சிறிலங்காவுக்கு திருப்பி அனுப்பப்பட்ட குறைந்தது 9 இலங்கை அகதிகள் கொல்லப்பட்டிருக்கிறார்கள்

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.a...m?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.a.../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....c-1225868004077