Australian Tamils demand aid

By Sujatha Fernandes SYDNEY — More than 3000 people rallied in Burwood Park on November 11 in a prayer meeting and fast organised by the Australasian Federation of Tamil Associations. The event was part of an international day of action in solidarity with the Tamils of Sri Lanka. The rally called for an immediate end to the war being waged by the Sinhala-dominated Sri Lankan government against the Tamil people in the north. It also demanded that international aid organisations be allowed to provide humanitarian assistance to some half a million Tamils who have fled the town of Jaffna, the capital of the Tamil homeland. The Sri Lankan government has refused to allow UN aid organisations and other independent aid agencies to provide immediate assistance. Several speakers from the Tamil community emphasised the need for aid to be administered by organisations independent of the government and to be provided directly to the Tamils. Other speakers at the rally included Mary Eason, federal Labor Party member for the seat of Lowe (in which a large proportion of the Tamil population in Sydney lives), and Reihana Mohideen from the Democratic Socialist Party. Eason promised to raise the matter in federal parliament. Mohideen pledged the DSP's support for the Tamil's struggle for self-determination, and called on the Keating government to pressure the Sri Lankan government to stop the war, and to raise this demand at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. Other speakers criticised the international and Australian media's coverage of the war in which only gives the official Sri Lankan government version. The heavily censored government reports are aimed at demonising the Tamil rebels, and portray the Sinhala army as the "liberators" of the Tamil people.