Sri Lanka’s parliament on Wednedsay passed a constitutional amendment that grants President Mahinda Rajapaksa even more unchecked power, which had prompted opposition cries of a looming dictatorship.
Rajapaksa won 161 votes in favour of the 18th amendment that removes a presidential two-term limit and more crucially, unwound an earlier amendment designed to de-politicise appointments to the police, judiciary, public service and electoral commissions.

Wednesday’s debate was largely a foregone conclusion as Rajapaksa had already engineered crossovers from opposition parties to boost his commanding parliamentary majority beyond the two-thirds, or 150 votes, required to change the charter.

Opposition and rights groups criticised the amendment, rushed through the supreme court and parliament in barely 10 days after the cabinet declared it an urgent matter, as a blow to democracy and a reneging of Rajapaksa’s pledge to trim his powers. More

Click here to read an analysis of the 18th Amendment

The UN called it, and we need to ditch the denial if we’re to start fixing it.

AT A recent hearing before the United Nations’ expert panel on racism, Australia’s ambassador in Geneva stated that Australia was ”one of the world’s most tolerant countries”, an ”open, multicultural and welcoming nation” with ”core values of acceptance, tolerance and open-mindedness”.

These are noble aspirations, but to become reality, tolerance must be more than having a Chinese family on Neighbours. Multiculturalism must be deeper than dumplings in Chinatown followed by gelati in Lygon Street.

In her book, After Such Knowledge, Eva Hoffman, who moved to Vancouver with her parents from their native Poland as a teenager and later lived in the United States before settling in Britain, has written — probably from personal experience — how the indigenous population often reacts to immigrants: “Well — one can almost understand. Nobody likes to be saddled with inconvenient, needy people, or to be disturbed in the course of daily life by true tales of infernal torment.”

Canada has often been welcoming to newcomers, including refugees. The positive reception of the Vietnamese boat people in the 1970s comes to mind. But it hasn’t always been consistent. Writing about the ship of Tamil refugees that reached our shores recently, Professor Michael Byers of the University of British Columbia refers to two tragic instances when Canada turned away people in similar circumstances. More

The Guardian – Sri Lankan Tamil refugees spark racism row in Canada

Government accused of scaremongering after prime minister claims 500 asylum seekers aboard boat a security concern
The arrival off the west coast of Canada of a rusty boat containing nearly 500 exhausted Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seekers has sparked an angry debate about racism that has divided national opinion.

The merchant vessel Sun Sea limped, under escort, into Esquimalt naval base in British Columbia on 13 August after a four month voyage from Songkhla in Thailand. The passengers spoke of grim conditions. One man died during the journey and was buried at sea.

“It is a miracle that they survived,” David Poopalapillai of the Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC) told the Guardian. “The boat is very primitive, you wouldn’t even go out fishing in it.” He ascribed their survival to the fact that they had been living for many months in very hostile conditions in Sri Lanka. More

All attempts to investigate atrocities in the Tamil Tiger conflict have been stifled, despite promises made to Ban Ki-moon

During the Vietnam conflict, the US military developed some creative ways to increase the numbers of Viet Cong insurgents it claimed to have killed. “If they’re dead, they’re Viet Cong,” meant that any Vietnamese killed by American soldiers would automatically count as enemy fighters.

On July 21, the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth published an interview with Donald Perera, Sri Lanka’s ambassador to Israel. Perera, the former Sri Lankan Air Force commander and Chief of Defence Staff, thanked Israel profusely for its support in the fight against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

He said: “For years Israel has aided our war on terror through the exchange of information and the sale of military technology and equipment… Our air force fleet includes 17 Kfir warplanes, and we also have Dabur patrol boats. Our pilots were trained in Israel, and we have received billions of dollars in aid over the past few years. This is why I asked to be assigned to Israel — a country I consider a partner in the war against terror.” More

Herald Sun (Aug 31)  – What Genocide, Julian?

Remember the wild claims by human rights advocates and Greens that Tamil boat people should be welcomed since they were facing “genocide” back home? Take Julian Burnside:

Tamils from Sri Lanka are fleeing [to Australia on boats] because they face genocide in Sri Lanka…

You don’t often hear of victims fleeing towards a genocide, though, do you?

UNHCR statistics show that in the first six months of this year, 852 refugees returned from India with UNHCR’s help compared to a total of 823 for all of 2009. A further 1,005 refugees returned on their own accord – what UNHCR calls ‘spontaneous’ returns – and approached UNHCR offices in Sri Lanka for assistance…

But now, tens of thousands of internally displaced people are returning to their homes in the north and it seems that some refugees abroad are also opting to return. The Menik Farm site in Sri Lanka, once a huge camp hosting 228,000 internally displaced people at its peak, now has a dwindling population of around 35,300. The camp continues to diminish in size with some 3,000 people returning to their homes every week.

Fact is that the Tamil Tigers and members of the Tamil diaspora are hyping the genocide claims – and infiltrating the Greens - to keep open an easy conduit for their members.

(Thanks to readers H. and analyst Serge DeSilva-Ranasinghe.)

UPDATE

And yet another:

Another asylum seeker boat has been intercepted off Christmas Island… Initial indications suggested there were 33 passengers and two crew on board, he said.

Lucky for Labor they weren’t arriving at this rate during the election. This makes three in six days.

An advocate for asylum seekers says the Immigration Department is talking “rubbish”, after it claimed Afghans who broke out of the Darwin detention centre were moved to remote Western Australia for their own good.

More than 80 men were transferred to WA’s Curtin detention centre yesterday after they broke out of the Darwin detention centre on Wednesday and staged a roadside protest against their continued imprisonment.

A convoy of 12 Northern Territory police vans took the men to Darwin’s RAAF base where they were loaded onto a plane.

MEDIA RELEASE
3 September 2010

The Coalition will continue with its policy despite a threat from the Greens to block the reintroduction of temporary protection visas

As Labor and the Greens announced a new alliance to ensure stability in government, Greens senator Sarah Hanson Young confirmed her party would use its numbers in the house to disallow the controversial measures.

“There’s no way we would support any legislation measures that would allow for the reintroduction of TPVs — that includes regulations,” Senator Hanson Young told The Australian.

The Australian – Parliament could quash new temporary protection visa move: Chris Evans

A lawyer who defended David Hicks against the US military and who regularly works pro bono for refugees, asylum seekers and native title groups has been recognised for helping the disadvantaged.

Adelaide lawyer Stephen Kenny has won the Law Society of South Australia’s justice award for 2010.

Society president Richard Mellows said Mr Kenny should be praised for his selfless dedication and passion for helping others in the community.