அவுஸ்திரெலியா ஜோன் கவாட் அரசாங்கத்தினால் சிறிலங்காவுக்கு திருப்பி அனுப்பப்பட்ட குறைந்தது 9 இலங்கை அகதிகள் கொல்லப்பட்டிருக்கிறார்கள் -அவுஸ்திரெலியா வழக்கறிஞர் (ABC தகவல்)

லிபரல் கட்சியைச் சேர்ந்த ஜோன் கவாட்டின் அரசு 2007 வரை அவுஸ்திரெலியாவில் ஆட்சியில் இருந்தது. தற்பொழுது கெவின்ரட்டின் தொழில் கட்சி ஆட்சியில் இருக்கிறது. கடந்த காலங்களில் திருப்பி அனுப்பப்பட்ட பலர் தற்பொழுது சிறிலங்காவின் சிறைகளில் இருக்கிறார்கள். சிலர் சித்திரவதைகளை அனுபவித்துக் கொண்டிருக்கிறார்கள்.

Returned asylum seekers killed, jailed: advocate

By Michael Vincent

Refugee advocates say at least nine asylum seekers returned to Sri Lanka by the Howard government were killed and those sent back in past year have been held in police custody and some assaulted.

Australia has suspended its processing of Sri Lankan asylum seekers pending a review of conditions in Sri Lanka.

Immigration Minister Chris Evans says the Federal Government has a "major problem" returning asylum seekers who have been involved with the Tamil Tigers.

Phil Glendenning, the director of the Catholic Church's Edmund Rice Centre, has recently returned from Sri Lanka and says the country is in danger of becoming a police state.

"We found that of the 11 people removed to Sri Lanka over the course of the last year or so, that all of them had been arrested at the airport," he said.

"Some of them had been bashed, assaulted. One man has permanent hearing damage, another has had sight damaged."

Mr Glendenning says those arrested are asylum seekers sent home from Australia.

"[The Australian Government sent them back] and gave them a guarantee of their safety. The thing is they arrive at the airport; they're immediately handed over to the CID, which is the Sri Lankan police," he said.

"The difficulty here is that there is a view in Sri Lanka that anybody who left the country through an unauthorised manner, of unauthorised means, is an LTTE sympathiser and if they are Sinhalese people who left, then they must therefore be traitors.

"That's the assumption. People have been put into prison and held there and the key thing is here that detention can be indefinite. There are people who were removed from Australia at the beginning of this year who are still in prison."

Breach of obligations

The refugee advocate says by returning these people, Australia has breached its refugee obligations.

"Under Australian refugee law, it is a breach of the law to return people to danger, to re-foul people and we believe that has happened," he said.

"The people are put into prison; the court process is that they're heard in the prison. The magistrate continues to postpone the cases to a later date, no legal arguments are taken and so you get the situation of it just rolling forward.

"On the ground, those who are in the community, there's a danger of being regularly abducted and it's quite an established fact that groups like Reporters Without Borders have attested that Sri Lanka is not safe."

Mr Glendenning is also unconvinced by the Sri Lankan government's claims it is a democracy.

"Sri Lanka would say that because it's in their interest to say that," he said.

"There is fear in Sri Lanka that anybody from the LTTE outside the country might be one of the LTTE to somehow reform it internationally. I think Sri Lanka is in danger of being seen as a police state."

He says while the Federal Government is wise to urge caution in returning asylum seekers connected to the Tamil Tigers, in the eyes of the Sri Lankan government all those who fled are branded the same way.

"I think the position taken by the Minister yesterday in urging caution about returning people who would be seen as being involved with the LTTE is a very wise one," he said.

"But of course we would see the importance of that to be extended to realise that on the ground in Sri Lanka, those in authority in the government and in the police, perceive those who left as either sympathisers or traitors and consequently sending them back is sending them back into danger."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/05/19/2903429.htm?section=world

Asylum plea for Sri Lanka war crimes witnesses

Updated Tue May 18, 2010 9:51am AEST

The Federal Government has been urged to support an independent investigation into allegations of war crimes in Sri Lanka and reconsider sending at-risk Tamil Tiger rebels home.

Earlier this year the Australian Government froze asylum applications from Tamils, saying conditions in Sri Lanka were improving.

But the International Crisis Group has released a report detailing alleged war crimes by both the Sri Lankan security forces and some members of the Tamil Tigers during last year's civil war.

One year after that conflict ended, civilians remain in government-run camps and anyone investigating war crimes is putting themselves at enormous risk.

Sri Lanka prides itself on being a democracy that is now free from civil war, but the International Crisis Group says just last week the president's brother called anyone making accusations of war crimes traitors, and said they should be put to death.

The group's Asia program director Robert Templer says it has been gathering evidence of the deliberate killing of civilians by both sides.

"I am not going to go into who exactly we interviewed because of the risks to witnesses, but we interviewed a wide range of people on both sides of the conflict," he said.

"It was a very difficult operation. In most cases the witnesses were taken out of the country so that they could avoid any sort of prosecution or risk to themselves."

The group says it not only has multiple witness statements, but also has hundreds of photographs, videos, satellite images, electronic communications and documents.

Civilian deaths

It says from January to May 2009, tens of thousands of Tamil men, women and children were killed and wounded by the Sri Lankan military's deliberate targeting of civilian areas, hospitals and humanitarian operations.

The group has called for an independent inquiry into the alleged crimes and for the Australian Government to ensure the protection of any witnesses.

Federal Immigration Minister Chris Evans has conceded there are concerns about suspected Tamil Tiger rebels being sent back to Sri Lanka.

"Clearly there is a major problem with the idea of returning serious former Tamil Tiger operatives to Sri Lanka without very strong assurances from the Sri Lankan government," he said.

"I think everyone recognises that's a problem. We've got concerns ourselves that we've had some people involved in the Tamil Tigers seeking to enter Australia.

"They pose security concerns and obviously returning them to Sri Lanka is going to be quite problematic."

Dr Sam Pari from the Australian Tamil Congress has welcomed the International Crisis Group's report, especially the call for any potential witnesses to be protected.

"If they're sent back the Sri Lankan government will target them," he said.

Aid centre shelled

The crisis group's report says a United Nations aid distribution centre within a designated 'no fire zone' was shelled.

"A shell landed between five and eight metres from the UN bunkers, in the middle of some shelters," the report said.

"At least 11 civilians were killed and more wounded in this attack, including women and children.

"A World Food Program driver was hit in the back of the head with shrapnel. The decapitated body of a young woman landed in front of the UN bunker.

"Once again, several communications were sent immediately to the Sri Lankan government and security forces asking them to stop firing."

The report says the security forces blamed the Tamil Tigers even though the shells were coming from the security forces' location.

Four days later Sri Lanka's official military spokesman said there were no civilians killed.

"We are targeting the Tamil Tigers. We are not targeting any civilians so there can't be any civilians killed," he said.

The Tamil Tigers have also been cited for war crimes by the International Crisis Group.

It says they shot civilians and denied them the ability to leave the war zone.

Independent investigation

Mr Templer says so far there has been a reluctance by foreign governments to bring pressure on Sri Lanka to allow an independent investigation.

"That has meant that essentially they have been able to get away with a policy of killing large numbers of civilians while waging a war in violation of all international norms," he said.

The government of president Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is currently in Iran, has not responded to the crisis group's report.

The Sri Lankan Embassy in Canberra has not returned The World Today's calls.

The Australian Tamil Congress says it has long called for an international investigation of abuses on both sides of the conflict and it has called on its community to come forward and provide any evidence.

The crisis group's calls for an international investigation will not go unnoticed, simply because of the diplomatic weight of its membership.

Amongst the former ambassadors, foreign ministers, generals and presidents who sit on its board are the former UN high commissioner for human rights and chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, Louise Arbour, and the former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/05/18/2902268.htm

Report damns Tamil returns

A DAMNING international report rejects the Rudd government's assertion that it is now safe for Tamil asylum-seekers to return home and says that tens of thousands of unarmed Tamil civilians were killed in the final months of Sri Lanka's civil war - a toll far higher than previous estimates.

And it urges several countries including Australia not to deport suspected former Tamil Tiger fighters, saying that would put their lives in danger.

The report by the International Crisis Group alleges after an eight-month war crimes investigation that industrial-scale slaughter of civilians by the Sri Lankan government included targeting of hospitals, safe havens and foreign aid groups to remove foreign observers and crush the Tamil Tigers (LTTE).

The Sri Lankan government had a long history of intimidation of critics and those with knowledge of atrocities, said the ICG, a major Brussels-based conflict resolution group funded by several governments.

The report includes a specific recommendation to Australia, Canada, the US, Britain, France and the EU that they: "Do not extradite LTTE suspects to Sri Lanka unless guarantees of humane treatment and fair trials are in place."

The ICG findings come after an unannounced visit to Canberra last Thursday by its chief, Louise Arbour, who met Foreign Minister Stephen Smith and senior DFAT officials.

Ms Arbour used the ICG report to press for Australian support for an internationally-backed war crimes inquiry into Sri Lanka.

"The scale of civilian deaths and suffering demands a response," said Ms Arbour.

The report says civilians were victims of a deliberate campaign by government forces to end at all costs the decades-long conflict.

The ICG report blasts the Sri Lankan government, saying it has done nothing to reconcile ethnic Sinhalese and Tamil communities or address the causes of the bloody 30-year conflict which ended last May.

Sri Lanka has consistently denied claims it mistreated Tamil civilians and instead announced its own commission of inquiry, a move the ICG says is aimed at thwarting international action.

Mounting evidence of a government hand in the atrocities is forcing a rethink by Canberra about the security situation in Sri Lanka.

"Mr Smith has called on the Sri Lankan government to investigate allegations of human rights violations and violations of international law," a senior DFAT spokeswoman said.

"The proper and transparent investigation of these allegations is an important step towards reconciliation. We will watch the progress of the new commission with interest."

The ICG investigation took eight months to prepare and accuses both sides, the Rajapaksa government and the Tamil Tigers of war crimes in the final months of the 30-year conflict which ended with the defeat of the Tigers.

"Evidence gathered by the ICG provides reasonable grounds to believe that during these months (April-May 2009) the security forces intentionally and repeatedly shelled civilians, hospitals and humanitarian operations," the ICG says. Bodies were later disposed of by bulldozing into mass graves, the report says.

- http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/report-damns-tamil-returns/story-e6frg12c-1225868004077

Edited May 19, 201015 yr by கந்தப்பு

சிறிலங்கா அரசை நம்பி தமிழர்களைத் திருப்பி அனுப்புகிறார்கள். நிலவரத்தை இவந்த அரசுகளால் அறிய முடியவில்லையா? அல்லது தமிழ் உயிர்கள்தானே என்ற அலட்சியமா?

இப்பொழுது அவுஸ்திரெலியா ஊடகங்களில் சிறிலங்காவுக்கு அனுப்பிய தமிழர்களில் ஒருவருக்கு சித்திரவாதை காரணமாக கண் தெரியாது என்றும் இன்னொருவருக்கு காது கேட்காது என்றும் அனுப்பப்படுபவர் சிங்களவர் என்றால் அவர் அரச துரோகி என்றும் தமிழர் என்றால் விடுதலைப்புலிகள் உறுப்பினர் அல்லது ஆதரவாளராகப் பார்க்கப்படுகிறதாக செய்திகள் வருகின்றன. அவுஸ்திரெலியா குடிவரவு அமைச்சர் கிறிஸ் இவான்ஸ் விடுதலைப்புலிகளுடன் தொடர்புடையவர்களை அனுப்பினால் பாரிய பிரச்சனை எதிர்நோக்கப்படுவதாகக் கூறியுள்ளார்.