SRI LANKA: Australia attacks human right abuses
Updated
Australia has accused the Sri Lankan Government of violating humanitarian law on a regular basis, pointing to daily abductions and extra-judicial killings. The direct criticism of the Sri Lanka Government came in a statement from Australia's Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer. It says both sides of the conflict - the Government and the rebel Tamil Tigers - were committing human rights abuses. The criticism is seen by some analysts as setting the stage for Australia to proscribe the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist organisation.
Presenter: Graeme Dobell
Speakers: The executive director of the Australian Council for International Development, Paul O'Callaghan
DOBELL: Alexander Downer has toughened Australia's public stance on the conduct of the Sri Lankan Government, saying all parties to the conflict - the Government and the Tamil Tigers - are violating international humanitarian law on a regular basis. The Foreign Minister says abductions and extra-judicial killings occur daily. He points to what he calls an environment of impunity surrounding human rights violations. His statement draws no distinction between the actions of the rebel Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan Government.
The criticisms were made in a statement announcing an extra five million dollars in aid to help 400-thousand people displaced by the conflict. About one million dollars of that aid will got to the International Committee of the Red Cross to protect civilians from human rights violations, to visit detainees and to act for families of missing persons. In the careful words of diplomacy, it is money to help the victims of a dirty war, being conducted by both sides.
The co-ordinating body for Australian non-government aid groups, the Australia Council for International Development says the statement shows a clearer understanding of the conflict in Sri Lanka. The executive director of the Council, Paul O'Callaghan:
O'CALLAGHAN: This is not a simple matter of one small terrorist group against a whole country. It's a fundamental conflict dividing a whole nation, it's involved 70-thousand deaths so far of innocent civilians, it has involved two main parties; one of them the current government, the other the Tamil Tiger group which control different parts of this country.
DOBELL: Does it raise questions over how the Australian government can actually deal with the Sri Lankan government? If Australia can denounce Sri Lanka for violating humanitarian law on a regular basis?
O'CALLAGHAN: Well I think it's significant that the Australian government, the minister today has indicated quite publicly the point that the Sri Lankan government has been directly involved in these abductions, extra judicial killings and the forced recruitment of innocent people. This is not new to any international observers of Sri Lanka, but it is really encouraging that the Australian government has publicly noticed this, and of course it's happening on the other side as well with the Tamil Tigers. It means I think that Australia can have more credibility internationally, especially in the efforts that are being made by a number of countries to help to bring these conflicting parties back to the table. As long as we only behaved as though the Sri Lankan government view was the purer truth and that the Sri Lankan government had not been involved in atrocities and abductions of youths and so on to make them, force them into becoming soldiers, then we can never have credibility.
DOABLE: The Australian Government's attack on the Sri Lankan Government may clear the way for Canberra to act against the other side, the Tamil Tigers. The Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, has advice from the security organisation, ASIO, on banning contact with the Tamil group, under Australian law. If nothing else, proscribing the Tamil Tigers would allow Canberra to argue that not all those on its terrorist list are Muslim extremists. But Paul O'Callaghan says proscribing the Tamil Tigers might mean Australian aid groups will pull out of Sri Lanka, for fear of breaching the law.
O'CALLAGHAN: If the Australian government proceeds now to formally prescribe or list the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist organisation this would effectively remove Australia from having the capacity in the next year or two from acting as a if you like a peacebroker, a regional party with very good credibility that could try to bring both parties back to the table. So we would strongly urge the government not to go down that path because it would inevitably be used as a propaganda tool by the Sri Lankan government.
