This is almost comical. One authoritarian state goes to an occupied people and asks them to come as tourists. Because Palestinians are dead keen to see another occupation? The Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau is to hold its first Tourism Road Show at Ramallah City in Palestine on Thursday. This will be the first time…
Showing all posts tagged Sri Lanka
The Tamil desire for independence remains strong in Australia
Australian Tamils have spoken: 99.4 percent of those who cast votes in the Tamil referendum across Australia last weekend said “yes” to the formation of independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam in the contiguous north and east of the island of Sri Lanka. The results were announced Thursday at a press conference held at NSW State…
Tamils vote for independence — and will vote against Labor
My following article appears in today’s Crikey: Australia’s Tamil community want an independent homeland in Sri Lanka. And they want respect from a Federal Government here that is now denying visa applications to their people. Last weekend saw thousands of Australian Tamils vote on the Vaddukoddai Resolution in a show of support for an independent…
Sri Lanka may not be the best judge of Israeli criminality
Priceless and absurd. For Sri Lanka to call for the end to Israel’s occupation, how about examining its own brutal occupation of Tamil areas in the country’s north and east? Nobody said international relations aren’t based on hypocrisy: Sri Lanka has called on Israel to withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territory saying sustainable peace could…
Hands up the Tamils who still want independence?
This weekend Australia’s Tamil community voted on establishing an independent Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka. The vote – also occuring in other nations around the world – has no real political power but may prove the strength and determination of the Tamils to continue their struggle for independence:
Don’t be tempted to visit Sri Lanka (even with those pretty beaches)
Sri Lanka is dying to get more tourists to visit the island paradise. Unfortunately for them, the country is a police state that tortures and imprisons opponents. Nonetheless, Colombo wants to entice us with this: A year after the defeat of Tamil rebels who had made parts of Sri Lanka a no-go area, the island…
Australia is violating its moral and legal code over asylum seekers
Human Rights Watch slams the Australian government over its latest refugee stance in a letter to Immigration Minister Chris Evans: Dear Mr. Evans, We write to you to express our deep concerns that changes to Australia’s asylum processing system announced on April 8, 2010 violate Australia’s obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1967…
Does the Rudd government care what happens to refugees when sent home?
A helpful reminder how the Australian government is failing legally, morally and politically by refusing to listen to legitimate claims for refugee status by Sri Lankans and Afghans: Immigration Minister Chris Evans has rationalised this suspension of due legal process on the unsustainable grounds that in three months the situation in both Sri Lanka and…
Visiting Sri Lanka as a war crimes investigator not tourist
Sri Lanka is now promoting itself as a wonderful holiday destination, filled with natural wonder, peace, harmony and white beaches: In fact, the Global Tamil Forum has called for a worldwide boycott of Sri Lankan products and services in protest at Colombo’s shocking violations of human rights. Don’t visit Sri Lanka on your next holiday.
Sri Lanka kills and tortures journalists
A strong article in today’s Sydney Morning Herald by Matt Wade outlines the reasons Sri Lanka remains a brutal country with little interest in addressing human rights concerns: The treatment of journalists is one bellwether of the human rights climate in Sri Lanka. But the Australian Government doesn’t seem to be paying attention. It’s decision…