Well, that's nice Bruce.

But since we in Australia have not yet had to deal with a dangerous minority using terrorism to carve out a new sovereign nation from our territory, we can hardly blame them Sri Lankans using whatever it takes to beat the enemy, can we? If they had played fair while their enemy played dirty, they would have lost.

As Churchill once quipped about another matter where armchair generals used hindsight to judge the decisions of a Japanese admiral. "Only those who have been in his position can judge him."

Bruce appears to be another one who lives by the motto that minorities are always right.

“The Tribunal requested that states able to do so should take Tamil asylum seekers as refugees.”

Now there’s a surprise. Let’s hope Australia ignores the request and does not import these rebels who couldn’t get along with fellow Tamils on the sub-continent, fled to Sri Lanka where they can’t get along with the majority there, and probably would start causing trouble anywhere they went.

Haigh’s describing of judges as “eminent” is a common ploy to try to convince us that judges are not human like the rest of us and don’t make mistakes. We have the same “eminent’ judges here who are more political activists than they are judges of the law.

Bruce, thank you for that article. I do not expect to see a similar report in the msm.

If your assumption about the AHC in Colombo is correct, and on balance I think that it is, then we have yet another instance of Australia wilfully disregarding its international obligations for reasons of base political advantage. Nothing that Abbott, Bishop or Morrison have said since the election would encourage the belief that Australia understands, let alone implements, its obligations under the Convention on the Treatment of Refugees.

It is not just the sending of boats that signals Australia's support for the Sri Lankan regime. Returning refugees in breach of our international obligations is a very clear signal. That they are being returned to an uncertain future and likely death appears not to worry the government.

There are always some, such as the aptly named Lego in his comment above, who appear to think there is noting wrong with genocidal practices such as found by the Tribunal. One trembles to think what might happen if he and his fellow neanderthals ever face a genuine security threat here.

Thanks and well said James.

That Australia supports the continuing genocide of the ruling junta in Sri Lanka comes as no surprise to me.

After all, they support the genocide by the Israelis in what used to be Palestine and they also support the genocide carried out by the United States since WW2 which has resulted in the deaths of millions.

Australia appears to have no enduring values whatsoever. It is a pawn nation controlled by powerful others!

Australia by all thoughts is by the chess it plays. One small island at the bottom of a collective.....this is true....but remember Australia, you hold all the cards for the global future and some. Why you might ask....its simple...look at the rest of the world...check-mate.

Now that doesn't sound very neutral, but the north is by facts, losing the plot.

Smaller and smarter....that's why we are, and that's why their not.

Planet3