You are herePetition to Hon. Stephen Smith - Foreign Minister
Petition to Hon. Stephen Smith - Foreign Minister
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PO Box 6022
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Fax: (02) 6273 4112
Australia should oppose the Operation of military run Concentration camps in Northern Sri Lanka
Thanks for those who participated. ATEL will be following up with the Foreign Minister and will be providing an update to the participants.
The Humanitarian Crisis in Northern Sri Lanka is rapidly deteriorating to catastrophic proportions.
According to UN reports and independent sources, within a period of 7 weeks over two thousand six hundred (2600) innocent civilians, including seven hundred (700) children have been indiscriminately killed.
Civilians who have moved into the government controlled areas have been detained against their will behind barbed wire fenced concentration camps operated by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces. In these camps, access is denied to aid agencies, humanitarian workers, the media, as well as close relatives.
The incarceration of infants, as young as 6 months old, in these concentration camps is a violation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocol to this convention which outlines the rights of children in conflict situations to which Australia is a signatory. There is increasing fears that the Sri Lankan Government is engaged in a systematic campaign of killings against Tamil civilians.
According to UN reports and independent sources, within a period of 7 weeks over two thousand six hundred (2600) innocent civilians, including seven hundred (700) children have been indiscriminately killed.
Civilians who have moved into the government controlled areas have been detained against their will behind barbed wire fenced concentration camps operated by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces. In these camps, access is denied to aid agencies, humanitarian workers, the media, as well as close relatives.
The incarceration of infants, as young as 6 months old, in these concentration camps is a violation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocol to this convention which outlines the rights of children in conflict situations to which Australia is a signatory. There is increasing fears that the Sri Lankan Government is engaged in a systematic campaign of killings against Tamil civilians.
Australia, a country which upholds democratic values and subscribes to the highest levels of humanitarian standards and principles, should not, directly or indirectly support the operation of such concentration camps anywhere in the world.
We therefore request the Australian Foreign Minister to prevail on the Sri Lankan government to immediately dismantle all concentration camps being operated by the Sri Lankan military. The Australian government should strongly condemn the existence of these concentration camps and should cease asking hapless Civilians to move into such camps. Asking innocent civilians to move into such camps will be viewed as “tacit approval’ for the operations of such camps.
Australia should also call on the Sri Lankan government to respect civil liberties, and human rights of all its people, and ensure freedom of movement, and permit the delivery of all forms of humanitarian aid. They should also be required to allow, unfettered access to the international media with immediate effect, to report on the true state of affairs in the conflict zone as well as in the concentration camps.
In the event that the Sri Lankan government fails to comply with such reasonable requests, the Australian Government should initiate action to expel Sri Lanka from the Commonwealth Community of Nations and impose a trade embargo as was done to Fiji and Zimbabwe.
This petition campaign is organised by Australian Tamil Electoral Lobby (ATEL) www.atel.org.au
UN Documents show 2,683 Civilian Killings from 20 January 2009 to 7 March 2009 alone - An astonishing 60 deaths a day