300,000 reasons

The war in Sri Lanka may be over but another crisis is looming. PREETI KANNAN asks Australians of all nationalities to throw their weight behind a very legitimate cause

Human rights activists in Australia are urging fellow Australians to take a stand against the humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka, following the end of the 25-yearold civil war in May this year. Activists are pressing for the release of the hundreds of thousands of Tamils interred in refugee camps in Sri Lanka and have launched a campaign to raise awareness on the humanitarian crisis in the island nation. They are hoping to garner more support from Australians, including Indians, for the awareness campaign.

Brami Jegan, Convenor of the Sri Lanka Human Rights Project in the University of Sydney, welcomed the role of India and the recent plea of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M Karunanidhi to accord permanent status to the 1.6 lakh Tamil refugees in India. She said, “We really value Tamil Nadu and India’s concern for fellow Tamils. Any issue in Sri Lanka is going to effect southern India and Tamil Nadu. India has been a home to a lot of them, who have built lives there.”

“Being our closest neighbour, they have witnessed the Tamil ethnic problem up-close and have embraced many Tamil refugees over the years,” she said, days before the release of a report on the conditions in refugee camps by an Indian delegation of ministers.

Jegan added that while India’s support has been crucial, it is time for the Sri Lankan government to start treating Tamils equally so they stop fleeing the country. “The Tamils belong in Sri Lanka. These people have their homes, their schools and their businesses there.

They were leading normal lives and there is no need for them to flee their own country. It is important for everyone to pressurise their own governments to ensure Sri Lanka treats Tamils with dignity. We require every Australian –Tamil, Indian or otherwise, to advocate this cause,” the human rights activist noted in the wake of the launch of a campaign entitled ‘300, 000 Reasons’ in Sydney by the Australian Tamil Congress (ATC) earlier this week.

It is an online petition aimed at raising awareness among Australians on the appalling conditions of 300, 000 Tamils – men, women and children, living in refugee conditions since the end of the war. The campaign follows a four-week stand-off between 78 Tamil asylum seekers and the Australian government, on board the Australian Customs Ship Oceanic Viking, and the death of the 12 asylum seekers in the Indian ocean after their boat capsized.

Sara Nathan, ATC spokesperson, hopes the campaign will shift the attention away from the hysteria and rhetoric of border protection in Australia and highlight the root cause of why asylum seekers are fleeing Sri Lanka in the first place.

“300,000 men, women and children were rounded up like livestock in the final weeks of the twenty-six year civil conflict and have been detained for almost eight months in camps which are shut off to NGOs, independent monitors and the international media. They are detained purely due to their ethnicity. Tamils have endured decades of ethnically motivated oppression at the hands of the Sinhalese dominated Government of Sri Lanka,” Nathan observed.

In addition to highlighting the conditions of Tamils, who lack adequate access to water, food, proper sanitation and healthcare in the camps, ‘300, 000 Reasons’ is calling on the Australian government to raise these humanitarian issues and allegations of human rights abuse at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting slated to take place from November 27 to 29 in Trinidad and Tobago.

“The Australian Government needs to play a compassionate leadership role in our region by helping to address the causes of why people are fleeing Sri Lanka and risking their lives in boats that are barely sea worthy to come to Australia. Sri Lanka needs assistance from the international community to help rebuild its democracy, social and physical infrastructure to deliver long term stability, justice and equality for all its citizens” she said.

Australians can go to www.300000.com.au and send an e-postcard message to the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd MP and their local Federal MP, while Facebook users can also sign up to the 300,000 Reasons Cause page. Postcards will be physically distributed via a number of networks in Australia for people to sign, stamp and send to the Prime Minister.

“It will only take 30 seconds to fill in your details but it could help free 300,000 people” Sara Nathan said.