Bronwyn,
Than you for your response,
When I did some diging, I discovered that there has been military government in Sri Lanka before.

The worrying thing is a general who thinks he's it and a bit interested in maintain racial correctness. (sound familiar?) Fiji comes to mind.

Contrary to common thought there are diplomatic issues we can follow.
You are right to focus on the alleged democracy there.

perhaps we could continue to stress that the Govt win the peace, instead of going on a (race) revenge hunt, forcing people to come to Aus.

NB the minister who threw out the regional UNICEF head for telling how it is for children.

Access to the camps are highly controlled and so is the media.

Add an unnecessarily large army for peace time and a general who thinks he's absolutely right all spells a possible coupe.

If that happens can we look forward to a mass Exodus?
What are our plans to cope?
Are freedom fighters who fear retribution, now they've lost the war, refugees or unwanted crims?
Remember the OPM (free West Papua) people?
What would be the difference?

H
Psst. Bronwyn is a teacher and smart I think she noticed my errors/ sloppy prose. I don't think she needs you to patronise her by repeating your disgust of the obvious.

Granted, I sent them off BC (before Coffee) a thousand pardons.I'll endeavour to do better. In the mean time I don't know if to don sack cloth and ashes or go to the naughty corner.

its 2 topics per 24 hours is all I'm allowed.

Just for you Perhaps, I'll end each topic with, a plea for contributions. "if it isn't too much of an imposition on your time and sensitive ego, could you please give me the benefit your esteemed opinion and blinding experience."

I get the point you don't like me....fair enough, I'm not happy about me either but the birth hospital insist one body/brain per customer...Damn!

Dear Examinator,

Bronwyn as always has come up with some excellent
suggestions.

I watched a Sri Lankan Government Official being
interviewed on TV the other evening. I must admit
that I wasn't very impressed. His answers were not
very satisfying.

I think its important that humanitarian access must
be given to the camps. The limited access currently
allowed is unacceptable. The Australian Government
could try to negotiate this. There must be access to
food, clean water and protection in the camps -
conditions have to improve.

The Government could also push to have people that have
been made homeless resettled as soon as possible - our
government could assist with aid in this matter and help
rebuild their lives.

Finally its important that a just peace that meets the
needs of all Sri Lankans is achieved. Although, I'm not
sure how this is going to be achieved with a military
government in power. At least our government could
express their point of view. People are leaving the
country for a reason. The economic refugee accusation
I simply don't buy.

TheMissus: "There is no evidence Sri Lanka is a dangerous place to be except if you are a terrorist."

I swear you pull more things out of your bum than a Magpie chasing tape worms.

If you look up the Wikipedia entry of Sri Lanka's civil war, you will see that for a part of Sri Lankan war was a very dangerous place for everybody there. It is true there isn't much evidence it is a dangerous place now - but only because we don't have a clue what it is like in there because there has been precisely one group of foreign journalists let in and they were given a conducted tour. Hitler gave conducted tours of his concentration camps too, you know.

If I was to hazard a guess, I say the picture you paint is probably right. But it is only a guess at this stage, and unlike you I am not so keen to risk the lives of others on the outcome of what is just a guess based on sensationalised newspaper reports.

Bronwyns politics is the impossible sort, designed to prove the democratic processes, which have evolved and been tested over centuries do not work and the only solution is her brand of revolution … the eternal type, Trotsky style , to which point the comment should be made, the only good thing Stalin did was to have Trotsky assassinated.

The left is good at defining everything and bad at doing anything

The left represents the pointless pursuit of perfect theories; which, with perfectly certainty, FAIL in practice

Foxy “People are leaving the country for a reason. The economic refugee accusation I simply don't buy.”

I have plenty of Sri Lankans among my circle of friends.

They did not arrive as refugees but by using their tested professional credentials, character references etc to apply for a permanent resident visas.

But if I were to ask any one of them they would say the economic benefits of living in Australia outweigh the economic benefits of living in Sri Lanka.

Suggesting “The economic refugee accusation” is not credible and is naïve in the extreme

or maybe you are just setting the “bar of acceptance and justification” deliberately too high, to maintain conformity with your own polemic?

Regarding the pontificators review of history, he tell us
“When I did some diging, I discovered that there has been military government in Sri Lanka before.”
Really?

I see a couple of coupe attempts in the past 60 years but no “government”, maybe you could be more specific

Just as the UK relied on military force to curb the IRA Terrorists, the Sri Lankans relied on their army to curb murders, bombings, kidnappings and torture being deployed by the unelected and unrepresentative Tamil Tigers.

Terrorists are always the first to pretend “atrocities” by the lawfully elected governments.

pontificator, history… I suggest you look up the political aspirations of the Tamils, lead by Ponnambalam, as far back as the 1930s. It does not conform with any sense of democratic representation to me and would have imposed the vile Indian “Caste” system over non-Indians.

Houellebecq

<< The topic is boring ... >>

The topic relates to a neighbouring country so badly damaged by civil war that its citizens are turning up on our doorstep.

While you're yawning, these people are struggling to survive. But hey don't let that intrude into your cosy little world.

TheMissus

<< No-one was allowed in our screening camps in Iraq (not concentration camps,no need for propoganda) So you are saying, do as we say, not as we do? >>

Your Iraq comparison is wasted on me. I wouldn't defend anything we did there, so I'm hardly likely to start defending any camps. We abused human rights there every bit as badly as they've been abused in Sri Lanka.

You can call them 'screening' camps. I'd prefer a description that comes closer to capturing the reality for the thousands of Tamils who’ve been rounded up and forced into overcrowded and squalid internment, who’ve been denied the right to return to their homes, and who’ve lived in fear of being among the hundreds dying or being killed every week. You can call my description 'propaganda' all you like. I've no agenda here. I'm only interested in conveying the same sense of reality that I've had conveyed to me by reputable sources such as Amnesty International.

<< There's no evidence Sri Lanka is a dangerous place to be except if you're a terrorist >>

Huge numbers of Tamil civilians have been in danger, though by all accounts there seems to be some hope of it easing now.

I hope you're not suggesting that the Tamil refugees, who've felt so unsafe they've had to flee their homeland, are 'terrorists'.

examinator

<< The worrying thing is a general who thinks he's it and a bit interested in maintain racial correctness. >>

Yes, I agree, a general who wants to expand the armed forces to 'keep the peace' hardly sounds like a leader capable of uniting and rebuilding the country.

Foxy and rstuart

Ditto to everything. You must be reading the same 'imperialist propaganda' that I am. :)

Or perhaps you're hellbent on 'revolution' too!

Dear Col,

I'm not suggesting the economic refugee
accusation - this came from the interview
with the Sri Lankan government official
that I saw interviewed on TV. He raised
the economic refugee scenario - which
I said I wasn't buying. I too have many
Sri Lankan friends (including my next
door neighbours) who keep me informed
(through their families in Sri Lanka).

As a leading article in today's, The Age,
Saturday, Nov. 14th 2009, tells us:

"...Many of those on the Oceanic Viking
had spoken of horrific experiences in
their homeland, while others have told
the media in written notes how they
suffered physically and emotionally during
earlier stints in Indonesian Immigration
detention...it is the detention issue that stopped
most...on board from disembarking..."

Paris Aristotle, the refugee advocate who acted
as an independent facilitator in the stand-off,
said that, "The Australians really engaged in a
very serious way. They deserve a lot of credit for
a humanitarian response." Mr Aristotle described
the Sri Lankans as "terrific people, but people who
have been through the wringer.