Tamil Tigers
Australia’s anti-terror laws, ten years old this year, were spawned out of a political atmosphere that was emotionally charged after the horror of 9/11. The consequence of this has been to criminalise thought and speech.
It has been to ensure that guilt by association becomes a useful tool for security agencies and police forces. Politicians and police force chiefs, desperately wanting to sound tough on terror, use any arrests made under these laws to make exaggerated claims about the circumstances of the arrests and to undermine the presumption of innocence.
The laws’ existence is justified even today on the grounds that a terrorist threat casts a pall over Australia and therefore we need to use the criminal process to trample on ancient rights.
(Greg Barns features in the documentary, The Trial, broadcast tonight at 9.30pm on SBS ONE.)
Continue reading "Heavy-handed lawmakers are the real agents of terror" »
It’s Tuesday at The Punch
Today in 2009 the Liberation Tamil Tigers (LTTE) were defeated by the Sri Lankan government after 26 years of civil war.
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A dose of Reality says:
Unfeeling for history?????? And a fact is a fact regardless of your idea of selective sentimentality. (“I should justify a man killing my children because someone else killed his”). I know nothing of this “balance of terror” (but am repulsed by the concept) and fail to see your inclusion of… Read more »
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A Dose of Reality says:
And Australians are mainly in Sydney - does that mean it’s alright for Indonesia to occupy Queensland? Ask any geneticist - the Palestinian is an Arabised Canaanite. The Canaanites are the “original” occupants of the “levant’, they pre-date the old kingdoms of Israel and Judea considerably. In essence, this is… Read more »
For an oppressed group, the opportunity to obtain the attention of the international community lasts for a very short time. So it has proved for the Tamil community of Sri Lanka.
Indeed, the threats and oppression in Sri Lanka extend to anyone who might dare to criticise the government.
In mid May, as the Tamil Tiger (“the LTTE”) resistance came to an end and government forces shelled areas full of civilians, the world was outraged and demanded that the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa seek conciliation with the Tamil community of the South Asian island nation.
Continue reading "Just a reminder: Sri Lanka is still there" »
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Sujeevan says:
The problem for SL is that Tamil people & their organisations never speak out negatively about the LTTE, only the SL Govt. According to us Tamils it is only the SL Govt. that has hurt us when, in fact, the LTTE have done much damage to us as well, killing… Read more »
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Jay says:
Thanks for keeping the plight of the tamil people on the radar. It is people like you that see the issue for what it really is. If only more people like you existed in the world. Read more »
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