Lankan Ranger
ELITE MEMBER
Motion to Suspend Sri Lanka from the Commonwealth Defeated
The Australian Government and the Opposition voted together yesterday to defeat a motion moved in the Australian Senate by Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon (Senator for New South Wales) to suspend Sri Lanka from the Commonwealth.
Speaking on the motion, a Australian government representative said he did not believe that complex foreign policy issues could be resolved through motions such as the one mooted by Senator Rhiannon.
Senator Rhiannon also convened a closed door round table discussion to further the call for a war crimes tribunal on Sri Lanka earlier in the week, the participants at this discussion included representatives of pro-LTTE lobby group.
No invitation was extended by the Senator for any Sri Lankan Government representative to participate in this discussion.
Senator Rhiannon recently requested the Australian Minister of Immigration and Citizenship to provide details of those who had applied for Australian visas to attend the forthcoming CHOGM meeting as a part of the Sri Lanka delegation. The Minister declined to provide that information.
Several articles have appeared in the Australian media on the attempts by the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) and the Australian Tamil Congress (ATC) calling on Governments including Australia to suspend Sri Lanka from the Commonwealth and to seek to prevent the participation of the Sri Lanka delegation at the forthcoming CHOGM meeting in Perth.
The sole aim of these groups is to resurrect the militarily defeated LTTE terrorists and their cause of creating a separate mono ethnic state of Tamil Eelam in the North and East of Sri Lanka. The efforts of these groups have concentrated in the aftermath of the war in targeting key Sri Lankan Government officials and damaging their reputations internationally. Their calls have continued to be ignored worldwide.
Sri Lankas High Commissioner Thisara Samarasinghe has given extensive interviews to the Australian Associated Press (AAP) and ABC Radio Australia this week countering allegations made against Sri Lanka.
Aussie senate rejects motion to expel Lanka from C
The Australian Government and the Opposition voted together yesterday to defeat a motion moved in the Australian Senate by Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon (Senator for New South Wales) to suspend Sri Lanka from the Commonwealth.
Speaking on the motion, a Australian government representative said he did not believe that complex foreign policy issues could be resolved through motions such as the one mooted by Senator Rhiannon.
Senator Rhiannon also convened a closed door round table discussion to further the call for a war crimes tribunal on Sri Lanka earlier in the week, the participants at this discussion included representatives of pro-LTTE lobby group.
No invitation was extended by the Senator for any Sri Lankan Government representative to participate in this discussion.
Senator Rhiannon recently requested the Australian Minister of Immigration and Citizenship to provide details of those who had applied for Australian visas to attend the forthcoming CHOGM meeting as a part of the Sri Lanka delegation. The Minister declined to provide that information.
Several articles have appeared in the Australian media on the attempts by the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) and the Australian Tamil Congress (ATC) calling on Governments including Australia to suspend Sri Lanka from the Commonwealth and to seek to prevent the participation of the Sri Lanka delegation at the forthcoming CHOGM meeting in Perth.
The sole aim of these groups is to resurrect the militarily defeated LTTE terrorists and their cause of creating a separate mono ethnic state of Tamil Eelam in the North and East of Sri Lanka. The efforts of these groups have concentrated in the aftermath of the war in targeting key Sri Lankan Government officials and damaging their reputations internationally. Their calls have continued to be ignored worldwide.
Sri Lankas High Commissioner Thisara Samarasinghe has given extensive interviews to the Australian Associated Press (AAP) and ABC Radio Australia this week countering allegations made against Sri Lanka.
Aussie senate rejects motion to expel Lanka from C
