I look forward to an article from Bruce on every single person on the planet and their individual plight.

Everyone has a story Bruce, and like my mum used to say, everyone has a problem.

They are not all the same,

We cannot save everyone, nor should we try to.

I know the left love the squeaky wheel process as an activist tool, but it has become a drone and in that drone loses any kind of message to us.

It's not our fault every person who comes here has a background that may or may not be tainted, they are uninvited who come by boat (excepting the pull factor the ALP created in lowering the Howard government's policies, that worked to keep people from behaving in this manner) and there people have transited several countries to get here, so need to accept that they are accountable for their actions, not us.

We accept the majority of people who come here, rightly or wrongly and it is disingenuous to lay at our feet the accusation that we are unjust, because of one individual's self inflicted situation.

Such is life.

A little bit of compassion wouldn't go astray ocassionally.

David

While this article is written in a very adversarial way I do agree with one statement in it.

"Seeing the Australian public is paying for their permanent detention, we are entitled to know what they have done and if necessary see them charged in a court of law. As they have been observed 24 hours a day and all their communications accessible to ASIO and Serco over the years they have been in detention, there should be clear evidence by now against them, if ASIO adverse reports have any substance."

Secrecy is like water, a little can keep a country healthy - a lot can kill it.

Excellent article, but as a lawyer I find it frustrating to read because of what it doesn't discuss.

He says that the ASIO decision is unreviewable, and I think he implies - it's not clear - but I think it is so - that these decisions are made without providing the person affected an opportunity to view the evidence against him, to respond to it, and to make his own case in reply to that evidence.

As well as being a feature of the procedure of courts and tribunals, these rights have been recognised by courts as generally applicable under the rubric of "natural justice". (Why they don't apply to ASIO assessments I don't know, but presumably because of some specific legislative exemption).

Moreover it is important to recognise that such rights are not just some sort of technicality. In general you can't be sure you're making the correct decision without affording these rights to the person affected. Now I may be getting a bit personal - due to my own experiences - but I would say that while anyone who denies the truth of what I've just said is ignorant, any lawyer who denies the truth of it is, quite simply, lying.

Bruce Haigh,

“A Sri Lankan refugee is caught in the Kafkaesque grip of ASIO and the Sri Lankan government”

Nonsense!

In Australia no one can be kept indefinitely in prison for any reason whatsoever.

If the facts are as you have purported them, it is only question of challenging the ones responsible for keeping Mr.Denisan Santhiyoku in jail with a writ of Habeas Corpus.

I am prepared to be part of any group that can contribute towards such challenge

The Tamil insurgents in Sri Lanka were all Communazis, we don't need any more of them here.

A better idea would be to round up all members of the RED/green, getup, GAYLP/alp, Socialist Alliance & deport them to China, North Korea, Cuba, etc.

Formersnag, Where is your proof.?

David

The Sri Lankan Government is really just a criminal regime. Nothing that they do surprises me. I cant blame any Tamil for wanting to get as far away from them as possible. But, it does surprise me that we are not more critical of "intelligence" from the Sri Lankan Govt. The fact that they sent a war criminal here as a High Commissioner shows just how much contempt the Sri Lankan Government has for Australia.

Indeed a little bit of compassion wouldn't go astray - after all we’ve boundless plains to share, but has Mr. Santhiyoku showed the same compassion to the prawns?

The Tamil Tigers were Marxist-Leninist, like all the other front groups of that era (IRA,RAF,ETA,ANC,SLA,PCP-SL,PLO etc) and Leftists generally they are nothing more than gangsters, thugs and killers.
If more normal people knew about the ever present connection between the "Left" and organised crime there'd be zero tolerance of Marxism in the community. They need to be regarded as pariahs just like "one per center" MC's, impossible to get rid of but shunned by decent people.

Do some reading on the Tamil crime gangs in Canada and their Red apologists.
Communists always condone or excuse criminal activity,especially ethnic or race based gangs, why?
Because they're criminal gangsters themselves.

There's another historical factor at play here, free settlers and ethnic white Australians have always rejected the idea of prisoners being imposed (dumped) on normal society.
There was a huge outcry in the 1840's and '50's over the reintroduction of transportation, there was talk of revolution from the likes of John Dunmore Lang and his followers.
Both the process of transportation and it's subjects, the "flotsam and jetsam" of British society were the targets of those activists
Read up the era, the sentiments echo down to this day, we don't want prisoners injected into society as a special class of citizen with limited rights, real Australians hate the idea, it's an attack on the morals of our society and runs counter to any notion of egalitarianism or the much touted "fair go".
Get rid of the Asylum Seeker prisons, reject the re-introduction of TPV's or third party processing and turn back the "Flotsam and Jetsam" of Asia and the Middle East.

Silence at the Guantanamo Bay like treatment of Denisan Santliyoku speaks a lot for ‘Democratic’ Australia

Skeptic.
The whole asylum seeker and refugee industry is undemocratic, for them and for us.
The SERCO prisons have to be closed down as soon as possible and we can't tolerate TPV's or offshore processing, it's an insult to the dignity of the nation. (That is to say the dignity of the Australian people as opposed to the state, which posesses no such quality)
The wider problem is that we can't live under multiple legal jurisdictions, we need to do away with the concepts of International law and human rights altogether, allowing external, extra national legal systems to supersede the laws of individual nations is insane.
Again, true Australian patriots railed against rule from abroad and demanded responsible government, are we seeing our responsible government being usurped by extra national or internationalist powers and made subservient to their laws?
I'd say we are experiencing just that scenario.

The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security has the task of looking into serious complaints about ASIO and five other security organisations. Her annual report to parliament notes 1111 (I kid you not) complaints about ASIO's dealing with refugee issues. Amazingly, and in spite of complaints about cases like Denisan Santhiyoku's, she found nothing untoward.

J of M

Your comments go way off the topic. However, if there is no international law, there is no way of putting war criminals and people who commit genocide and other crimes against humanity on trial.

ozbib.
You can't be serious,the agencies of international law serve the London/New York/Tel Aviv axis of evil and the criminal gangs and cartels that make up it's elite.
"Crimes Against Humanity" is just imperialist Newspeak, used to justify their endless "Interventions".
C'mon, you don't honestly mean to tell me you support the Libyan intervention, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and the looming cataclysm in Syria and Iran?
Ozbib, it's a LIE, the imperialists lie about everything, they double cross, switch sides and backstab people every second of the day.

“Human Rights premier event of the year! Tickets sale now open”

Announces Online Opinion.

That means tens and tens of thousand of dollars to the industry of ‘celebrations’, while not one cent to send a card to those still lingering in Guantanamo Bay and likewise institutions.

Am I mad?