Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the motion. The long-running civil war in Sri Lanka, which has its roots in the colonial subjugation of that country by the British Empire, has been ongoing and has consumed the country for over 26 years. Estimates vary on the number of people killed during that war but the United Nations says that up to 100,000 people may have lost their lives. That is an incredible figure and represents only the worst end of the terrible misery and suffering that has been experienced by the people of this island nation.

While the Sri Lankan government declared an end to the civil war in May 2009 and the LTTE, or Tamil Tigers, acceded defeat, this conflict cannot be said to be over yet. In fact, it is a reasonable prediction that some form of conflict will continue until the legitimate aspirations of the Tamil people to self-determination are addressed in some form or another. Self-determination is an in alienable right recognised in the UN charter and elaborated in article 1 of both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). Article 1 states:

All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.

While we Greens support the work of the United Nations panel which, as this motion outlines, was established on 22 June 2010 by the United Nations Secretary-General, it is clear that there still needs to be an independent international investigation into the human rights abuses and war crimes, in particular in the final stages of the war. According to reports, the final months and years of this war were the most bloody and involved terrible human rights abuses. Such abuses must be properly investigated and a process towards justice must be achieved. The member for Werriwa in moving this motion made a very important point, and that is that independent observers, whether from the United Nations or elsewhere, must be granted full access to Sri Lanka to be able to investigate all alleged crimes and abuses fully.

According to Amnesty International’s most recent written statement to the 16th session of the UN Human Rights Council released just last week:

Impunity persists for past violations and abuses of international human rights and humanitarian law, and new and serious violations of human rights continue to be reported. In the two years since fighting ended in Sri Lanka evidence of serious violations and abuses by parties to the conflict has continued to mount, but the Sri Lankan Government has refused to acknowledge credible allegations of war crimes and other crimes under international law by its armed forces in the course of the conflict that ended in May 2009. It continues to subject people to enforced disappearances and torture and other ill-treatment. Thousands of people suspected of ties with the … (LTTE) remain in detention without charge.

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Some officials still claim publicly that there were no civilian casualties at all.

Australia must take some responsibility for this situation in Sri Lanka, one of our nearest neighbours, because we have failed to put any substantial pressure on Sri Lanka, either directly or in international forums. The Australian government’s failure so far to reject the former head of Sri Lanka’s navy, Thisara Samarasinghe, as a possible new ambassador to Australia is symptomatic of the weak way in which our country has historically responded to the Sri Lankan government’s violation of human rights. Thisara Samarasinghe was in charge of the Sri Lankan navy when their ships were reported to have shelled civilian areas. Surely this makes him unfit to be ambassador. Australia needs to do more to stand up to the Sri Lankan government and protect the human rights of all peoples living in Sri Lanka, including the Tamil people. There needs to be a real independent war crimes investigation with teeth and Australia needs to get behind it.

In conclusion, it has been my privilege to have dealt with people who identify as Tamils living in Australia, in Victoria, from a variety of political and other perspectives, including the Australian Tamil Congress. One thing that certainly does unite the approach they take now that they are living here in this country is their desire to see a peaceful Sri Lanka. Certainly the sense that I get is that they feel that for many years they have been seeking to draw attention, perhaps unsuccessfully, to what has been happening in their country. At the very least, we owe them now a full and independent investigation into the allegations. (Time expired)

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