JULIE BISHOP SUPPORTING GENOCIDE

The Refugee Rights Action Network is calling for a snap action outside her office, this Friday the 7^th of September at 12 o’clock.

The Refugee Rights Action Network condemns Julie Bishop and Tony Abbott’s recent comments advocating for the deportation of Tamil asylum seekers back to Sri Lanka.

Ms Bishop made these claims on the basis that the civil war is now over and that most Tamils are economic migrants and not ‘genuine’ refugees. Tony Abbott has recently come out to support these claims.

RRAN condemns these statements as ignorant and politically motivated. As Australia and the government is well aware, 40 000 Tamil civilians were murdered during the civil war in one of the worst acts of genocide by war criminal Rajapaksa who ordered the shelling of civilian hospitals in government designated no fire zones.

“The Tamil people in Sri Lanka face a level of systematic human rights abuses that has been labelled genocide by some observers. The Sri Lankan government has been accused of war crimes & crimes against humanity by every major human rights organisation on the face of the planet. Tamils continue to flee systematic dispossession and attempts at religious and cultural annihilation.” says the networks Victoria Martin-Iverson.

NGOS, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have condemned the Rajapaksa government over its treatment of Tamils and any dissenting voices such as journalists or political opponents. The wholesale return of Tamils back to Sri Lanka would be like the mass deportations of Jews back to Nazi Germany. We have seen almost every feature of genocide occur, this includes concentration camps, summary executions, rape and property confiscations all targeted at civilian populations. Much of this has occurred after the military defeat of the Tamil Tigers and continues to this day. Still today, Tamils who have been returned to Sri Lanka have gone missing – presumed kidnapped or dead.

Julie Bishop and Tony Abbott cannot be unaware of these facts. Their statements condone and show an intent to collaborate with a murderous, genocidal regime that ranks alongside the Khmer Rouge and the Nazis.

The Labour government’s position is little better. They have already been deporting Tamils back to Sri Lanka on the absurd assertion that they do not have a credible claim for protection. The government continues to collaborate with the Rajapaksa regime in supporting their efforts to prevent Tamils fleeing persecution in Sri Lanka. The government also relies on information from the Rajapaksa government that has resulted in more than 50 Tamil refugees being refused security clearances by ASIO, in an entirely secret process that is resulting in these individuals being held permanently in immigration detention.

In response to these politically and racially motivated statements, the Refugee Rights Action Network will be mobilising outside Julie Bishops office this Friday at 12 o’clock to present her with the numerous, easily accessible and widely circulated Amnesty International and Human Rights watch reports that state the continued dangers for Tamils in Sri Lanka and to demand that she answer to her public statements and to her support of Tamil genocide.

The Refugee Rights Action Network

Rran.org – 0417 904 329