A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Monday, July 17, 2017
Murder of unarmed man confirms Sri Lanka still not safe for Tamils
Key eyewitness, lawyer threatened with death
Unarmed Tamil man shot dead by Sri Lankan police in Vadamaradchi(Yogarasa Thines)
Key eyewitness, lawyer threatened with death
16 JULY 2017
The
murder of Yogarasa Thines at the hands of Sri Lankan police on 9 July
shows that Tamils are still not safe in their country, says the Tamil
Refugee Council.
Thines, aged in his 20s, was shot several times by officers in
Vadamaradchi East, in the Jaffna district of the country’s Northern
Province, which is majority Tamil. He reportedly had been hitchhiking
home from a Hindu temple.
Sri Lankan prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who visited Australia in
February, has urged Tamils seeking asylum here to return. “All is
forgiven,” he said. “They are welcome to return to Sri Lanka and we
won't prosecute them.”
But this latest act of violence against an unarmed Tamil is more confirmation that the Sri Lankan regime cannot be trusted.
Thines’ death follows the gunning down by police of two Jaffna
University students in October. In December, the UN Special Rapporteur
on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
noted the lack of even “minimal guarantees of protection against the
power of the State, in particular its security forces”.
“Torture and ill-treatment, including of a sexual nature, still occur,
in particular in the early stages of arrest and interrogation, often for
the purpose of eliciting confessions”, he wrote.
Despite the well-documented dangers facing Tamils in Sri Lanka, many
Tamil asylum seekers continue to languish in Australian detention
centres and are threatened with deportation.
The Tamil Refugee Council is calling on the Australian government to
release all Tamil asylum seekers currently held in Australian detention
centres, grant permanent protection visas to all Tamil asylum seekers
and end collaboration with the Sri Lankan regime.