Hindraf slams Putrajaya for colluding with war criminal

By deporting three Tamils who were granted refugees status by the UN, Malaysia has violated international human rights laws.

Athi Shankar

 | May 28, 2014

 | May 28, 2014

GEORGE TOWN: Hindraf accused the federal government of colluding with Sri Lanka president Mahinda Rajapaksa when it classified three detained refugees as Tamil Tigers and forcibly deported them to Colombo.

Hindraf national chairman P Waythamoorthy said the Putrajaya administration should have known that the Colombo regime was prone to branding its Tamil citizens as terrorists.

He said that the jury was still out on Sri Lanka for carrying out genocide, war crimes and ethnic cleansing on its Tamil population.

He pointed out that Mahinda Rajapaksa had been lambasted worldwide as a mass murderer and a war criminal.

“Malaysia should not have submitted to Colombo’s propaganda that portrays Tamils as terrorists.

“Mahinda Rajapaksa’s military regime had committed crimes against humanity, such as genocide and rape.

“By deporting the trio, who were granted refugees status by the UN, Putrajaya has colluded with a mass murderer,” said Waythamoorthy.

Police detained the three men, all ethnic Tamils, on May 15 and held them for two weeks for offences under the immigration law.

However, on May 25, IGP Khalid Abu Bakar said the three were “terrorists” and were returned to Sri Lanka that night without any evidence being presented to substantiate the terrorism allegations.

“Who is the IGP to classify them as terrorists or Tamil Tigers? Were they proven terrorists under the international law? Or did the UN, which gave them refugee status, say so?

“Would Putrajaya or the IGP had done the same thing to Muslim refugees?” asked Waythamoorthy.

He criticised the administration, notably Khalid, for acting as investigator, judge and executioner without giving the Sri Lankan refugees an opportunity to defend themselves.

He said the government should have instead handed them over to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Office in Kuala Lumpur.

He said the federal government had committed serious human rights violations by denying the refugees the right to seek remedy under international law or being cleared by UN.

Malaysia is not a signatory to the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, or commonly known as Refugees Convention.

It requires nations to respect the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits them from sending anyone back to a country where their life or freedom would be threatened.

“Malaysian government should have handed them to the UN Refugees Agency office in Kuala Lumpur,” said Waythamoorthy.