The civil war was long and bloody but its over now and frankly there is nothing to be gained by Tamils in Sri Lanka with the whining along the lines of this article.

The past is gone and the future beckon

The Permanent Peoples' Tribunal is an international tribunal, independent of state authority in order to examine violations of human rights. It was founded in 1979 in Bologna, Italy, and now has a permanent secretariat in Rome, but has no real standing on the world stage. It consists of many Politically Correct, Anti American, Do Gooders who complain about everything.

If the Tamil Tigers didn't attack the Government with such ferocity then the Singhalese Government would have had to clean them up. The Tamil Tigers did far more damage to innocent Civilians over the years than the Singhalese did when the finished the War.

As for being Economic Refugees they admit that themselves.

Bruce Haigh is the one with his own view of the world: an anarchic one which fuels his constant ranting against his own country. And, while Julie Bishop makes some people want to slap her face every time she appears, she is our Foreign Minister, elected to have a view and take actions on behalf of our country. “..four eminent Israeli lawyers, including a former attorney-general” have no say in our politics; nor do they have any say in their own politics –certainly not when it comes to Jewish settlements on “Palestinian territory” apparently. And, fortunately for all, Bruce doesn’t have any say in our government, except for the one vote we all get.

If sending back what our government deems as economic migrants (with the encouragement of Sri Lanka) is “an illegal enterprise under Australian and international law”, why hasn’t action been brought against Australia? Bruce Haigh talks through his hat and thinks that people are going to believe everything he says.

No matter what he believes about the Australian government’s attitude to Tamils, there is no requirement for Australia, or any other country, to take in anyone arriving by boat. Tamils, other Sri Lankans, should work out their own problems; if they can’t, it is not and never will be Australia’s responsibility to do it for them.
And another thing: Bruce’s ‘expert witnessing’ is a real bore, just like his non-stop lecturing. John Pilger, without leaving the country.

From what I can gather, the Permanent People's tribunal is a self appointed collection of retired old farts that have no powers to interview witnesses, collect evidence, or to do any thing other than chat to a few disgruntled "victims"

Their verdicts are unsubstantiated and carry no more legal weight than that of the local knitting circle.

Thank you Bruce for this article, although as is obvious from the first three comments the points you make will largely fall on ignorant eyes.

One theme that emerges frequently in comments on articles such as yours is that successive Australian governments have no international obligations beyond a self-defined national interest.

Governments, like the majority of commenters, ignore the fact that we have signed and ratified the International Convention on Refugees, in fact did so 50 years ago. If we wish to ignore international law as set out in the Convention and confirmed in a number of Court decisions, the honourable thing to do is withdraw from theConvention. To continue membership but act directly contrary to the obligations thus imposed, is the height of hypocrisy.

One should note be surprised that Carr and Bishop sing from the same song sheet. A Coalition government took us into illegal wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Labor had the opportunity to have a public inquiry along the lines of the Chilcott Inquiry in the UK but did nothing. In fact Gillard's first public pronouncement on foreign policy after the coup against Rudd was to affirm (a) the American alliance; (b) the "mission" in Afghanistan; and (c ) support for the State of Israel.

Australia's voting pattern in the UN on Israel/Palestine questions since the change of government last September (and Abbott/Bishop/Morrison public statements on issues such as Israeli settlements, torture and sovereignty of other nations) confirms that Australia is the one that is out of step with world opinion.

The treatment of Tamil refugees (and other groups including children in its detention centres) merely confirm that we are in a very real sense an outlaw nation that has lost not only any notion of accountability for the commission of war crimes, but has also lost its former commitment to international law and even standards of common justice and humanity.

There's no such thing as genocide, it's a faudulent concept invented by Jewish activists to bolster their case for extracting billions of dollars in war reparations from the WW2 Axis powers.
Anyone can claim Genocide under the terms set out by the U.N, it's too broad a description to be of any real use.