Tamil Sydney

"Uyirthezhuvom" Rememberance Day in Sydney on 5th July 2009

The Australian reported that, "Aid workers told The Australian yesterday officials at the internally displaced people's camp in Pulmoddai, a remote northeast region, are running the prostitution ring using women kept in the camp. The Australian understands the allegations are the subject of a joint investigation between the Sri Lankan government and an aid organisation. "It's been brought to the attention of senior government officials but no one seems to be doing anything about it," said an aid worker, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal. "

Despite the military defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which waged an armed struggle for an independent Tamil state in Sri Lanka’s north-east, life for the Tamil minority remains one of oppression and suffering. But for Australia’s media, still heady from “victory” celebrations in Colombo in late May, the world has moved on and another oppressed people have been left behind. Since Sri Lanka won its independence in 1948, its state has been dominated by the Sinhalese ethnic majority. Tamils suffered discrimination and were the victims of widespread ethnic violence with the complicity of the state.

"..As you are well aware, many Tamil Australians have lost their relatives in the battle that went on for few months until May 19th 2009. Now relatives of many Tamil Australians are languishing in detention camps surrounded by barbed wire fence. Sri Lanka calls these camps “Welfare Villages” and the media describe these as “Concentration Camps”. Inmates of these camps are not allowed to get out of the camps and it is extremely difficult for relatives from outside to gain access to meet the inmates. These inmates are living in overcrowded temporary shelters with inadequate medical and sanitary facilities. Media reports suggest that 20-30 youth from these camps are being taken away by the Sri Lankan security forces daily with their fate not known..."

An Officer from ABC TV Audience and Consumer Affairs, Kieran Doyle belatedly apologised to a viewer for an inaccurate and misleading statement on history of Tamils in Sri Lanka telecasted on 18th of May 2009. Doyle said, "The ABC acknowledges your concern with this report and agrees that it was inaccurate and misleading to refer to the history of Tamil ethnicity with the statement “many descendents of labour imported bythe British two centuries ago by the Sinhalese majority”. The ABC apologises for this error." The reason is described as "I am advised by ABC News management that time constraints prevented a more detailed account of this history."

INFITT is pleased to announce that the next Tamil Internet Conference TIC 2009 will be held in Europe, at the Institute of Indology and Tamil Studies of the University of Cologne in Germany during October 23-25, 2009.
Tamil Internet Conferences of INFITT are major events for computer professionals and Tamil Diaspora working or interested in Tamil Computing- Information Technology and Tamil Internet Development in various areas. Tamil Internet Conference 2009 is the Eighth in the series, with earlier ones held in Singapore (1997, 2000, 2004) , Chennai (1999, 2003), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2001), San Francisco, California, USA (2002). TIC 2009 will be the first conference to be held in Europe.

By Nanda Wickremasinghe , World Socialist Website
On June 24, Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court held a second hearing in a case challenging the violation of the basic legal rights of Tamil civilians interned in military-controlled camps in the island’s north. The case has been filed on behalf of five members of the same family who were separated in detention. The government of President Mahinda Rajapakse has incarcerated almost 300,000 Tamils who faced intense army shelling and fled the fighting in the final phase of the war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The government and the military assert that the camps are relief centres or welfare villages. In reality, they are detention centres guarded by soldiers and surrounded by barbed and razor wire. The detainees cannot leave the camps and even movement within the camps is restricted.

An 800 page detail indictment War Crime or Genocide charges against notorious Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotapaya Rajapaksa and Army Chief Sarath Fonseka which has been submitted to US Attorney General and US State Department has now been released by TAG.

The situation in Sri Lanka has changed dramatically. Now, the Tamils are without leadership. They are victims of greater oppression with about 300,000 Tamils in internment camps. Access to the camps is denied to the world community and even to local NGOs and media by Sri Lanka. While the LTTE fought on behalf of Tamil freedom militarily, the Tamils in Sri Lanka and elsewhere faced difficult times. The Tamil Diaspora are seen as not only supporting the LTTE, but are viewed by Sri Lanka as members of the LTTE as well. In the immediate aftermath of the defeat of the Tamil militant leadership and in the wake of the untold suffering and injustices of the Tamil people in the Vanni, there is fluidity in the thinking among the Tamils as to what form the Tamil clamour for self-determination and freedom should take.

LTTE's Selvaraja Pathmanathan says the group is giving up violence and adopting a non-violent agenda to secure the political rights of Tamils in Sri Lanka. In an exclusive email interview to India Today reporter Rajesh Sundaram Thursday (25.06.2009), Pathmanathan said one of the priorities of the Tamil Tigers would be to push for revoking the international ban on it. Excerpts from the interview:
Q: What are the facts about Prabhakaran's death?
KP: According to the information I have, our leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran has attained martyrdom in the fight against the Sri Lankan armed forces on May 17, 2009.

Mr COULTON (Parkes): On indulgence, I would like to highlight something that has happened this week. I do not intend to make a political point but I would like to seek indulgence to mention this in the House. On Monday afternoon, a Sri Lankan born paediatric registrar Dr Ruban Arumugam was tragically killed on the Castlereagh Highway near Mudgee in... Read More New South Wales. Reuben, as he was known to his colleagues, came to Australia in the early nineties, was educated at the University of New South Wales and has been working in Dubbo, in western New South Wales as a paediatric registrar.

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