Australia voices support for development project in Sri Lanka despite human rights concerns

by Reshiga
Jun 1, 2021

Photo credit: ColomboPage

Australian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, David Holly called on Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Monday to voice support for development in Sri Lanka despite ongoing concerns over Sri Lanka’s human rights record.

Holly spoke on the potential for Sri Lanka to emerge as a centre of higher learning and potential export market hub in the South Asian region, highlighting the 75 years of friendly relations between the countries before announcing a donation of medical equipment to aid in Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 plight.

Rajapaksa requested technical assistance from the Australian Government regarding the recent cargo ship fire that caused the worst environmental disaster in the island's history.

In April, the Tamil Refugee Council criticised the Australian government for overlooking the “new warnings that the political situation in Sri Lanka is deteriorating” and supplying Sri Lankan police with five aerial drones. They added that the Australian government’s silence on alleged human rights abuses may “aid its ongoing oppression and persecution of Tamils”.

Read more here. 

Add new comment

About text formats

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.

Restricted HTML

  • You can align images (data-align="center"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • You can caption images (data-caption="Text"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.
  • You can embed media items (using the <drupal-media> tag).

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

link button