lankan forces crushed the last resistance by the separatist Tamil Tigers, the island's conflict has faded from the world's news bulletins. Yet 280,000 Tamil civilians remain in government detention camps, under what are reported to be conditions of privation, while officials screen them - in a process of so far indefinite length - for hidden Tiger fighters and cadres.

Among them, we now learn, are three Australian passport holders of Tamil extraction who were in the combat zone, whether involved with the rebels or just helping relatives is not known. Sri Lanka's high commissioner in Canberra, Senaka Walgampaya, says his government doesn't know who they are or their whereabouts, but airily states they will be subject to the same screening as any other internees.

This is an extraordinary claim, pointing to either neglect of duty by Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in making concerns for the safety and wellbeing of our nationals known to Sri Lankan authorities, or Colombo wilfully ignoring Canberra's approaches. Either way, Mr Walgampaya should be summoned to DFAT forthwith and the concerns spelt out to him.

Officials from the Australian High Commission in Colombo are on their way to the Tamil detention camps in Sri Lanka's north, but it is unclear how much access they will get, either to look for the Australians or assess general conditions. International agencies have had only limited opportunities to visit. A shipload of relief supplies sent by Tamils in Britain has been turned away at sea, not even allowed to unload its cargo in Colombo under government supervision. A Canadian MP has been turned back at Colombo airport.

Possibly the Sri Lankan Government thinks the Rudd Government is not really concerned about the plight of Tamil civilians, Australian citizens or otherwise. After all, Australia's deputy navy chief, Rear Admiral David Thomas, was there on Tuesday - to talk about people smuggling. This suggests a government more in fear of a popular media backlash from more boatloads of asylum seekers.

But that prospect will actually be increased if foreign countries don't put pressure on Sri Lanka's President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, to modify his hubristic celebration of victory, and put ethnic reconciliation into practice before Tiger remnants find support for a renewed fight. Openess to scrutiny must be part of this. So far, and suspiciously, Mr Rajapaksa is shutting out third-party observers, while local thugs - men in white vans - brutalise his critics with impunity, the latest victim being a journalists' union leader, Poddala Jayantha.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/editorial/co...td.html?page=-1

Australian Tamils detained in Sri Lanka

The Australian Government has sent a team of officials to northern Sri Lanka to look at the camps where hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians are being held by the Sri Lankan government.

More than 280,000 Tamils have been held in camps guarded by the Sri Lankan military ever since the military smashed the Tamil Tigers more than a month ago.

Among the detainees are three Australian Tamils who the Sri Lankan government says must be screened like everybody else to see if they are members of the Tamil Tigers.

The Australian detainees are a 62-year old man and two women aged 26 and 29.

According to a spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Australian diplomats based in Sri Lanka have been trying to "obtain urgent access" to these people.

Weeks have gone by, but they still have not managed to get to them.

DFAT says it has heard nothing to suggest Australians are not safe and it is helping their families in Australia, but there is also puzzling uncertainty about their fate.

'Worrying nightmare'

Sri Lanka's High Commissioner to Canberra, Senaka Walgampaya, says his government does not even know who they are or where they are.

"They have so far not identified the persons and when they are identified and if in fact they are there, then they will have to be questioned as to what they were doing," he said.

The Australian head of the International Commission of Jurists, former New South Wales Supreme Court Judge and Attorney-General John Dowd, says the Australians are caught up in an increasingly worrying nightmare.

"We can't wait for an interminable delay while the Sri Lankan Government works out who it says are combatants and who it says aren't," he said.

Several staff members from the Australian High Commission in the capital Colombo are visiting Sri Lanka's north to look at camp conditions, talk to the United Nations, aid groups and Sri Lankan government agencies.

But the Sri Lankan government has banned independent observers who want regular access to the camps.

"What's going on, why can't the world be allowed in? There can only be things that the Sri Lankan Government doesn't want us to see and that's a real concern," Justice Dowd said.

The International Commission of Jurists says the conditions there are not the only worry.

Justice Dowd says the purpose of the camps may breach the convention against genocide.

"The convention covers forced movement of people. These people are being forcibly moved from the areas where they surrendered to other parts of Sri Lanka," he said.

"The real concern is that they're not going to be returned, that in fact they're going to move them, transfer the population, and put other people in."

The Government has raised the plight of Tamil civilians several times but its other business with the Sri Lankan government goes on.

Yesterday the deputy chief of Australia's Navy, Rear Admiral David Thomas, made an unannounced visit to Colombo to meet the chief of Sri Lanka's defence staff.

The Defence Department says it was a goodwill visit to meet senior Sri Lankan defence officials to exchange views on regional security.

The Department of Foreign Affairs was more explicit. It says the two men discussed people smuggling.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/06...m?section=world

Three Australins in Sri Lankan Camps located in May but cannot confirm now - Foreign Minister

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told to media on 17th June that, "Our officials believed, at one point late in May or early this month, that they had been located in the camps, but we cannot confirm their continued presence in one of the camps. Having said that, I underline this point, we have no information or evidence from any of our sources - the international agencies, our own officers, or the Sri Lankan authorities - which would cause us to believe they are unsafe or have come into harm. " Sunila Abeysekera, a human rights activist and executive director of INFORM human rights documentation center in Sri Lanka, in an interview to Real News Network in Toronto, accused the Sri Lanka Government authorities of not providing enough attention to the welfare of the nearly 300,000 people in the internment camps who have come to these camps after months of deprivation, and said that the lack of proper registration procedures for the people inside the camp is providing Colombo a free hand in facilitating the Paramilitaries to take youths out of the camps in large numbers without any accountability.

The disappearing act in Sri Lanka

Full Text of Interview

QUESTION: Mr Smith, can you explain the purpose of the envoy that Australia sent to Sri Lanka?

STEPHEN SMITH: Well, let me deal with a number of things. In recent times, we have sent officials to Sri Lanka to speak to the Sri Lankan authorities about people smuggling and people movement issues. And that was a delegation led by the national security adviser, Mr Lewis.

We, of course, currently have officials in Sri Lanka, and we currently have officials in the north of Sri Lanka who are working with the Sri Lankan authorities to seek to locate the whereabouts of three Sri Lanka - three Australian citizens who we believe are in one of the displaced people's camps. This is a matter that I have raised personally with Foreign Minister Bogollagama. I did that late last month. We're also giving consular assistance to the three families.

We don't have any information which would cause us to believe that the three aren't safe; it's just we have not been able to locate them, either through the UNHCR, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and his officers who are working in the displaced camps, nor have we been able to locate them through Sri Lankan authorities, but we're working very hard to do that.

I might just also take the opportunity of restating a couple of points about Sri Lanka generally. We welcome the fact that the Sri Lankan Government has said they want to clear 80 per cent of the displaced people's camps over the next period.

But we continue to very strongly believe that the relevant international agencies, particularly the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, particularly the International Committee for the Red Cross, should have complete access to those camps.

QUESTION: Mr Smith, you've been trying to locate these three Australians for a number of weeks now. Why is it taking you so long? And can you put any more pressure on the Sri Lankan government?

STEPHEN SMITH: Well, it's not so much pressure. When we became aware that we had three citizens in Sri Lanka and we wanted to help their families locate them, I raised it with Foreign Minister Bogollagama. My memory is that conversation was in May, late May.

Since then, our officials in Sri Lanka have been working very hard with the Sri Lankan authorities and the international organisations trying to locate them. The problem is essentially you have literally hundreds of thousands of peoples in the displaced people's camps in northern Sri Lanka as a result of the conflict and the crisis. And it has been very difficult, firstly to get access and secondly, to locate individuals when you're dealing with hundreds of thousands of people who have been displaced in a very quick period of time in terrible circumstances.

Our officials believed, at one point late in May or early this month, that they had been located in the camps, but we cannot confirm their continued presence in one of the camps.

Having said that, I underline this point, we have no information or evidence from any of our sources - the international agencies, our own officers, or the Sri Lankan authorities - which would cause us to believe they are unsafe or have come into harm.

Our problem is, and the difficulty for the families at the moment is we can't confirm their whereabouts, but we're doing everything we can in conjunction with the international agencies and the Sri Lankan authorities to locate them. And when I raised it with Foreign Minister Bogollagama, he made it crystal clear that he would ensure that our officials had complete access to the Sri Lankan officials to seek to locate them.

QUESTION: Does Australia have any more general sort of human rights concerns about what's going on in the north in Sri Lanka, and - I mean, given that the Sri Lankan Government throughout this period, over the last month, they've made repeated promises that they weren't always willing to keep. Are you worried about that?

STEPHEN SMITH: I've made the point to Foreign Minister Bogollagama, and I've made the point publicly, and I've made it formally in the Parliament when in the last couple of weeks I made a ministerial statement, and let me restate those.

Firstly, we think that the Sri Lankan Government and the Sri Lankan authorities will now be judged on two things: on how they manage and deal with the vast numbers of people in the displaced camps; and secondly, how they now move to a reform program which enables all of the Sri Lankan people and all of the Sri Lankan community to feel that they have a share in a democracy in Sri Lanka. On the first point, on the displaced peoples, I have made the point very clear to Foreign Minister Bogollagama and publicly that we very strongly believe that the international agencies, particularly the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees, should have complete and unfettered access to the camps. And that point has been made, as I say, to Foreign Minister Bogollagama. The point was also made by our officials in Geneva when Sri Lanka appeared before the Human Rights Council and its most recent hearing, or meetings, which from memory was early this month.

http://www.foreignminister.gov.au/transcri.../090617_pc.html