Australia looking the other way on Sri Lanka's abuses - HRW

Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop "should take care do not whitewash Sri Lanka's human rights record" by attending the Commonwealth summit in Colombo this week, a senior Human Rights Watch official said Wednesday.

In an opinion published in Australian newspapers, Elaine Peason, Deputy Director of HRW’s Asia Division, said:

“What is … regrettable is Australia's blindness to Sri Lanka's human rights concerns. Australia seems to be reluctant to admit human rights violations as a means of deflecting asylum claims of Sri Lankan Tamils coming to Australia by boat.

 

“However, in the long run what will really stem the flow of illegal migration from Sri Lanka is a government that respects the rights of its people.

 

“Australia can either choose to look the other way, implicitly endorsing Sri Lankan abuses, or it can use this opportunity to support efforts for accountability and democracy in Sri Lanka.

 

“British Prime Minister David Cameron will attend [the summit], but his government has said he will deliver a ‘tough message’. At a minimum, Abbott and Bishop should do the same.”

Referring to the mass shelling of civilians, summary executions and rape that marked the climax of Sri Lanka’s war, Pearson said:

“After the fighting ended, the Sri Lankan government had the opportunity to promote long-term peace and reconciliation between the Sinhala and Tamil populations and hold human rights abusers to account. Instead, despite international pressure, there has been no accountability and, in fact, absolute denial, and continued human rights violations by the Sri Lankan government.

 

“Sri Lanka's denial of wartime atrocities has been matched by a deterioration in the human rights situation [since the war ended]. The present government of Mahinda Rajapaksa has taken Sri Lanka in a disturbing authoritarian direction.

 

“Sri Lanka's increasingly authoritarian rule and poor record of accountability for past abuses make a mockery of [the Commonwealth’s stated ‘common values’, including equitable growth, democracy, accountability, rule of law, and human rights].”