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Australians for Tamil Justice today reported that, "..We have just received news that the Tamils on the boat intercepted by Indonesian authorities on Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s request have begun a hunger strike in a desperate plea for their status to be recognised..." |
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The problem of asylum seekers led Australia down a dark path last time, a path we appear to be treading again.DESPITE the surge of boat arrivals, only a few weeks ago it seemed inconceivable we could return to the bad days of the asylum-seeker debate. It is still on balance unlikely. But the tone is getting nasty and this is alarming. The Government, worried about its inability to control the water-borne influx - 1700 people so far this year, predominantly Afghans and Sri Lankans - and also about the politics, has launched into both frantic activity and hyped rhetoric. |
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 Sydney Morning Herald today reported that, "Distraught Sri Lankan asylum seekers said they were fleeing ''genocide'' against ethnic Tamils in their country, and expressed shock that the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, had personally intervened to interrupt their journey to Australian shores." One Asylum seeker said, ''We may as well die here. We cannot go back to Sri Lanka,'' said a spokesman for the asylum seekers who gave his name as Alex. ''We are very shocked, so shocked to hear that your Prime Minister wanted to stop us, that he had something to do with this. We are not a boat full of tourists, or people looking for a job. We are people who are running from genocide.'' |
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A Tamil Nadu police head constable and his wife are among four persons booked for allegedly running a prostitution racket in nearby Mettur, police said today.Police arrested two persons, including a 20-year old woman, while carrying out a raid at the constable's house at Cauvery Nagar following a tip-off that he was operating a prostitution racket for the last six months. |
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Government Should Immediately Release 250,000 Displaced Persons from Illegal Detention
The Sri Lankan government should immediately release the 250,000 displaced Tamil civilians still held in detention camps, Human Rights Watch said on Saturday. Deteriorating conditions, including a shortage of water since October 5, 2009, combined with the prospect of flooding during the imminent monsoon season, have led to rising tensions among camp residents and clashes with the military. |
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http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200910/r452787_2207570.asx
Almost 260 Sri Lankans aboard a boat moored in Western Java have made a desperate plea to Australia and other countries to consider their bids for asylum, saying returning to Sri Lanka is no longer an option for Tamils who wish to survive. |
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 "Please help us and save our lives, we are your children. Please think of us, please, please," are the plea of a nine-year-old tamil asylum seeker Brindha currently with 260 other Sri Lankans in Indonasia to Australian Prime Ministe Kevin Rudd. "There are people in the [Sri Lankan] camps right now being murdered even today as we speak, as we are sitting comfortably on this boat in the shores of Indonesia, there are still Tamil people in Sri Lanka who are dying every day," Alex said. |
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Indonasian Daily The Jakarta Post reported that, "top level approach to Indonesia demonstrates Rudd's fear of a voter backlash against his liberal policies toward refugees, which opponents blame for a tenfold explosion in the numbers of asylum-seekers reaching Australia by boat this year - 1,704 so far, compared to last year's total of 161. " It further repoirted, "It would seem a measure of desperation on Rudd's part that he has to be seen to be doing something," Australian National University political scientist Norman Abjorensen said. |
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OPEN INVITATION from the Human Rights Network to a Public Forum to mark United Nations Day
* United Nations Day is 24 October*
Human Rights Ignored--Imprisonment and Impunity in Sri Lanka
When: Saturday afternoon, 17 October 2009, from 2.30pm
Where: Mt Albert War Memorial Hall, 775 New North Rd,
Mt Albert, Auckland |
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Centre for War Victims and Human Rights (CWVHR)
Holds
A Public Forum
On
War Crimes in reference to Sri Lanka
Place : 705 Progress Avenue, Unit 106, Scarborough, ON M1H 2X1
Date and Time: October 15th, Thursday at 7.00 P.M |
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