Resolution concerning Sri Lankan Refugees

[JasonMckerra]

I beg leave to introduce the following resolution:

Resolution of the Senate of Lavalon

Noting that:

Three hundred thousand Tamils are being held in internment camps indefinitely by the Sri Lankan government;

Despite the supposed end of the civil war, Tamils face persecution and discrimination in Sri Lanka;

In the face of these circumstances, Tamil people of Sri Lanka are within their rights under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1951 UN refugee convention to seek protection as refugees;

Therefore the Republic of Lavalon;

Condemns the government of Sri Lanka for it's discrimination against and persecution of the Tamil minority;

Calls upon all peace loving nations to withdraw financial and diplomatic support for the Sri Lankan government until such a time as all internment camps are closed and those being held are freed;

Calls upon all territorial states to uphold their obligations under the UN Refugee Convention 1951;

Condemns the governments of Australia, Indonesia and Malaysia for their inhumane treatment of Tamil Refugees;

Calls for the immediate closure of Refugee detention camps in Australia and Indonesia; and calls upon those countries, especially Australia, to respect the rights of refugees;

Calls upon all micro and macro nations to work towards a world without borders.

[JasonMckerra]

As per senate procedure, this resolution is open for debate for a period of three days.

[Zachary Klaas]

I support any measure, with regard to any civil war or ongoing hostilities in the world, which forbids internment camps with undefined mandates.

The world's first "concentration camps" to use that name were the internment camps established by the British in the Second Boer War of 1899-1902.  These were camps established for a similar purpose, during a time of war and with an unfocused mandate...in other words, interning people with no way of establishing whether these camps even existed for some kind of reasonably arguable military purpose.  Numerous people died in these camps with no connection to fighting for the Boers - including children, civilian Boers and black South Africans caught in the middle of the squabble between two European colonial powers.  The suffering in these camps attracted much in the way of unfavorable publicity, and did much to gain the Boers sympathy in the world, despite the general lack of legitimacy of their cause (these were the same Dutch South Africans who later gained political power, and used it to bring the world apartheid...)

Though I am as skeptical of the Tamils' cause as I was of the Boers in South Africa, I can see no more reason for the Sri Lankan Sinhalese government to use this kind of tactic than I saw for the British Empire's using it at the turn of the 20th Century.   It makes martyrs out of one's opposition, even if the opposition would not generally attract sympathy otherwise.  It punishes large numbers of innocent in order to do something about the much smaller numbers of people who may be guilty of something.  And at the end of the day, it will probably make the likelihood of their triumph greater, not lesser.

I therefore support this resolution.

[JasonMckerra]

I thank the member for words of support for this resolution.

[JasonMckerra]

I call the measure to a vote.

Citizens may vote to APPROVE or DECLINE the measure.

[JasonMckerra]

APPROVE

[Zachary Klaas]

APPROVE

[JasonMckerra]

The voting period is concluded, the measure is adopted.