I cried watching a video today. It was cry of a nine year old tamil girl from Srilanka who was one of the 260 people detained in mid sea by Indonesian Navy. These 260 people had escaped from Sri lanka in July and have travelled for 3 months in sea with the aim of reaching Australia but their bad luck got caught them again as they were detained in Indonesian waters....
Sri lanka recently completed successfully the war against LTTE (Liberation tigers of tamil eelam).Though the LTTE was crushed this year after their 25 years of parallel rule and administration ,the war and way it was fought brought attention on Srilankan govt.
http://www.amnesty.org/...
takes you to the amnesty link.You can see very disturbing reports of rape,illegal detention,starvation and death of tamils among the 400000 detained in the camps.
http://www.channel4.com/...
takes you to the channel 4 link which details alleged killings of Tamils by Sri lankan army.
http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/...
is a org., trying to get Tissanayagam a well known tamil journalist who was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for condemning the govt war methods. He was arrested on filmsy rather silly grounds that his magazine was funded by LTTE. Funded amount =50000 Srilankan rupees ( 500 dollars!!!! )
http://www.thestar.com/...
takes you to a very conservative estimate of 20000 civilian deaths (NOTE CIVILIAN NOT LTTE) in the last 3 months of war.
MEANWHILE:
US has indefinitely postponed its war crime report on sri lanka
http://www.dailymirror.lk/...
Sri lanka has chased out UN official Elder for talking about the condition of 400000 Internally displaced people
http://www.smh.com.au/...
US and European unions efforts to bring the Sri lankan war crime issue in UN was defeated by China,Pakistan,Cuba and India.
http://blog.unwatch.org/...
Sri lankan prime minister mocks at Hillary clinton for condemning rape being used as weapon of war in Sri lanka. Sri lankan primeminister wants Hillary to remember Monica-clinton issue WTF??
Sri lanka has detained 11000 tamils in seperate camps without any access to anyone from outside calling them suspected LTTEs
http://www.tamilnational.com/...
Sri lanka denied visa to swedish foreign minister,brushed aside the suggestions of Britain and french foreign minister.
http://www.eubusiness.com/...
Sri lanka calls BBC,CNN and all international TV, news agencies biased and is denying them permission to visit and talk to 40000 IDPS or the 1000000 other tamils in Jaffna and other north and eastern parts of Sri lanka
http://blog.amnestyusa.org/...
SRI LANKA TORTOURES,KILLS Tamils in the name of war and in the name of terrorism.While USA and European union tried their best to fight the issue in the begining they too withdrew themselves from the fight for justice unable to overcome China,India and muslim nation bloc in UN.
Tens of thousands of tamils have escaped from sri lanka and travelled in seas for months to reach India and Australia safely. 100 or even 1000s of them have died in the last one year unable to withstand the months of sea travel without food and water.
The cry of this nine year old girl will tell you the pain of tamils in sri lanka.....
Tamil asylum seeker stand-off drags on
Adam Gartrell
October 15, 2009 - 3:24PM
More than 250 Sri Lankan asylum seekers caught by Indonesian authorities en route to Australia have spent another day aboard their rickety cargo boat refusing to set foot on land.
The Indonesian navy apprehended the 253 Tamil asylum seekers, who were trying to reach Christmas Island, in the Sunda Strait on Sunday, after a tip-off from Australia.
The Sri Lankans' boat was towed to a port in Merak, in western Java, where it remains moored. The asylum seekers are refusing to disembark until they receive an offer of asylum from a Western country.
The Indonesian navy and immigration department is trying to coax the asylum seekers on to land without violence.
"There shall be no forcing, we are trying to be persuasive," said Harry Burwanto, head of the provincial immigration office.
But Burwanto admitted authorities were not sure what they would do with the asylum seekers once they stepped off the boat.
Many of Indonesia's detention centres were already full, he said.
"We will try to find another place," he said.
Burwanto said he could not say how long the standoff would drag on.
"Maybe one day, maybe two days, maybe three days, we don't know."
But the Sri Lankans say they will stay on the boat for months, if necessary.
"If you come see the situation in Sri Lanka, where most Tamils live ... you can see it's a lot worse than living on this ship," the group's spokesman, "Alex", said.
"So most of these people are used to a life like this.
"We're comfortable in a life like this.
"So I can guarantee you, we can go on months."
To return to Sri Lanka would mean certain death, Alex said.
To stay in Indonesia would mean years of limbo while they wait for a third country to accept them as refugees.
"We don't want to be stuck in a situation like that," he says.
"We are staying on this boat until the international community comes together and makes a decision on finding a way to get us out of this country."
The Australian government said it would not be sending any officials to meet with the asylum seekers.
"This is a matter for the Indonesian authorities, who are managing the group," a spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said.
Nine-year-old Brindah, one of 31 children aboard the boat, made an impassioned plea for international help.
"We are Sri Lankan refugees, please take us to your country, we can't live in Sri Lanka.
"Please help us and save our lives.
"We are your children, please think of us, please, please."
http://www.watoday.com.au/...
For video
http://nz.news.yahoo.com/...
NO WHERE TO GO THIS PEOPLE ARE AFRAID OF ONLY ONE THING... WHAT IF THEY ARE SENT BACK TO SRI LANKA?????? THEY CRY THAT THEY WOULD DIE IN SEA'S INSTEAD.
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Thanks guys for putting this diary in REC list! Would be very happy if we could save the 260 in the boat and if some government could take them in their country