Humanitarian Issues During the War in Sri Lanka-Speech by Don Randall MP made in the Austrlian Parliament on 28/2/2011 on Sri Lanka.
Posted on March 4th, 2011
SPEECH
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Date Monday, 28 February 2011
Source House Page137
Proof Yes
Questioner
Responder
Randall, Don, MP Question No.Mr RANDALL(Canning) (12.02 pm)ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬‚
In Sri Lanka, my best friend is a Tamil gentleman. Not every Tamil is a LTTE sympathiser and not every Tamil is a supporter of a free state, as the member opposite pointed out. I will expand on that. The largest population of Tamils anywhere Sri Lanka is in Colombo. This demonstrates that there is free movement for the Tamil population throughout Sri Lanka. The LTTE has been proscribed in many parts of the world and was re-proscribed in the European Union just recently. This is an outlawed group. People come to see me and say, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”Are you concerned about this and that?ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ I say, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”I am very concerned about the human rights and the issues with people in Sri Lanka, but if you are a supporter of the LTTE please do not try to raise that issue with me, because I think that when you come to Australia youƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ve got to leave that behind. You come to Australia for a better life for you and your family, and we donƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t want any ethnic wars in Australia or continued hostilities. People from the BalkansƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬‚the Serbs, the Croatians, et ceteraƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬‚come to Australia and, yes, there are passionate issues. But you move on and start a new life, and please donƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t have your children that you bring to Australia or that are born in Australia continue these hostilities from now to eternity. We are one of the most successful migration destinations in the world.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢
The Sri Lankan Civil War finished in May 2009, when finally the remnants of the LTTE were cornered in the jungle and Prabhakaran and his remaining lieutenants were killed. Once that happened, something like 280,000 innocent civilians, who had been held captive largely because they were in the area under LTTE control, were liberated. Many of them were taken to camps. I sat in parliament here and listened to a number of speakers from the Tamil organisations who described these camps as concentration camps. That is in dispute; the fact is that most of these peopleƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬‚some 263,000 of those 280,000 peopleƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬‚have now been returned to their home areas.
One of the reasons that some have not done so is that much of their land is still heavily mined. With the help of international groups, including some from Australia, they are gradually clearing the mines from the fields and the villages in those areas. When I went to Sri Lanka sometime ago, we went to the elephant orphanage, where there was an elephant which had had its leg blown off because it had trod on one of the mines. So the place is infested with mines still.
There is an argument that persecution has been a push factor for migration to Australia. An article in the Canadian newspaper the showing they will face persecution in their home country.
The Australian ambassador to Sri Lanka, Kathy Klugman, congratulated the Sri Lankan navy for its success in stopping any further departures. But they continue to monitor this, because the latest successful apprehension was as recently as 19 February this yearƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬‚the odd boat is still trying to leave. It is interesting that an article from Monday, 28 February 2011 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 138 CHAMBER the of those who came to this country, once they got their protection visaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬‚surprise, surprise!ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬‚returned Sri Lanka within 12 months. That says to me that there is quite an issue here. I have a letter sent to the Department of Foreign Affairs on 2 February this year. In it are the names of Mr Libasudeen Ibralebbe, who was after a renewal visa, Mrs Sivaanujah Sivaharan, who wanted a new passport, and Mrs Rageswary Somasundaram, who wanteda renewal of her passport. The letter also says, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”These people, who have received protection visas, want to return to Sri Lanka.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ So much for their fleeing from persecution in fear for their lives!
This is where we have a problem in this country: we have to be very careful because there is evidence of people being arrested for trying to collect money here on behalf of the LTTE diaspora. Even though they have been defeated on their own shores, they continue offshore with this program of an independent homeland. Australia must not be allowed to support it. This is also happening in Canada and Europe. There was a request that the contents of the letter that I have here be made available to the foreign minister, the Hon. Kevin Rudd, and to the immigration minister, Chris Bowen. I hope it has been made available, because at the next estimates there will certainly be questions about their response to these people who claimed protection visas and who then, quite clearly within 12 months of receiving a protection visa, sought to renew their Sri Lankan passports to go home.
That says to me that there could be a bit of a rort going on here. Putting it again into context, the member opposite said that we need the UN involved. The UN is involved. Professor GL Peris has been at the United Nations over the last few weeks, seeking meetings with Ban Ki Moon on this issue. He has been explaining the governmentƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s involvement in seeking the truth on this matter. In fact, in May 2010 the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission was established in Sri Lanka, and it has already had over 200 sittings. If Desmond Tutu is asking for this to happenƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬‚and it is no different from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission held in South Africa after the apartheid regimeƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬‚all I can say to him is that he is correct: this should happen and it is happening. But we cannot in some patronising way say, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”Well, youƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢d better send in the UN to take over the monitoring.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ That would be like us agreeing to the UN to come here to monitor our issues with Aboriginals following international criticism. If Mr Tutu is so passionate about that, why isnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t he insisting that Mr Mugabe in Zimbabwe has the same treatment? Do not go for the easy targets. This is a democratically elected country. They had a recent election where Mr Rajapaksa was re-elected. I had some issues, like the member for Werriwa, with the fact that General Fonseka ended up on a sticky wicket after the elections.
But a bad democracy is better than any other choice. It is about time that we moved on. Australia is a great friend of Sri Lanka, and we want to see Sri Lanka re-establish itself in the world from a human rights and also an economic point of view because they have the opportunity to do so.
I seek leave to table my documents.
Leave granted.
March 6th, 2011 at 6:06 am
Don Randall’s speech is creditable and unbiased for a change but a couple of points need clarity.
“The Sri Lankan Civil War finished in May 2009,”
Civil war is when two factions of one nation are at war but in the case of SL, it is a section of the non indigenous Tamil minority who were conducting land robbing and genocide of the innocent indigenous Hela/Sinhela nation of people and attempting to convert the Island Country into a second Tamil Nadu (Tamil country). Hence, it is not civil war but an undercover invasion.
“That would be like us agreeing to the UN to come here to monitor our issues with Aboriginals following international criticism.”
The reference to Aboriginal people of Australia is equating SL-Tamils with the indigenous Aboriginal people can give the wrong message. It is classifying the SL-Tamils like the indigenous Aboriginal people of Australia, where Aboriginal people can claim and demand that Australia is their Aboriginal homeland while the Tamil homeland is the self-evident fact of Tamil Nadu (Tami country).
March 6th, 2011 at 7:17 am
I cannot help feeling that, in respect of the two points he has raised, Anura Senviratna is missing the essence of what Don Randall was saying.
1. The conflict in SL has often been referred to abroad as a ‘civil war’. That is inconsequential and we ought not to get too technical about it.
2. There is no equating the Aboriginal people of Australia with the SL Tamils implied in what DR said. What he said was “That would be like us agreeing to the UN to come here to monitor our issues with Aboriginals following international criticism.” His point was that UN intervention was unwarranted simply on the basis of international criticism.
SL should be appreciative of DR’s speech in the Australian Federal Parliament where most MPs are uninformed or at best ill informed about the real position in SL.
March 7th, 2011 at 3:22 am
As mentioned by Mr Randall, LTTE Tamils have met him many times to give their version of events in SriLanka. Mr Randall being the deputy chair of the SriLankan friendship group, obviously was much more knowlegeble about the SriLankan situation and also being a man of high integrity, the Tamil spin doctors who met him had failed to mislead him. Just imagine how difficult it must be for the rest of the MPs in the Australian Parliament to know the truth wihen these spin doctors keep meeting them and bombarding them with false propoganda and presenting re-cycled material like in the case of number of civilians killed during the last week of the war, which number keeps multiplying as time goes on.
We must thank Mr Randall for trying to educate the other MPs and for giving an impartial account of the SriLankan situation.