What a photo: the smiling Sri Lankan defence secretary, accused of overseeing war crimes, gifting a premium box of Dilmah tea to the equally cheery Australian immigration and border protection minister, accused of running concentration camps. Apparently, the relationship between the two countries (cricket aside) genuinely could not be closer.
For some third-culture kids, immigrants who never really knew where they belonged, perhaps diplomatic camaraderie may in some nerdy way help to soothe a dislocated soul. But as someone who was born in Sri Lanka and grew up in Australia, this week’s headlines about the two nations’ mutual admiration club have not evoked pleasant thoughts.
After the United Nations reports on war crimes, the supply of Australian vessels to the Sri Lankan Navy to prevent the departure of people who want to escape, and the revelation that a former Sri Lankan military officer was overseeing the interment of Tamil asylum seekers on Manus Island, there was something about the smarminess of the exchange in that picture that caused me additional disgust and embarrassment. It was, after all, taken to celebrate a moment of "bold" solidarity between two nations who both agreed it was best not to support an international inquiry into human rights abuses at the end of the 2009 Sri Lankan civil war. Full story...
Related posts:
For some third-culture kids, immigrants who never really knew where they belonged, perhaps diplomatic camaraderie may in some nerdy way help to soothe a dislocated soul. But as someone who was born in Sri Lanka and grew up in Australia, this week’s headlines about the two nations’ mutual admiration club have not evoked pleasant thoughts.
After the United Nations reports on war crimes, the supply of Australian vessels to the Sri Lankan Navy to prevent the departure of people who want to escape, and the revelation that a former Sri Lankan military officer was overseeing the interment of Tamil asylum seekers on Manus Island, there was something about the smarminess of the exchange in that picture that caused me additional disgust and embarrassment. It was, after all, taken to celebrate a moment of "bold" solidarity between two nations who both agreed it was best not to support an international inquiry into human rights abuses at the end of the 2009 Sri Lankan civil war. Full story...
Related posts:
- Australia's asylum seeker obsession puts democracy at risk...
- Sri Lanka’s Tamils are still facing torture and sexual attacks...
- Sri Lanka: new video evidence of grotesque violations...
- Reign of terror continues in Northern Sri Lanka...
- Sri Lanka security forces 'raping and torturing' ahead of Commonwealth...
- Scandal of Sri Lanka’s disappeared...
- Leading Sri Lanka into the abyss...
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