Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for moving this motion. Any motion on Sri Lanka and the conflict there—in fact, any speech on that particular issue—is difficult, particularly for those of us who have both Tamil and Sinhalese communities in our electorates and hear the many strong views on the role that Australia should have in its relationship with the Sri Lankan government. For some, nothing less than the calling for an independent Tamil Eelam with the Tamil Tigers as the government is enough. For others, on the other side, any association with a Tamil community organisation, even attending a concert by Tamil musicians, as I did in my first year, gives rise to accusations of giving sustenance to terrorists. The arguments are strident and sometimes vicious.

Even in Australia there are well-run campaigns by both sides. But I do not rise tonight to speak for the people who run the campaigns or to support either of those positions or to assign blame, though many would like me to; I want to speak for the many people in my community who have lost family members in the conflict, some from government soldiers, others, both Tamil and Sinhalese Australians, who have lost loved ones to the Tigers themselves. I speak for the people who have an overwhelming wish for peace and dignity in their homeland—people with a sense of desperation and some disbelief that Sri Lanka will finally get the peace right for all of its people after so many years of war.

I have known my Tamil community for many years and have watched their hope turned to despair as the peace process crumbled, to shock as the tsunami decimated the already war-ravaged areas in the north-east and to grief as the death toll rose as the final battles were fought. I have seen their fear for the many trapped in a war zone and for those displaced, and, finally, the questioning of what the future holds for the Sri Lankan Tamils in the north and east.

Sri Lanka has been wracked by a violent conflict for most of the past 25 years, suffering 150,000 deaths. Fighting intensified in mid-January this year. Estimates of the number of civilian deaths vary significantly, but the UN estimated that some 7,000 civilians, including at least 1,000 children, had died by early May and that over 300,000 people had been displaced.

Rebuilding Sri Lanka will require trust. If truth is a casualty of war, so too is trust, but rebuilding Sri Lanka will require extraordinary levels of trust and good faith from all sides. It is almost impossible for me to imagine the level of effort that will be required to ensure that the green shoots of healing that will appear survive in such a desolate landscape. Rebuilding is a massive task. Regrettably, the Sri Lankan government’s decision to exclude journalists and aid agencies from the conflict zone and the camps leaves a lot of room for speculation on what has happened and what will happen now. Speculation is well and truly rife—some plausible, some ridiculous, but all showing levels of fear and insecurity about the future of Sri Lanka.

Australia has consistently stated that the protection of civilians should be the absolute priority. Sri Lanka faces a humanitarian crisis of massive proportions, and we remain deeply concerned about the safety and welfare of at least 300,000 displaced persons. I welcome the Sri Lankan government’s commitment to resettle over 80 per cent of civilians from IDP camps by the end of 2009. In particular, the Australian government has called upon the Sri Lankan government to ensure that internally displaced people’s camps are administered in line with international standards and to ensure that international observers, particularly the International Committee of the Red Cross, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and United Nations Children’s Fund personnel have ready access to the IDP camps. Recent reports have suggested that such access has become restricted, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs has reiterated that full and unimpeded humanitarian access to civilians is essential so that these trusted international organisations can work with the Sri Lankan government to ensure civilians receive the assistance they need. Finally, can I endorse the sentiments of the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that ‘the task now facing the people of Sri Lanka is immense and requires all hands’? Can I urge the Sri Lankan government to make every effort to enter into negotiations immediately with the Tamil community to build a viable community for all Sri Lankans?

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