Skip to main content

Tamil vote in Australia on pressing case for homeland




Australian Tamils are to vote in a referendum this weekend on the creation of an independent Tamil homeland.





The Tamil Congress of Australia said more than 10,000 Tamils had registered to vote in the referendum, which follows similar votes in Canada, Englandand Europe that backed the establishment of a Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka.





A spokesman for the Tamil Referendum Council of Australia, Bobby Sundaralingam, said polling booths had been set up in Victoria, New South Walesand the ACT and there was provision for postal votes.





Organisers hoped the results of the referendums would pressure the Sri Lankan government to allow a Tamil state.





But not all Tamil organisations in Australiasupport the move. The Melbourne-based Justice and Freedom for Ceylon Tamils refuge and humanitarian action group has instead sent a petition to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Immigration Minister Chris Evans and Foreign Minister Stephen Smith calling for the 215 special humanitarian visa for Sri Lankans to be restored.





Its chairman, Ramalingam Wickramasingham, said this would stop the boatloads of Tamil refugees coming to Australia. He said Tamil refugees “never came by boat” until 2000, when the Coalition government suspended the visa.





“There is no other official legal avenue in Sri Lanka for asylum seekers to apply to come toAustralia, such as other countries have,” he said.





Dr Sundaralingham said that since the end of the war, about 100,000 Tamils were held in internment camps and some had been tortured and abducted.





“Tamils in Sri Lanka are voiceless and in a state of despair,” he said. “It is the duty of the diaspora to be their voice and express what the Tamil people want.” - (The Age, Australia)
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

GL SLAMS ‘COLONIAL’ RIGHTS GROUPS

Sri Lanka’s foreign minister Gamini Lakshman Peiris rejected “colonial” criticism Tuesday of a government-appointed civil war probe, after foreign rights groups snubbed an invitation to attend. New York-based Human Rights Watch, London-based Amnesty International and Brussels-based International Crisis Group last week accused the panel of a cover-up and refused an offer from Colombo to appear before it. Peiris said in a speech to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a leading think-tank based in London, that the rights groups had displayed a “most unattractive attitude.” “It smacks of an attitude that is almost colonial, patronising and condescending, the assumption being that other people must step in because Sri Lankans are unable to chart a course for their own future,” he said. Peiris, who is in London for talks with the British government, said the LLRC was based on similar reconciliation commissions in countries such as South Africa. He urged rights groups and
Post a Comment
Read more

IRRESPONSIBLE TALK BY MEMBERS COST UNP ITS VOTERS, SAYS SAJITH

The voters have distanced themselves from the United National Party (UNP) because several members had demeaned the military victories during the recently concluded war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, said Hambantota District parliamentarian Sajith Premadasa. Former President Ranasinghe Premadasa’s son, Sajith was addressing a meeting at Gurutalawa at the Yatinuwara electorate in Kandy last evening to raise awareness on his Jathika Jeewaya Programme. Mr. Premadasa launched this programme within three electorates in the Gampaha District last week as well. Adding further, Sajith Pramadasa said the UNP suffered erosion in its support as some had uttered irresponsible comments when the Sri Lankan armed forces were gaining victory after victory in the fight against the LTTE. When the Army captured Thoppigala, some in the UNP had said that Thoppigala was only a jungle, while some had accused the then government and the military of claiming to be advancing towards Kilinochc
Post a Comment
Read more

TNA vows civil disobedience

Sri Lanka’s main Tamil party on Saturday vowed to launch a Gandhi-style civil disobedience campaign to press a long-standing demand for regional autonomy for their ethnic minority. The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in its manifesto for April parliamentary elections renewed its demand for extensive regional autonomy – after Tamil Tiger rebels who fought in their name were crushed last year. “If the Sri Lankan state continues its present style of governance without due regard to the rights of the Tamil-speaking peoples, the TNA will launch a peaceful, non-violent campaign of civil disobedience on the Gandhian model,” the party said. The TNA was a puppet of the Tamil Tiger rebels who were crushed by security forces in May last year after 37 years of fighting. The United Nations has said up to 100,000 people were killed in the conflict. On Saturday the alliance said it would lobby neighbouring India and the international community to ensure the island’s Tamil community -- 12.5 percent
Post a Comment
Read more