Tamil and refugee rights groups have demanded the Rudd government reverse its suspension of refugee claims from Sri Lanka. This follows the release of an international report that provided more evidence that the decision to suspend the claims was based on a lie.
The International Crisis Group (ICG) released War Crimes in Sri Lanka on May 17, a report into the Sri Lankan Army鈥檚 assault on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the entire Tamil population in the country鈥檚 north and east between January and May last year.
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Hundreds of Tamils turned out in Sydney鈥檚 Martin Place on May 18 to mark the first anniversary of the Sri Lankan army鈥檚 capture of the last bit of land held by the pro-independence Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the north-east of the country.
In driving rain, families lined up to place petals in front of a statue of a grieving mother. They heard from community speakers, the Greens, the Council for Civil Liberties (CCL) and the Socialist Alliance.
Right, who knows a way of making 鈥淐onservative and Liberal Democrat Coalition, out out out!鈥 scan properly?
Events haven鈥檛 been made easier by the news coverage, which involved reporters telling us: 鈥淥h my God, it鈥檚 historic, and the two of them look so lovely together, and they鈥檙e in the garden, ooohhh, I haven't cried so much since I last saw Breakfast at Tiffany鈥檚."
Recently declassified documents from US archives have shed further light on the extent of US complicity in Guatemalan human rights crimes, one of Latin America鈥檚 most brutal examples of population control.
The hard-working farmers of Dos Erres, in Peten department, had never asked for much 鈥 just a few acres of recently-cleared land from which to scratch a meagre living in a country racked by violence.
US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh told an audience at a journalism conference in April that American soldiers are now executing prisoners in Afghanistan, a May 12 Rawstory.com article said.
Hersh helped break the story that US jailers were torturing detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. In 1969, Hersh broke the story of the My Lai massacre by US forces in Afghanistan.
At the Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Geneva, Hersh said US forces are engaged in 鈥渂attlefield executions鈥.
The New South Wales offices of the Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union (CFMEU) construction division, was firebombed on Thursday May 13.
鈥淚t is a miracle no one was killed or injured鈥, Howard Byrnes, CFMEU state councillor and delegate at Botany Cranes, told 麻豆传媒 Weekly.
Jess Moore, well-known community activist and part-time worker, will contest the seat of Cunningham on New South Wales鈥 south coast in the coming federal elections.
Moore, a member of Socialist Alliance, is a leading climate and renewable energy campaigner in Wollongong. She is active in the struggle for marriage equality and helped found the Illawarra Aboriginal Rights Group, set up in response to the racist Northern Territory intervention.
A customs officer at Melbourne airport has said the passport of the Australian founder of Wikileaks will be cancelled 鈥渟oon鈥.
Julian Assange, formerly from Melbourne, now stays in several countries while running the high-profile Wikileaks website. He usually avoids publicity, but became famous in April when his site released a classified video of US forces laughing after killing 12 people in Iraq, including two staff from the news agency Reuters.
A May 17 International Crisis Group report said there were 鈥渞easonable grounds to believe the Sri Lankan security forces committed war crimes with top government and military leaders potentially responsible鈥 in the last five months of the 30 year long war against Tamil independence fighters. The report cited the intentional shelling of civilians, hospitals and humanitarian operations.
Wollongong's Students Against War (SAW) collective crashed the university鈥檚 鈥榝ashion week鈥 on May 6 by holding a 鈥榙ie-in鈥 on the catwalk. Two activists entered the fashion parade and revealed bloodied clothes before they collapsed on the end of the catwalk.
SAW co-convenor Ella Ryan said: 鈥楾he idea behind this stunt, aptly named 鈥淒eathly Designs鈥, was to bring attention to Wollongong university's role in helping design military hardware for arms manufacturers as part of the $85 million "Defence Materials Technology Centre".
The new Ecological, Social Justice, Aboriginal Party is seeking federal, state and territory electoral registration, hoping to achieve it by the time the next federal election is called. If ESJAP is not registered, our candidates will contest as independents, coalesced under our banner.
ESJAP will strive to ensure the undiluted Aboriginal voice in parliament 鈥 a voice sorely missing from Australian politics. There have only been 19 Aboriginal parliamentarians at the state, territory and federal levels. Ten of those 19 have been in the Northern Territory.
We supposedly live in a free country. But do we actually have free speech in Australia?
Obviously, the situation here is completely different to an outright dictatorship. In some countries, there is no right to produce a paper like 麻豆传媒 Weekly, no right to protest, and dissidents are jailed and tortured.
In Australia, we do have some real and important democratic rights. However, there are severe practical limitations on effectively exercising these rights 鈥 that is, exercising them in a way that anyone actually hears what you're saying.
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