“It has been reported that Australia has sent a team to engage with the Sri Lankan government on ways of preventing Tamils coming to Australia and seeking refugee status.”

Well, that is a good piece of news. I’m surprised that our ‘open-door’ government has had the sense or the will to take such a step. But Sharman Stone has, as usual, opened her mouth without first plugging her brain in. Both the ALP Government and the Coalition Opposition prove once again that they have no firm policies and, in this case, the Coalition immigration spokeswoman is merely playing the oppose-for-the-sake-of-opposing game.

We somehow managed to keep our noses out of Sri Lanka, and we do not need any more of either side of the conflict in Australia. We have enough Sri Lankans demonstrating against who knows what from the safety of Australia as it is. The next thing we know, Tamils will be claiming a part of Australia as their personal country just as they did in Sri Lanka.

Instead of India looking at us with a “cynical eye”, they could do something by inviting Sri Lankan
Tamils to Tamil Nadu – but perhaps Sri Lankan Tamils wouldn’t get along with them either.

So primed is the entire Sri Lankan government's public stance, that even if they were asked the price of eggs or whether it will rain on Sunday, they'll jump straight in to remind everybody that they are fighting terrorism … click … fighting terrorism … click … fighting terrorism.

Yes, guys. We have noticed. You can change the record now.

So, let’s just sit and wait for lots more triumphalist mumbo-jumbo about fighting terrorism as the Tamil people are reduced to a wretched political underclass of permanent refugees in their own country. I’m sure that, as we write, the Tamil lands, assets and resources are being carved out and distributed amongst the Sri Lankan elite and their multi-national mentors in the high-rise boardrooms of Columbo’s top end.

And the Australian government will keep patting itself on the back and mumbling on about East Timor and saving women from the Taliban.

The civil war was brought about by the Tamils' response to continuing oppression by the Sri Lankan Government. It remains to be seen whether the Sri Lankan Government changes its attitude to the Tamils and attempts to treat them fairly in future. Unfortunately, it appears unlikely that the Tamils can rely on any supporting approaches by Australia.

Bruce, rather than being poorly informed, it is more likely that the Australian Government made a different judgement from yours on the merits of the Tamil Tigers, and do not equate the cause of Tamils to that of the LTTE.

You write that "The solution was always for a separate Tamil state" which is strange considering the majority of Tamils live in mixed areas, away from the north and east. Incidentally, the ethnic purity of the latter was achieved by the LTTE cleansing out Sinhalese and muslim Tamils, not mentioned in the article.

Neither is there a mention of the number of opportunities for a political solution since 1987, brokered by such third parties as India and Norway, nor the fact that it was the LTTE that chose war at every turn.

You write a lot about government atrocities, adopting the LTTE's loose propagandist use of the word 'genocide', but don't mention the LTTE's cyanide capsules, child soldiers, their pioneering suicide bombing, the political assassinations and their consequent proscription as a terrorist organization internationally. Your subtle euphemism hinting at the LTTE terror against Tamils betrays LTTE sympathies, as does the one-sided mention of the army killing LTTE prisoners of war - the wholesale slaughter of hundreds of government soldiers by the LTTE after the taking of army bases is also part of the picture.

I suspect that the government does not wish to allow into Australia LTTE cadres and supporters, hence the cooperation with the Sri Lankan government. Judged by feedback by others on various forums, I am not the only one in Australia who agrees with this intent.

I have been reading about the Tamil problem in Sri Lanka since the mid 1970s when the UK Daily Telegraph was covering it with other excellent foreign news articles.

I see no difference between Tamils and IRA both being a bunch of self appointed opinionists with an over developed sense of personal entitlement, who are prepared to kill to enforce their monocular view upon a larger civilian population.

Both groups used indiscriminate bombing to progress their cause.
Both groups used murder and intimidation to progress their cause
Both groups deserve to be eradicated from the face of the earth for the bastardry they have imposed upon others.
And if India sees that as cynical, then tough.

I happened upon a Tamil Tiger rally near Federation Square (how ironic, a “Separatist” Rally in a “Federation” Square). I passed the comment "Sri Lanka for the Sri Lankans" but no one took issue with it however, I did notice the rally was sponsored by the Socialist Alliance… the leftie cringers… I suppose the “SA” must be alive and kicking and I thought they died out with the fall of the Third Reich.

India has no time for the LTTE (apart from a few populist politicians in Tamil Nadu state who have just badly lost in the elections).

The LTTE was armed and trained by the Indian intelligence service at a time when Sri Lanka was both nasty to the Tamils and courting the West: a project that got out of hand. In 1987 India made Sri Lanka to accept an autonomy for the Tamils and Indian peacekeepers. By then the LTTE had exterminated alternative Tamil movements and did not want anything short of an independent LTTE dictatorship. They declared war on the Indians who withdrew after losing around a thousand soldiers. Not content with this, an LTTE suicide bomber assassinated Rajiv Gandhi, the Indian prime minister. After this, India started military cooperation with the Sri Lankan government, only stopping at arming the Sri Lankan army.

So, Sri Lanka turned to Pakistan and China to get what it needed, probably giving China a naval base in payment. So, instead of a Western-allied Sri Lanka, India ended up being encircled by China: I don't think they are chuffed about this.