OPINION BY TREVOR GRANT It appears there’s no stopping the vigorous promotion of new president Maithripala Sirisena as a man of peace and goodwill who will bring justice and harmony to all Sri Lanka, including the Tamil homelands. The local and international media cannot get enough of this story of wondrous overnight change; of acknowledgment of past sins; of the […]

Australians in Glen Waverley and Sunshine will be walking in force to the State Library of Victoria on Sunday 15th March to alert Australians to war crimes and genocide in Sri Lanka. Campaign for Tamil Justice Spokesperson, said a large group of people will conduct a peaceful walk this Sunday, while the United Nations Human Rights Council discusses human rights […]

: From the Tamil Refugee Council Press Office, March 5, 2015. Melbourne, Thursday – The Tamil Refugee Council urges the Abbott government to back up its words in parliament and release, and rehabilitate, all children, including four-year-old Febrina, who are being seriously damaged by incarceration on Nauru. Febrina was one of 157 Tamils, including 37 children, apprehended at sea last July […]

OPINION: BY TREVOR GRANT Australia’s tangled web of collusion with the brutal Rajapaksa regime in Sri Lanka continues to enmesh the Abbott government as more evidence exposes its stunning disregard for transparent, principled foreign policy. Last week we learned that Australia had agreed to stay silent on Sri Lankan government human rights’ abuses in order to get  the-then president Mahinda […]

FEATURE: BY TREVOR GRANT When I look into those gorgeous sparkling eyes of three-year-old Febrina in the photograph below, which was taken just over a year ago, I see two things. Apart from the obvious joy of a little girl celebrating a birthday, I see a child’s implicit trust in the adult world around her. She’s telling us she feels […]

OPINION BY TREVOR GRANT. For some time now, the world has been watching Australia drift away from its much-vaunted democratic foundations towards a menacing authoritarianism, where a government routinely treats the rule of law and the right to natural justice as inconvenient obstacles to be cast aside at any given time. This week we have seen this dark, disturbing trend […]

From the Tamil Refugee Council Press Office. February 20, 2015. Melbourne, Friday – Four asylum-seekers immediately returned to Sri Lanka after being intercepted on a boat at sea by Australian authorities near the Cocos Islands earlier this month face jail and torture, the Tamil Refugee Council said today. “This is another shameful act by a callous Australian government,” said Tamil […]

OPINION BY TREVOR GRANT. Betrayal is the noun most commonly used by Tamils to describe the actions of successive Sinhalese governments, and the international community, since Britain handed Sri Lanka its independence in 1948. It’s also the most appropriate word, given the history of deception and hood-winking that goes back almost a century. In 1920 Sinhalese chauvinists reneged on an […]

OPINION BY TREVOR GRANT: It was as predictable as rain in the monsoon season. The new Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena this week issued a proclamation that the military would be granted civil police powers for “the maintenance of public order”. These, of course, are the same authoritarian powers that existed under his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa and were condemned by […]

Melbourne, Monday – A 25-year-old Tamil man facing deportation to Sri Lanka has thanked Melbourne protesters who were today able to prevent him from being flown to Darwin from Melbourne airport today. Puvaneethan, who fears he will be tortured if returned to Sri Lanka, returned to the Melbourne Immigration Detention Centre this afternoon after an aborted attempt by Immigration officials […]