Friday, 24 June 2006
http://www.spur.asn.au/SPUR_20060624_Demonstration_in_Canberra.htm
Citizens
Initiative Against Tamil Tiger Terrorism
Rally
held in front of the Australian Federal Parliament
19
June 2006 from 10.00am to 2.00pm
A
number of community organisations in Victoria, NSW, Wollongong and Canberra
were joined by hundreds of Sri Lankan Australians to rally in front of the
Australian Federal Parliament on 19 June 2006 to protest against Tamil Tiger
Terrorism and to seek a ban of the LTTE under Australia’s Criminal Code Act
1995.
The
key objectives of the rally held in front of the Australian Federal Parliament
in Canberra were to:
(1)
Urge the Australian
Government to ban the Tamil Tiger Terrorists in Sri Lanka under the Criminal
Code Act 1995 to make it a criminal offence to have contact or promote LTTE
objectives in Australia
(2)
Condemn the LTTE’s barbaric
killing of civilians as evidenced by last Thursday’s bombing of a civilian
bus killing 64 including 15 children and pregnant mothers
(3)
Urge the International
Criminal Court in the Hague to prosecute the LTTE hierarchy including
Prabakaran, Balasingham, his wife Adele and Thamil Chelvam for crimes against
humanity and genocide
(4)
Prosecute the LTTE hierarchy
for using children as soldiers and sex slaves
The co-convenors of the rally participants from Melbourne and the spokes persons for the Melbourne based Australian Coalition for Protecting Democracy in Sri Lanka (ACPDS), Kamal Rupasinha and Francis Kulukulasuriya, speaking to the media further pointed out the following:
(1) The LTTE is already banned as an international terrorist group in many countries including the US, UK, Canada, India, Malaysia and all the countries of the EU.
(2) The so-called
peace facilitators, Norway had been lobbying the EU not to ban the LTTE,
arguing that such a ban would pull the Tamil Tigers away from the “Peace
Process” and the “ceasefire”. However in light of over 3,000
predetermined violations of the “ 2002 ceasefire” by the LTTE including
the assassination of Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister, deliberate massacres of
civilians and the suicide bombing of the island’s army headquarters, the EU
decided to ignore the Norwegian’s biased advise and ban the Tamil Tiger
Terrorists on 29 May 2006.
However, in Australia, the Tamil Tigers are gazetted as a terrorist
organization only under Australia’s obligations under the UN Rsolution.
These brutal terrorists have still not been included in the list of terrorist
organizations banned under the Australia’s Criminal Code Act 1995. This has
allowed the LTTE to continue their operations such as fund raising through
their fronts, which pose as charities, and through extortions unleashed on the
hapless Tamil expatriates living in Australia unabated. Terrorism experts have
pointed out that the LTTE is suspected of siphoning millions of dollars every
year from Australia.
(3) There are 19 groups listed as terrorist organizations by Australia under
the Criminal Code Act, 1995. All of these are either Islamic or have a Middle
Eastern background, giving rise to accusations that Australia’s war on
terrorism is limited only to Islamic groups. This has the potential to
seriously damage Australia’s relationship with the Islamic world, as Muslims
will continue to question why the LTTE is omitted from the list when they have
committed crimes against humanity far worse than those in the banned list such
as the Kurdistan People’s Party.
They
went on to say
that the actions of the LTTE and its sympathizers in Australia are risking the
lives of many Tamil Diaspora who do not want to be associated with the LTTE
and summarized the benefits of banning the LTTE under the Criminal Code Act
1995 as:
(a)
Reducing LTTE related fund raising activities in
Australia
(b)
Providing relief to the Tamil Diaspora and religious
institutions like Kovils from LTTE extortionists
(c)
Reducing the threat to Tamil and Sinhalese
Australians lives when visiting Sri Lanka
(d)
Strengthening the hand of the law enforcement
agencies when monitoring LTTE activities in Australia
(e)
Discouraging Australian Tamils from promoting the
vile deeds of the LTTE carried out in the guise of liberation
The
protesters appreciated the presence of Senator Bob Brown, the Leader of the
Australian Greens Party, Labour Party members Hon Alan Griffin (Member for
Bruce) and Hon Anna Burke (Member for Chisholm). The crowd cheered wildly when
Hon Alan Griffin condemned the ongoing use of child soldiers by the LTTE and
the need to put an immediate stop to it. He went on to say that what Sri Lanka
needed was peace and an immediate stop to the killings, to set an environment
conducive for dialogue between the Government and the LTTE. Some of the
organisers had the opportunity to brief Hon Malcolm Turnbull MP (member for
Wentworth and the Parliamentary Secretary advising the Prime Minister on
Water) of the LTTE killings and the situation currently prevailing in Sri
Lanka when they met him on the foyer of the Parliament.
Protestors
also met with Ms Gemma Hann, the Senior Advisor to the Attorney General and
handed over the petition with more than 2300 signatures seeking the banning of
the LTTE under the Criminal Code Act 1995. They also met and thanked Hon Don
Randall MP, Member for Canning on behalf of the protesters and the Sri Lankan
community in general for hard hitting anti LTTE – pro democracy speeches
given in the parliament over the last month. Hon Randall, the Chairman of the
Australia-Sri Lanka Parliamentary Friendship Group had sought to educate the
members in the Australian Parliament about the murderous conduct of the LTTE
informing the Parliament of the dangers emanating from the LTTE to the
Australian community at large and why he sought its ban under the Criminal
Code Act 1995 is essential. The crowd gave three cheers to Hon Don Randall for
adopting an uncompromising stance against the LTTE.
The
organising committee also held a mini demonstration consisting of 100 people
in front of the Japanese and the Norwegian embassies. The protesters also
handed over a letter to the Japanese Embassy condemning the LTTE friendly
stance recently taken by Yashushi Akashi explaining that he brings nothing but
shame to the Japanese Government and its people.
Thanking
you,
Yours
sincerely,
Society for Peace, Unity and Human Rights in Sri Lanka (SPUR)
Reg No. A 003 07777 M
PO Box 4066
Mulgrave VIC 3170
Australia
The URL of this Media Release is http://www.spur.asn.au/SPUR_20060624_Demonstration_in_Canberra.htm