Sri Lankan civil war moves to Australia

Sailor

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Immigrant anger over Tamil defeat


Joe Kelly and Mark Dodd | May 19, 2009
Article from: The Australian

THE apparent end of the 37-year civil war between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers has prompted violent clashes in Australia, with one Sinhalese student fighting for his life after allegedly being attacked with acid by Tamil sympathisers in his Sydney home.

Just hours after leaders of the defeated Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam declared on Sunday that their long struggle for an independent homeland had reached its "bitter end", Tamil supporters in Sydney were linked to three violent incidents.

And in Canberra yesterday, 400 flag-waving Tamil protesters accused the Rudd Government of turning a blind eye to genocide and warned failure to intervene and stop violence in their homeland could trigger a surge of Australia-bound refugees.

Fallout from the bloody conflict, which has pitted majority Sinhalese against minority Tamils fighting for an independent homeland, flared in Sydney on Sunday when two Sri Lankan students were attacked with acid and knives as they slept in their home in the western Sydney suburb of Westmead.

It's alleged the assailants were pro-Tamil sympathisers. "They came with hockey sticks, metal poles, knives, bats, and everything, you know," said one of the victim's friends.

A 22-year-old man, known only as Jayairi, was taken to the burns unit at Concord Hospital and placed in an induced coma, where he was last night in a serious condition. It is believed he swallowed acid in the attacks.

"His face (is) fully burnt, and he can't eat anything. He can't drink anything," his friend said.

The second victim, 27-year-old Chathurika Weerasinghe, also suffered burns and was stabbed in the stomach and broke his ankle during the attack. He was taken to Westmead Hospital and was last night in a stable condition.

A third resident managed to hide during the attack, which saw windows and furniture smashed and blood splashed on the outside pavement. Earlier on Sunday, supporters of the LTTE brawled with members of the Sinhalese community outside Westmead train station, leaving one person hospitalised. Thirty minutes before this incident, at nearby Wentworthville, up to 100 people were involved in an altercation between two groups. Five people have been charged with affray and assaulting police over the incident at Wentworthville.

The attacks - described by police as "politically motivated" - have raised concerns the end of the Sri Lankan civil war will lead to unrest among the Tamil diaspora. "There will be parts of the Tamil diaspora who will want to continue the action against the Sri Lankan government," said security expert Clive Williams.

"There will be lots of people who will take actions into their own hands."
 

Sailor

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When people are invited to Australia to share in our wonderful country and all the beauty and security it offers, not many of us really want anyone to bring their old problems out here too.
We want all peoples to start a new life for their kids, otherwise don't come here. :australia:
 

Flint

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When people are invited to Australia to share in our wonderful country and all the beauty and security it offers, not many of us really want anyone to bring their old problems out here too.
We want all peoples to start a new life for their kids, otherwise don't come here. :australia:
If you allow foreigners to settle, you cannot expect them to brainwash themselves before coming here.
Don't forget that white Australians too were foreigners to that land not too long ago.
 

Sailor

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I never said we would make them fit into our society. I said we'd like them to.
I admit that some of us on the right of politics would make them fit in or give them a ticket back.
 

Yusuf

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Im sure Sailor, if you were to settle elsewhere, your heat will never leave Australia. Besides, the entire international community had urged Sri Lanka to do more to protect the innocent civilians caught in the fighting.

But yes, violence for any reason is not acceptable.
 

Sailor

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When anyone is blessed with a second chance in life and is given a passport with an emu and a kangaroo on it, some of us old Anglo whities who did the invitations cherish the wild thought that these people might become Australians. Many do, but old enemies are hard to forget and in most cases old people are left behind back where they came from in the old system and they are worried about.
No one can migrate here over 40 and even then you have to have a profession and your own funds, so the oldies have to stay behind.
 

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