Search Results: Sinhalese
-
AUSTRALIA
Many Australians regard these asylum seekers as economic refugees. But systematic discrimination against Tamils in Sri Lanka has existed since the country gained independence from Britain in 1948. Tamils are a minority, and are systematically and routinely treated as second-class citizens by the majority Sinhalese community. The extreme Sinhalese nationalist view regards Sri Lanka as an island sacred to Buddhism, in which non-Sinhalese have no place.
READ MORE 
-
AUSTRALIA
On Monday we learned that two boats of Tamil asylum seekers had been intercepted off Christmas Island. Now there are unconfirmed reports that Australia is handing them over to the Sri Lankan navy without assessing their claims for protection. Amnesty warns Tamils face the risk of sexual violence, torture, murder, imprisonment, and enforced disappearance. Since March this year there have been scores of arrests and several deaths.
READ MORE
-
AUSTRALIA
- Duncan MacLaren
- 03 April 2012
Australian aid worker David Savage was severely injured by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan. The Taliban tried to kill him in revenge for the shooting of 17 unarmed Afghan civilians by a deranged American soldier. In more innocent times aid workers were regarded as angels by all sides.
READ MORE
-
ARTS AND CULTURE
- Martin Mulligan
- 23 November 2011
5 Comments
After a meal cooked in the distinctive Jaffna way, the multi-talented Professor treated us to a repertoire of his own songs about his mother, victims of the 2004 tsunami, and those who had suffered during the war. Songs and stories of lived experience, translated into all the languages of Sri Lanka, might achieve more than the government's Reconciliation Commission.
READ MORE
-
MEDIA
- Andrew Hamilton
- 15 November 2011
11 Comments
As a cricket writer Roebuck appreciated that other things in life matter more than sport. But precisely because sport does not matter ultimately, he was freed to take it very seriously indeed.
READ MORE
-
INTERNATIONAL
- Natalie Francis
- 17 April 2009
19 Comments
Hundreds of Australian Tamil people gathered outside Kirribilli to protest the attacks on Tamil civilians in northern Sri Lanka. Not wanting to wake the neighbours, they kept their voices down. But the message was clear: 'Please listen.'
READ MORE
-
AUSTRALIA
- Peter Roebuck
- 09 January 2008
Everyone
must pray for Mugabe's death (though his mother reached three figures).
At present the best response is to help those seeking justice and to
assist those promoting education, thereby sustaining hope for a better
tomorrow. From 2 April 2007.
READ MORE
-
INTERNATIONAL
- Danielle Vella
- 03 October 2007
4 Comments
Last week, a local Jesuit Refugee Service coordinator in Sri Lanka was killed when his van was blown up by a mine in rebel-held territory, as he was delivering aid to displaced people and orphans. Typically the army and Tamil Tigers blamed each other for the blast, and we are unlikely to discover the truth.
READ MORE
-
AUSTRALIA
- Hector Welgampola
- 15 May 2007
11 Comments
Last week, Sri Lanka's media reported Mahela Jayawardena’s Buddhist parents praying at a Hindu temple for his team’s success in the World Cup cricket. The continuing war is a legacy of the divide and rule strategy of the colonial elites.
READ MORE
-
AUSTRALIA
- Peter Roebuck
- 02 April 2007
28 Comments
Everyone must pray for Mugabe's death (though his mother reached three figures). At present the best response is to help those seeking justice and to assist those promoting education, thereby sustaining hope for a better tomorrow.
READ MORE
-
.jpg)
INTERNATIONAL
- Jon Greenaway
- 21 April 2006
A few months’ peace in the wake of the tsunami was shattered by an assassin’s bullet.
READ MORE