Britain’s Mass Murder of Indigenous Australians (Aborigines)
Posted on November 9th, 2013
Shenali D Waduge
‚ To those that do not know of Britains colonial crimes in their eyes Britain is the epitome of justice, equality, the nation that rears gentlemen of breed and holds the seat of democracy. To those that are aware of British mass murder as ordered by British Governments, the scale of cataloguing these crimes becomes a task in itself and should nullify all claims of any gentlemanly behavior. The invasion and decimation of Aboriginal Australia was and is entirely a British affair. When Britain devastates a 65,000 year old culture in just 200 years and carries out unthinkable crimes to take over land and exterminate the indigenous population how do we term Britain other than a mass murderer? The Aboriginal experience is depressingly similar to that of Native Americans in the United States. European settlers viciously drove the Aborigines from their land, massacring thousands with impunity. Why does the world remain silent and ignorant of these crimes against humanity?
‚ When the British arrived in Australia in 1788, Australia was NEVER a white country. It was occupied for over 65,000 years by indigenous black Australians later called -ËœAborigines-â„¢ by the British. How did these black Aborigines suddenly disappear? British colonial terrorism is the answer. How would the English, such respectable and gentlemanly people get rid of possibly close to 1million indigenous people and take over their lands after their arrival in 1788? How did the Aborigines become less than 100,000 by 1901? The very respectable English settlers cut their food resources and began genocidal massacres and David Cameron speaks to the world on HUMAN RIGHTS! Aborigines did not invade nations or take over lands -” the British did and moreover these Aborigines were not warlike people -” their culture and livelihood never left room for dissent of the kind that warranted defense.
‚ The British transferred the land belonging to the Aborigines to the English colonial settlers and their descendants -” would anyone disagree that this is nothing but theft and robbery by the British using the doctrine of terra nullius (empty land) to justify the theft (claiming the Aborigines had no law of ownership to land)? The Colonial Office treated Australia, for the purposes of its acquisition and the application of English law, as a settled colony, that is, one uninhabited by a recognised sovereign or by a people. The nation that boasts of treating people with equality treated the Aborigines as no different to dogs!
‚ Thus there were no treaties concluded with Aboriginal group and no arrangements were made with them to acquire their land, or to regulate dealings between them and the colonists. The decision to classify the -Ëœnew-â„¢ country of Australia as a settled colony, rather than as conquered or ceded, meant that the new settlers brought with them the general body of English law, including the criminal law. Aborigines became British subjects but had no land ownership or citizenship rights. Legally, Aboriginal people, like other Australians, were British subjects from the beginning of European occupation. In practice, however, they were treated quite differently. Aboriginal ownership of the land was not recognised, no treaties or agreements were made and no compensation was paid.
‚ British law did not recognise Aboriginal laws and practices or their right to own property. Aboriginal people could be tried summarily for a range of criminal offences; they could not press charges at law and were not permitted to give evidence in court. Frequently they were held corporately guilty for the crimes of others. Few white Australians were ever tried for the murder of Aboriginal Australians.
‚ This was how British colonialists turned an inhabited country of indigenous Australians into a White Australia by first pretending to be a -Ëœfriend-â„¢ and then exterminating them. The British termed the indigenous -ËœAborigines-â„¢ identifying their target to dehumanize. Massacres were carried out by colonial police with impunity. The Australian colonial government used eugenics and social-Darwinist ideology to legitimize a series of racist policies and colonial terrorism to disposses the Aboriginal population of their territory and their dignity. British colonial terrorism in Australia involved destruction of the lifestyles of the indigenous people in economic, political, social, cultural, biological, physical existence, religious and moral arenas. British colonial settlers confiscated land, took over economic resources, repressed indigenous cultures, reduced food and nutrients, obliterated indigenous self-government and replaced them with colonial governments, engaged in mass killings, destroyed indigenous religions by enforcing Western religion, western culture and values and began agricultural capitalism. This was the -Ëœcivilized-â„¢ manner Britain adopted to exterminate -Ëœuncivilized-â„¢ indigenous population of Australia. One English juror called indigenous Australians -a set of [monkeys] and the earlier they are exterminated from the face of the earth better- (Kiernan, 2007, p. 286).
‚ Colonial settlers simply shot all blacks on sight and took the children to work as unpaid labor. Mechanisms used by the British were shooting, food poisoning (distributing poisoned flour – premeditated murder) burning, biological warfare using variola, disease, rape and ethnocide as well as cultural destruction. Raymond Evans and Bill Thrope‚ termed the‚ terrorism and genocide adopted by colonial settlers as -Ëœindigenocide-â„¢ involving a)intentional invasions/colonization of land b)conquest of the indigenous people c) killing of them and bringing them to a level they cannot reproduce and come close to extinction d) classification as vermin by invaders e) attempted destruction of religious system. These mechanisms became a blueprint on every nation Britain stepped foot on. If that was not enough the British adopted divide and rule policy of dividing the indigenous people against each other creating a privileged group of people and getting them to do the dirty work of the British on their behalf.
‚ The British that tells other nations to partner development, work in unity, devolve powers omitted Aborigines from the federal option. If Aboriginal people had any hopes of improving their plight through Federation, they were sorely disappointed. They were deliberately excluded from the federal sphere in the Constitution. Section 51 made Aboriginal affairs a matter for the States, empowering the Commonwealth to make laws with respect to the‚ “people of any race, other than the Aboriginal race in any state”.‚ Section 127 (xxvi) of the Constitution directed that‚ “in reckoning the numbers of people of the Commonwealth, or of a State or other part of the Commonwealth, aboriginal natives shall not be counted.” When the Commonwealth Electoral Act was passed in 1902, it gave women the vote in federal elections, but it still negated the right to vote in federal elections from those Aboriginal peoples not enrolled to vote in State elections. Section 4 of the Act states:‚ No Aboriginal native of Australia, Africa or the Islands of the Pacific except New Zealand shall be entitled to have his name placed on an Electoral Roll unless so entitled under section 41 of the Constitution.‚ Section 41 stated that those who had the right to vote in their State also had the right to vote in Commonwealth elections.
‚ When white Australia celebrated 150 years of settlement on January 26 1938, Aboriginal people in Sydney marked it as a Day of Mourning. A manifesto written for the occasion,‚ Aborigines Claim Citizenship Rights, stated that there was little for Aboriginal people to celebrate, and mocked the claims of white Australians to be a “civilised, progressive, kindly and humane nation”. The manifesto asked for justice and citizenship rights, an end to the exploitation of Aboriginal labour, freedom from the oppression of the Protection Acts and the abolition of the Protection Board. ‚ ‚ It concluded with the appeal:
After 150 years, we ask you to review the situation and give us a fair deal – a New Deal for Aborigines. The cards have been stacked against us, and we now ask you to play the game like decent Australians. Remember, we do not ask for charity, we ask for justice.
‚ Some notable colonial legislation that targeted Aboriginal peoples included:
‚·‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ 1816 Martial Law (NSW). This proclamation declared Martial Law against Indigenous Australians who could then be shot on sight if armed with spears, or even unarmed, if they were within a certain distance of houses or settlements
‚·‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ 1824 (Tasmania). Settlers are authorised to shoot Aboriginal peoples
‚·‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ 1840 (NSW). Indigenous Australians forbidden to use firearms without the permission of a Justice of the Peace
‚·‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ 1869 (Victoria). The Board for the Protection of Aborigines is established. The Governor can order the removal of any child to a reformatory or industrial school
‚·‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ 1890 (NSW). In a denial of human rights the Aborigines Protection Board could forcibly take children off reserves and “resocialise” them.
‚ The‚ 1948 Nationality and Citizenship Act‚ in theory made Aboriginal people Australian citizens, because they were born in Australia. However it did not guarantee them citizenship rights -” though they were living in Australia for over 65,000 years. They had no right to vote in Commonwealth elections, and those who lived in Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory had no right to vote in state elections.
‚ Thus, when Britain speaks of human rights it needs to first look in the mirror and question why Britain has never stood on the dock for its crimes against humanity.
‚ ‚·‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ -Ëœsport-â„¢ of burying Aboriginal babies and children up to their necks and then kicking the heads until decapitation
‚·‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ Shooting pregnant Aboriginal women
‚·‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ Thousands of Aboriginal children ripped from tribes and parents in a nazi type effort to breed out aboriginality (Stolen Generations)
‚·‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ In 1834 Black population of colonial Victoria was 5000-10,000 by 1886 the population was just 806. Between 8000-10,000 Blacks were killed in Queensland.
‚·‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ 1956 British in collusion with Anglo-Celtic Australians conducted nuclear weapons testing in Maralinga South Australia poisoning the homeland and the Maralinga Tiarutia tribe.
‚·‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ When British colonists arrived in 1803, the island’s indigenous people numbered a few thousand. Thirty years later, about 100 remained.‚ British colonisation of Tasmania – Informal colonisation commenced in 1803 when small groups of British men employed in the sealing industry on the Bass Strait islands, initiated seasonal contact with Aboriginal groups along Tasmania-â„¢s northern coastline. They traded seal carcasses and dogs in exchange for Aboriginal women for sexual and economic purposes. Sporadic conflict over women took place but few records exist of the details. By 1821 a permanent community of Aboriginal women, British men and their children had emerged on the Bass Strait Islands which has since become part of the modern Aboriginal community today
‚·‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ In the Gippsland district of Victoria, for instance, -a series of horrendous massacres- reduced the Aboriginal population from 2000 to 126 (Ben Kiernan)
‚·‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ 1926 whites shot and burned to death 100 Aborigines at Forrest River in Western Australia. -The two police officers involved were acquitted and promoted.-‚ (Ben Kiernan)
‚·‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ ‚ 20,000 Aborigines were killed resisting the British occupation of Australia between 1788 and 1901 (Ben Kiernan – Phillip Knightley says these totals are much higher)
‚ Dalaipi, a Queensland Black in the late 19th century said -ËœWe were hunted from our ground, shot, poisoned and had our daughters, sisters and wives taken from us-¦.they stole our ground where we used to get food, and when we got hungry and took a bit of flour or killed a bullock to eat, they shot us or poisoned us. All they give us now for our land is blanket once a year-â„¢.
‚ Britain speaks of gender equality, dignity and respect -” they have forgotten that British colonial settlers raped women, slaughtered and massacred women and children even aged women, they kidnapped children and used them as unpaid labor. These same British colonial settlers used small young girls for sexual gratification. In 1825 Rev Threlkeld wrote that he was tormented -Ëœat night by the shrieks of girls, about 8 or 9 years of age, taken by force by the vile men of Newcastle. One man came to see me with his head broken by the butt-end of a musket because he would not give up his wife-â„¢.
‚ Tasmania was where some of the worse abuses upon Aborigines took place. These black men were flogged, branded and castrated and mutilated. Sexual violence became a tactic of terrorism and genocide. Leave aside the physical pain have the British ever thought of the humiliation and loss of honor suffered by the original people of Australia? And do Britain think a simple 5 letter -ËœSORRY-â„¢ would suffice? How have Britain ever made up for the forced impregnation, psychological trauma, degradation, demoralization and dishonor to the ethnic Aborigines. EVERY CRIME THAT TOOK PLACE WERE SANCTIONED BY THE BRITISH COLONIAL GOVERNMENT.
‚ Catharine MacKinnon explaining this aspect of British crimes further says -Ëœrape unto death, rape as massacre, rape to kill and make victims wish they were dead. It is rape as an instrument of forced exile, rape to make you leave your home and never want to go back. It is rape to be seen and heard and watched and told to others; rape as spectacle. It is rape to drive a wedge through a community, to shatter a society, to destroy a people. It is rape as genocide-â„¢. What would David Cameron and William Hague have to respond to this?
‚ What accountability has prevailed when colonial officials justified the total extermination of indigenous people by calling them nonhuman beings. Let us remind David Cameron that these English settlers engaged in trade in body parts of indigenous people for scientific purposes adding one more to the list of colonial crimes.
‚ We are sorry to say that we do not buy any of Britain-â„¢s HUMAN RIGHTS notions until and unless Britain comes clean on all of its crimes across the world in what remains the worst forms of inhuman treatment upon fellow humans simply because Britain has saddled itself as the Commonwealth Head and uses its technological powers and political mileage to bully nations that it turned into Third World, we are sorry to say that those who know Britain-â„¢s dirty past can never look up to Britain for its contemporary crimes have been no better.
‚ Thus, there is little difference in the manner Britain has functioned in colonial times or contemporary and it is better for people to be aware of the extent of crimes that Britain has committed without blindly singing Rule Britannia!
‚ Australia apologized to the Aborigines in 2008 through the Rudd Government which angered many Anglo-Celtic Australians including former PM Howard who refused to endorse the apology. Howards-â„¢s theory was that -Ëœwhite-â„¢ Australia had nothing to apologize for. Where is the apology from Great Britain since Anglo Australia is still constitutionally ruled by the British Queen? The conditions of the Aboriginal groups was such that in 2009 the Aborigines petitioned the UN for Refugee Status IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY! And we have Cameron and Hague coming to talk tough in Sri Lanka after our soldiers saved 300,000 and simply because some find it a sport plucking numbers from the sky and making allegations and films!
‚ The massacres by British upon Aborigines in their own native country has to be abhorred and put to shame for the very country that pretends it has not done a single crime and denigrates other nations has yet to even apologize or compensate for these crimes. These crimes by Britain have been calculated, premeditated and part of British Government policy. That these crimes committed during colonial rule has not seen any marked change in Britain-â„¢s present policies is something we need to take stock of.
‚ Despite the veil of FIRST WORLD superiority we need to remind all First World nations that they are what they are because of the stolen riches of the countries they have turned into THIRD WORLD and continue to keep them as Third World nations by controlling world trade, the international laws, international rights and justice mechanism and the international media though they are being posed a challenge by Arab imperialism. Imperialism used by Christian West is now being challenged by Arab imperialism using Islam.
‚ Our contention is that the terminologies of equality, justice, human rights are all fine concepts but they cannot omit the horrendous and barbaric past because the architects of the new human rights systems are the very party-â„¢s that violated them and continue to violate them. When analyzing the root causes of the conflicts that prevail today they all lead to these very same nations and Britain is one of them. It is based on this logic that we continue to say that until and unless the crimes of the past and present of the architects of these new laws, human rights theories etc are taken to the dock and punished it becomes a hypocrisy of justice simply taking the black, brown and yellow people to task and embarrassing their nations simply to hide their own sins.
November 9th, 2013 at 12:47 pm
So Shenali, if Cameron at the CHOGM hectors Sri Lanka on Human Rights use your feet to just kick his mouth shut! True, two wrongs will not add up to what is right but the moral right for BRITAIN to lecture Sri Lanka on this topic is Absolute Zero and hope you will make sure Cameron gets the right reply if he opens his mouth and accuses Si Lanka of HR violations – S de Silva – London
November 9th, 2013 at 2:43 pm
But can SL leaders tell these things to British criminals?
NO! They don’t have a backbone!
November 9th, 2013 at 3:05 pm
The act of genocide on the native Aboriginals by the British is not unique. The British tried to bring down China by selling opium to her populations. No study has been done of the countless number of Chinese who suffered due to that but a study has been done of the Indian farmers in East India that were forced to switch from growing crops to growing opium
This led to one of India’s worst famines and millions died. The horror of it all was that South India had a surplus crop and the British who knew about it did not transfer the rice to starving masses in India’s northeast and simply let them died.
Great Britain’s cruelty did not end there but took on the native American tribes in what is now the United States of America and engaged in an orgy of slaughter unparallelled in the history of those tribes. In Africa it was the Belgium that cost the death of 10 million Africans but the British in the UK and in the US were involved in the slave trade of West Africans where the death toll was very high. More died than survived the arduous journey from Africa to the New World and Europe.
November 9th, 2013 at 3:15 pm
Brishit!
November 9th, 2013 at 3:21 pm
Second comment:
What started the Sepoy Revolution was an act of callousness on the part of the British who used both pig and cow fat to line the bullets which had to be bitten before loaded. In its height of the revolution both British and Indians alike commited terrible atrocities to each other, including forcing Indians to lick the blood off the floor of a Mosque where British were killed
But when the Revolution ended in favor of the British as punishment all the leaders of the Sepoy Revolution including Maharajahs were tied to canons and then they were blasted into pieces. To avoid such an event from happening again the British cleared five hundred yards of palaces, monuments, gardens etc of the Mogul dynasty in Delhi so as to assure a wide space of open land in front of the Red Mosque.
During the non violent Satyagraha movement led by the Mahatma the British in turn took a regimen of soldiers including a Gatling Gun which could not enter the narrow gateway in order to teach the Indian a lesson. The British Official gave the order to open fire without warning those who have gathered in Amritsar in a peaceful meeting and opened fire on men women and children. The only safety being a dried up well and as the panicked Sikhs leaped into the well those that followed killed those already in the well
Even though the British gave a lot to the Sub continent they also vandalized and stole. It was the British and the Indian Jats that looted the Taj Mahal. The British took the most fabulous carpets in that monument. It was also the British who forced the last Mogul emperor who was a mere child to hand over the largest diamond of its time the Kohinoor which now is placed within the crown jewels of England.
November 9th, 2013 at 4:28 pm
Yes Lorenzo !! They are damning INVERTIBRATES. Always servile to cooly Indians and white skin.
Cameron has to be given rolls of TOILET PAPER, to take out his stink.
When these BRISHITS have Skeletons in their cupboards, they try to cover it up by flexing their MUSKELS at Sri Lanka. Somebody will have to kick his trap shut.
November 9th, 2013 at 4:48 pm
Susantha,
We should organise a big rally on BRitshit Genocide. Where is Sunil Ayya ? Is he still meditating in Anu ?
November 9th, 2013 at 5:30 pm
NANDA !! Unfortunately Iam in US. Otherwise we could have taken the shit out of the BRISHITS. Sunil must be around, taking a break.
November 10th, 2013 at 6:57 am
Hi,
Many of us are seeking Nirvana. Sansare is too difficult to handle, full of suffering !.
November 10th, 2013 at 12:38 pm
Is this a SHINING EXAMPLE of British “Democracy”?
David Cameron’s Govt prevents Conservative MPs favoring the GOSL position from attending the CHOGM!
Bloody Hypocrites!
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British FCO prevents group of Conservative MPs coming during CHOGM
Island.lk
November 9, 2013
By Shamindra Ferdinando
With the 22nd edition of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) a few days away, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has intervened to prevent a group of dissenting Conservative MPs from attending the confab, well informed sources told The Sunday Island.
Sources claimed that six MPs would have taken a position on Sri Lanka contrary to that of UK Premier David Cameron and Foreign Secretary William Hague thereby undermining the overall British strategy.
Responding to a query, sources said that as they had visited Sri Lanka previously the MPs would have been in a better position to examine the situation on the ground since the conclusion of the conflict in May 2009.
UK based sources said that the unprecedented move had come to light in the wake of UK Premier Cameron meeting representatives of three groups, namely the Global Tamil Forum (GTF), British Tamil Forum (BTF) and Tamils against Genocide a few days ago. Sources alleged that the FCO move was meant to ensure that the UK addressed the accountability issues in one voice during Premier Cameron’s much publicized visit to Colombo.
The British delegation is also scheduled to visit Jaffna.
Authoritative sources pointed out that the Canadian government had taken a position contrary to that of the British. Although the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Foreign Affairs and International Human Rights Minister John Baird had boycotted the Colombo summit accusing Sri Lanka of war time atrocities, Canada would be represented by Deepak Obhrai, parliamentary secretary to Baird.
Sources said that in spite of Obhrai being a low level representative, he would be able to examine the situation on the ground much better than the Canadian Premier and the Foreign Minister as he (Obhrai) was one of the few foreign parliamentarians to visit the Vanni shortly after the conclusion of the war. In fact, the Canadian Minister had the opportunity to meet a few Canadians nationals of Sri Lankan origin captured during the Vanni push, sources said.
“We provided him with an SLAF chopper to visit the Vanni,” a senior official told The Sunday Island.
Sources recalled an explosive Wiki Leaks revelation regarding the former British Foreign Secretary David Miliband playing politics with the Sri Lankan issue in the run-up to the final battle to appease the electorate comprising Tamils of Sri Lankan origin.
November 10th, 2013 at 12:56 pm
Not only TN political leaders, but Tamil Union Govt Ministers also Oppose Sri Lanka.
This ONLY CONFIRMS my view, elaborated above, that Sri Lanka should WEAN itself AWAY from India!
There is NO WAY Sri Lanka can rely on India being impartial all long as Racist Tamils dominate its State and Union Governments! It would be a MONUMENTAL FOLLY for the GOSL not to take CORRECTIVE ACTION NOW!
GOSL: Don’t apologize for India …. SEIZE this opportunity to DITCH India and its Racist Tamil baggage NOW!
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CHOGM: China to benefit from PM’s absence
DeccanChronicle.com
November 11, 2013
New Delhi: India may end up ceding space to countries like China in the island nation with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh not attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Sri Lanka.
Earlier this year, Sri Lanka had felt let down by India after it voted in favour of a US-sponsored resolution censuring its neighbour at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva for its human rights record.
The Sri Lankan government had been hoping that the Indian PM would not embarrass it by skipping the summit, to which it is attaching great prestige. However, the pressure on the government both from within and outside have ensured the PM’s boycott of the summit.
However Indian geopolitical interests in Lanka are far greater by virtue of it being a next-door neighbour.
Apart from Tamil parties like the DMK and AIADMK campaigning against the PM’s participation, Central ministers, largely from Tamil Nadu — P. Chidambaram, Jayanthi Natarajan and G.K. Vasan — too had been urging the PM not to go to Sri Lanka.
Defence minister A.K. Antony was also against the PM attending the summit. While the argument in favour of the PM’s boycott cited Sri Lanka’s human rights record during its years of civil strife, New Delhi believes that Colombo has been delivering on some fronts.
For instance, apart from holding elections in September to the northern province, Colombo has also been going slow on the dilution of the 13th Amendment, which devolves powers to Tamil-dominated districts.
Further, New Delhi fears that even the leverage it has in getting TN fishermen who are nabbed by the Lankan Navy for crossing the international maritime boundary line released may decrease if bilateral ties become prickly.
November 10th, 2013 at 1:02 pm
GREAT! Get the Indian Oil Company out of Sri Lanka completely! Take back the Oil Tank Farm NOW!
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Sri Lanka refuses to sign oil tank farm deal with Indian Oil Company
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Nov 10, Colombo: Sri Lanka has hardened its stance and refused to sign an agreement to lease the Trincomalee strategic oil storages to a unit of Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and is blocking the Indian firm’s plans to set up a bitumen plant in the country, an Indian media report said.
The Sri Lankan government has decided to take over the petroleum storage tank complex in Eastern Sri Lanka that was given to an Indian oil company on a long lease, sources at the Ministry of Petroleum Industry said.
The China Bay petroleum storage tank complex was handed over to India’s state-run Indian Oil Corporation in 2002 by the United National Party (UNP) government which was in power between 2002 and 2004.
In 2003, Lanka IOC – a subsidiary of state-owned IOC – bought one-third share in Ceylon Petroleum Storage Terminals Ltd which operates the China Bay tank farm. Ceylon Petroleum Corp (CPC) and Colombo entered into a MoU with Lanka IOC to grant a long-term lease to the Indian firm for operating the 99 storage tanks at Trincomalee for 35 years for an annual fee of $100,000.
The government says that the hand over was not in line with the government standards.
Since commencing operations, Lanka IOC has invested close to US$15 million at regular intervals to add more facilities like additional storage tanks, lube blending facilities and refurbishing of jetty, India’s PTI reported.
Lanka IOC wants to invest another US$17 million to establish bitumen handling facilities at the tank farm and had applied to the Board of Investment (BOI) of Sri Lanka. The BOI has said that approval can be given only after settlement of the lease issue with the Petroleum authority.
However, sources say the Sri Lankan government now expects to convert the petroleum storage tanks to a profitable venture with foreign investment.
Lanka IOC officials have expressed concern that Sri Lanka might take a tough stance on the lease agreement especially now, after India downgraded its level of participation at the Commonwealth meeting in Colombo.
The tank farm in 850 acres of land has 99 tanks each with the capacity to hold 12,100 metric tons of oil.
Under privatization, the government gave Lanka IOC 99 storage tanks, of which 15 are being used and two more are being refurbished at a cost of US$17 million.
The China Bay tank farm that connects to the Trincomalee harbor is of historic and strategic significance and it is the largest tank farm located between the Middle East and Singapore. It was built by the British in 1930s to supply fuel to Royal Navy ships.
November 10th, 2013 at 1:16 pm
Should Sri Lanka WITHDRAW its support for India for a PERMANENT position on the UN Security Council?
India is REPEATEDLY DEMONSTRATING that it is NO FRIEND of Sri Lanka’s National Interests.
It is NOT IN Sri Lanka’s National Interest to help ELEVATE an NON-FRIENDLY country, under Tamil Nadu CONTROL, to such a powerful position.
November 10th, 2013 at 1:16 pm
KICK IOC out of SL. Get down China Petroleum to do those work.
41 CEOs of BEST SL companies are Endian parasites!! A disgrace. White vans should SKIM them and their finances.
Maha Ranee should be sent menstruation pads. At least for that period his genitals will be safe from Man Moron.
Yes Ananda, CHOGM is about HEADS OF STATE not every man’s dog and cow.
November 10th, 2013 at 2:12 pm
Ananda,
Absolutely !
Our politicians should be hanged if they support our Enemy again calling “out traditional friend”.
No excuse this time.
If it a secret vote ( I don’t think so) may we should say we support and vote against the Hypocrites.
November 12th, 2013 at 12:06 pm
DOING UNTO as DONE UNTO … A RARE Instance of a Proactive Response from non-Govt Sri Lankans!
Jayawewa!
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Sri Lankan newspaper editors warn British press regulation plans undermine freedom
TheDrum.com
November 12, 2013
A delegation of Sri Lankan newspaper editors have travelled to London to warn David Cameron that the governments ‘draconian’ press regulation plans risk providing a ready-made excuse to authoritarian regimes seeking to exert their own control of local media.
The Editors Guild of Sri Lanka warned Britain was in danger of losing its reputation as a ‘beacon of freedom’ in the world as a result of its approval of a royal charter to oversee press self-regulation.
Britain’s newspaper industry has already heavily criticised the plan, warning that it risks handing control of the press to politicians for the first time in 300 years.
In an open letter the group said: “When looking into the eyes of those your government believe have veered from the path of democracy, British prime ministers and foreign secretaries alike will need to be able to speak with conviction and surety.
It continued “(the) fundamental bedrock of any democracy must be a free and independent press totally out of the reach of the politicians and apparatus of the state that it reports on. Democracy across the world shudders at what is happening in the United Kingdom, and Britain unfortunately stands smaller in the world as a result of your government’s actions.”
The intervention comes ahead of a visit by Cameron to Sri Lanka on Friday to attend a Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting – an occasion at which he is expected to raise concerns over the alleged intimidation of journalists in the south east Asian state.
November 12th, 2013 at 1:17 pm
GOSL should INCREASE the presence of the military in the Northern Province and PERMANENTLY SETTLE them and their families there!
These “Protests” UNDERSCORE the THREAT faced by Sri Lanka from Unrepentant Separatists. All of this is Orchestrated now by the TNA and its goons to influence the International Media covering the CHOGM.
But, that is NOT ALL; these agitations will CONTINUE TO GROW to get the armed forces out of the North so they can recreate LTTE’s Eelam fiefdom without detection or prevention.
The SOLUTION is to CONFRONT the problem HEAD-ON, just as the GOSL confronted the LTTE militancy HEAD-ON in Eelam War IV and eliminated the terrorist violence, and execute an Ethnic Integration Policy by SETTLING Sinhalese in the North & East until the demographiccs of the North & East approaches the average for the Nation as a Whole. This will DESTROY the VERY BASIS of the Eelamist Demands …. the Local Majority of the Eelamist Tamils.
DO IT FAST, DO IT NOW!
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Sri Lanka Tamils protest land grab ahead of Commonwealth meet
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Nov 12 (AFP) Colombo- Ethnic Tamils staged a rare protest in northern Sri Lanka on Tuesday against the military’s refusal to hand back land after the war, as Colombo prepared to host this week’s Commonwealth summit.
Several hundred Tamils demonstrated in the former northern war zone of Jaffna, 400 kilometres north of Colombo, even though organisers received telephone death threats beforehand against the move, a local Tamil politician said.
Sugirthan Somasundaram said the heads of two slaughtered cows were also thrown into his home and that of another organiser on Sunday, along with a written warning not to go ahead with the protest.
The Tamils are demanding the military dismantle its “high security zone” in Jaffna which would allow them to return to their homes inside the specially designated area.
The Tamils held a peaceful protest on the edge of the zone, which they said had become unnecessary since the end of the conflict four years ago with the defeat of Tamil separatist rebels.
“We still have 30,000 people who are not in their original homes because the military is occupying their lands,” Somasundaram said. “We want our land back.”
Protests, especially by minority Tamils, are rare in Sri Lanka under President Mahinda Rajapakse’s government.
Somasundaram said the Tamils would continue the protest throughout the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) starting on Friday. The leaders of Canada and India have boycotted the summit over Colombo’s human rights record.
British Prime Minister David Cameron has said he will attend CHOGM but pledged to push for an international investigation into allegations of war crimes by troops against civilians during the war that ended in 2009.
Cameron is due to tour the Jaffna peninsula during CHOGM, which would make him the first foreign head of state to visit the capital of the war-battered north since Sri Lanka was granted independence from Britain in 1948.
Suresh Premachandran, a Tamil lawmaker from Jaffna, said Cameron’s scheduled visit could send a strong message to the government to end alleged rights abuses against Tamils, who are a minority in the Sinhalese-majority island.
The international community including neighbouring India has pressed Sri Lankan authorities to demilitarise the Jaffna peninsula, but Colombo has refused to pull out troops.
Security forces have maintained they need to secure strategic bases in the area and say they are occupying the minimum amount of land needed to maintain security.