Australian Tamils rally for war crimes inquiry

July 29, 2011

Issue

To mark the 28th anniversary of the 1983 Black July massacre of ethnic Tamils in Sri Lanka, Australian Tamils held a solidarity rally in Melbourne on July 23.

More than 200 Australians assembled at Federation Square to condemn the human rights violations taking place in Sri Lanka and to raise a voice for an international investigation into war crimes by the Sri Lankan government.

Protesters chanted “Free Tamil Eelam” and carried placards that said “Charge Sri Lanka with War Crimes”. The crowd called for the Australian government to take the lead in pursuing an international investigation into allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sri Lanka.

On 4 July, ABC's Four Corners program broadcast The Channel 4 documentary “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields”, which forced many political figures to respond.

Australian foreign minister Kevin Rudd tweeted: “4 corners tonight on Sri Lanka deeply disturbing. UN Human Rights Council can’t push this to one side. Action needed. K.Rudd.”

Members of the Tamil coordinating committee that organised the rally said the Four Corners broadcast opened the eyes of many Australians to the hypocrisies of the Sri Lankan regime.

Committee spokesperson Sabesh Sanmugam described the atrocities committed by the Mahinda Rajapakse regime in Sri Lanka.

Sanmugan said: “In 2009, the Sri Lankan Army killed more civilians than were killed in all other conflicts combined in that year — all of them were Tamils.

“Over 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed in May 2009, while 300,000 Tamil men, women and children were locked in concentration camps run by the Sri Lankan military for 12 months.

“There have been many disappearances of Tamil civilians from these camps and many journalists were killed for trying to report on the conflict.

“Australia has been at the forefront in defending human rights around the world. The Tamil coordinating committee feels that it is time that Australia shows its concern for the hundreds of thousands of Eelam Tamils who have been subjected to inhuman treatment by the Sri Lankan government,” he said.

Speaking at the event representing the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam, Janani Balachandran said: “I would like to remind the international community today that, if Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic are indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity and genocide in the International Criminal Courts, the Rajapaksas of Sri Lanka also could be indicted for similar crimes in the ICC.”

She added: “The Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam believes, a political solution, recognising the Tamils of Sri Lanka as a nation, their entitlement to claim the territory they have historically occupied as their homeland and their right to self-determination can put an end to the 60 years [of] long suffering of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka.

“Therefore on this important day for the Tamils, I appeal to the Australian government and all the peace loving Australians, to make every effort to find that political solution and save the Tamils in Sri Lanka from state sponsored terrorism.”

Sue Bolton, Liam Ward and Dr Eswaran Kanapathipillai also spoke at the rally, and requested international community to support for an independent UN investigations on war crimes committed by Sri Lanka’s government.

Tamil community members and supporters also rallied in Sydney on July 30. Speakers included Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon, a representative of Amnesty International, Mark Goudkamp representing the Refugee Action Coalition and Peter Boyle, national convenor of the Socialist Alliance Photos by Peter Boyle below.

International solidarity

Australia

Comments

Anonymous replied on Mon, 08/01/2011 - 23:23 Permalink

And what of the massacre of Sinhalese ethnics in Jaffna at the hands of the Tamil extremists in 1983? What of campaign of ethnic cleansing the Tamils carried out in the north and north-east of Sri Lanka in the early 1990s? That was a black period on the island nation for people of all ethnic backgrounds. These very serious allegations made against the Sri Lankan state are heavily disputed. Both the United Nations and India have sent teams to inspect the refugee camps and found no evidence that the government there was not doing all it can to assist the Tamil people. None of the video footage which is being used to justify a war crimes investigation into the events of May, 2009 have been verified by an independent and credible third party. New evidence suggests that these attrocities may have been committed by Tamil ethnic militias, which began to form in the vacuum left by the Tamil Tiger seperatists, as their so-called 'state-within-a-state' began to unraval. These Tamilian ex-pats need to reflect on what is in the best interests of their people back in the old country and how best to achieve that.

Anonymous replied on Tue, 08/02/2011 - 02:26 Permalink

The International Community must conduct an international independent war crimes and human rights investigation in order to bring the criminals to justice, the acountability process and ddeliver justice to the victims. Sri Lanka had never investigated any crimes against Tamils in the past and will not do it in the future. As India is a party to the crimes committed in Sri lanka, India cannot be trusted and the International Community must not involve the Indians except the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jeyalalithaa, and other leaders Seeman and Vaiko.

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