Release Tamil activists immediately!

9 May 2007

The Socialist Alliance condemns the arrest of two Tamil activists, Aruran Vinayagamoorthy and Sivarajah Yathavan, under the “anti-terror” laws. This is another example of the use of such laws to repress political activity of which the government disapproves.

The two are accused of being members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) , a group fighting for self-determination for the oppressed Tamil people of Sri Lanka.

This group is described as “terrorist” by the Sri Lankan government and its allies, including the Australian government, but it is not on the list of “proscribed terrorist organisations” decided by Canberra.

The accusation that Tamils living in Australia support terrorism has long been used by the Sri Lankan government to discredit the efforts of the Australian Tamil community to publicise the plight of Tamils in their homeland.

Moreover, those who use this term always ignore the state terrorism perpetrated on the Tamil people by the Sri Lankan government through its armed forces. These have murdered and tortured thousands of Tamils and have bombarded and economically blockaded Tamil villages, causing hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes and become refugees in their own country.

The two arrested men have been active in Tamil community organisations in Australia. They have been engaged in peaceful political activity in Australia to draw attention to the situation of Tamils in Sri Lanka. They have also been helping to raise money for the more than 500,000 Tamils displaced from their homes by war and the December 2004 tsunami.

The two are accused of diverting money raised for assistance to refugees to fund the LTTE. The Sri Lankan government routinely uses this kind of allegation to disrupt the aid efforts of the Tamil diaspora to help their fellow Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Socialist Alliance calls for the dropping of the charges and the release of the two men. We call for the “anti-terror” laws under which they have been arrested to be repealed.

The Alliance also reaffirms its call on the Sri Lankan government to cease its war on the Tamil people and recognise the right of the Tamil people to self-determination. This is the precondition for a peaceful solution to the conflict.

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By Brian Senewiratne

I am a new recruit to the Socialist Alliance! I have been a strong supporter of the Left in my native Sri Lnaka since I was 16 years old. I am now 76, and remain convinced, even more so, that it is the capitalist policies, first under the Colonial British and later the Brown Sahibs of my ethnic group, the Sinhalese, that have taken that country to a failing State. It would have been a Failed State had it not been propped up by the World Bank and the IMF.It is now veeing into a Fascist Dictatorship - supported by Australia, as evidenced by the incarceration of the Tamil boys you refer to.

I am not a Tamil but a Sinhalese from the majority community. I have strongly supported the 'Cause' of the Tamil people to live with eqality, dignity and safety in the country of theier birth.

I have recently released 4 DVDs of varying lengths, setting out the brutalilty of the Sinhalese-dominated Sri Lanka 'Government'. These are now being duplicated and sent to every politician in all the capitalist countries,and, dare I include them, the Chinese, who are keeping this conflict going for their own geo-politican and economic gains.

I will be glsd to send any member of the Socialist Alliance a copy of these DVDs. I have left one with the group in the Brisbane office. It is possibe that I will be asked to address the group in Brisban sometime in the future.

I applaud the piece you have written. We now need to mobilise the working class in supporting the working class (of all ethnic groups) in Sri Lanka,who are paying the price for this unnecessary and highly destructive war in sri Lanks, as scarce resources are diverted to massive military expenditure for the Sri Lankan Govt to crush its own people. Needless to say, I cannot return to the "Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka" and hope to get out alive. So much for democracy.
Brian Senewiratne
Brisbane