Dr Dennis Jensen MP

Mr Speaker, I rise to draw the attention of the House to issues brought to me by members of the Australian Tamil Community in my Tangney Electorate.
The United Nations has released the Report of the Secretary-General’s panel of experts on the final stages of the armed conflict that ended in Sri Lanka in May 2009.
The report states:
"The panel found credible allegations, which if proven, indicate that a wide range of serious violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law were committed both by the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, some of which would amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity"
Also,
“The government shelled on a large scale in three consecutive no-fire zones, where it had encouraged the civilian population to concentrate, even after indicating that it would cease the use of heavy weapons.”
It concluded:
“The conduct of the war represented a grave assault on the entire regime of international law designed to protect individual dignity during both war and peace.”
The United Nations report is scathing in its assessment of the Sri Lankan government appointed Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission saying it was not impartial, concluding it:
“Has not conducted genuine truth-seeking about what happened in the final stages of the January to May 2009 armed conflict¬¬¬¬s.”
The report also recognises the failure of the International Community in protecting the civilians in this conflict.
The UN Secretary General has accepted recommendations regarding the failure of the UN to protect civilians.
The UN will conduct a review of why it failed to implement its own humanitarian and protection mandates.
The International Community including Australia acted admirably in Libya, Burma, Fiji and Zimbabwe when serious human rights violations were inflicted upon the civilian population.
The time has come for Australia to act decisively for Sri Lanka, given Australia is :
• Committed to tackling war crimes and takes allegations of war crimes very seriously and

• A signatory to all international conventions on Human rights and crime against humanity.


Several key international leaders, including UK and US, have congratulated the UN Secretary General for initiating this inquiry and for publicly releasing this detailed report that covers all aspects of the alleged human rights violations.
A similar, public response from Australia will give the Australian Tamil Community the strength to continue to bring justice through accountability and peace to the Tamil people of Sri Lanka.