Just in case anybody believes that the new Australian Prime Minister will deliver on human rights, a sobering warning:
Amnesty International is calling on the federal government to lift its suspension on processing the claims of asylum seekers from Sri Lanka, saying the troubled nation is still a dangerous place.
The three-month suspension ends on July 8.
Amnesty has written to Prime Minister Julia Gillard asking her to protect the rights of Sri Lankan asylum seekers and begin processing their claims.
The human rights group’s Sri Lanka researcher Yolanda Foster said more than 10,000 people were still in detention without charge in the country, suspected of links to Tamil rebels, following the end of a long-running civil war.
There were reports of torture and disappearances, and allegations of people being killed.
“No area in Sri Lanka is entirely safe if someone has run afoul of an armed group or a powerful politician, been identified as a critic of the government or is suspected in some way of being ‘anti-government’,” Ms Foster said.