Lankan govt had no part in Tigers arrests: Ruddock? : Melbourne Indymedia

Well we all know that Australian politicians have their own fear factor agenda especially with a federal election coming up don't we Phillip?

War criminal attorney-general Philip Ruddock says the government was not pressured by Sri Lankan officials before police swooped on two suspected Tamil Tigers fundraisers.

The two men were arrested yesterday after counter-terrorism police raided a number of homes in Melbourne and Sydney.

The 32- and 36-year-olds have been charged with being members of, funding and supporting a terrorist organisation.

Mr Ruddock says judgements on the arrests were made on all the available evidence but there was no intervention by the Sri Lankan Government.

"These issues are pursued independently by agencies that are independent of government, and the Australian Federal police have that role," he said.

"But in this case it not only involved the Australian Federal Police, it involved the Victorian Police counter-terrorism team.

"They are independent, they make their own judgements on available evidence and certainly there is no direction from Government in relation to inquiries they might undertake or the nature of the evidence that they should be seeking to find or address."

Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Dr Palitha Kohona says he has been dealing closely with Australian authorities.

"We have been talking to Australian authorities for the last few months and we've been following developments in the investigation for some time now." he said.

"We also are aware that there are other people who are being investigated and we will encourage the Australian authorities to proceed to take action against them as well."

Dr Kohona has praised Australian authorities for the arrests.

"The fact that the Australian authorities have taken this measure suggests that they are taking the Tamil Tiger fundraising activity seriously and doing something about it and we are very encouraged by that," he said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200705/s1911984.htm

The politics of fear mongering? And why not do the Sri Lankan officials a favour at the same time? In fact the more favours you do for officials world wide the more you can increase your own political fear mongering terrorist landscape. To the say that the federal police are acting independently to the arrests is a load of crap in the highest order!

For instance why the initial PR broadcast before they were arrested declaring they were guilty of the crime?

Tsunami relief funds 'diverted to Tamil Tigers'

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200705/s1911432.htm

To say that it was not political based on the PR broadcast yesterday alone tells us that you're a lying war criminal who needs to be tried alongside John Howard at the ICC for war crimes against humanity, and the rest......

We all know that you can't trust a criminal who has shown no remorse that means that those same criminal acts are bound to be repeated and they are, time and time again by the Howard government.

Related:

Community flags retroactive federal election boycott to stop Howard profits

"We're trying to stop them from murdering more innocent people and we are saying you can't profit from it.

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/05/369167.html

9 to stand trial over political scapegoat plot

Nine political scapegoats accused of [allegedly] stockpiling chemicals, explosive and detonators [house hold chemicals allegedly found during a fishing expedition on a whole suburb] to carry out a terrorist attack [at no place and no time] have been 'ordered' to stand trial in the Supreme Court in Sydney next month.

http://sydney.indymedia.org.au/node/50855

Comment:

The ABC report?

They say that they were arrested late last year but I'm pretty sure it was around November 2005 since they've been in the gulag at Goulburn HRMU in segregated Isolation.

The Victorian Police Commissioner says terrorism charges against two men in Melbourne relate to alleged misuse of funds raised under the guise of tsunami relief.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200705/s1911432.htm

How slack is John Howard's ABC convicted them in the 'headline' before they've even been charged with the alleged offence?

Aust Sri Lankans 'pressured' to give money to Tigers

Members of the Sri Lankan community in Australia have complained of being intimidated into donating funds to the Tamil Tigers terrorist group, the country's Honorary Consul says.

The claims are unrelated to yesterday's arrests of two Melbourne men who have been charged with being members of, funding and supporting a terrorist organisation.

The Sri Lankan Government claims as much as $10 million has been collected from Australia and siphoned to Tamil separatist groups.

Sri Lanka's Honorary Consul in Melbourne Rodney Arambewela claims the Tamil community in Australia is under a lot of pressure to help groups like the Tigers.

"Unfortunately some of the people who have been contributing these funds are being intimidated, that's what we hear, been pressured to contribute," he said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200705/s1912116.htm

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Fairly unrelated sure it is? Nothing like a bit more propaganda to back up another political scapegoat frame up is it John Howard you fear mongering coward?

" ... before they were arrested .." big diff between arrested and 'charged'. The media circus occurred before they were "charged" .... Premeditation, no way .. the director was asleep in his chair.

watch the semantics parrot ;-o)

Following the arrest of two men in Melbourne on terror related charges the Socialist Party issued the following press statement.

Commenting on the arrest of two men yesterday for allegedly fundraising for the Tamil Tigers, Socialist Party National Organiser Anthony Main said “We are extremely concerned that people are being arrested for fundraising for political parties in another country.

“Many organisations raised money for people in Sri Lanka after the Tsunami, including the Socialist Party, we had to because, especially for people in the Tamil areas the aid wasn’t getting through. We are interested in seeing the evidence the police have against these two men.

“The fact that details of the charges still haven’t been provided to the lawyers suggests that the evidence may well be thin. We are also concerned that the presumption of innocence had been undermined by the police holding a press conference even before the men appeared in court. Perhaps this was to strengthen their case to the public.

“What the Australian public needs to understand is that there is a bloody civil war taking place in Sri Lanka and it is not just the Tamil Tigers involved in terrorist activities. It is common knowledge that the Sri Lankan government has been behind hundreds of assassinations and kidnappings in recent months.

“When the senior government minister De Silva visited Australia in February he met with both Howard and Bracks. Obviously at the same time as raising funds for his own purposes, he was putting pressure on them to crack down on the Tamil community here. We have been well aware of the police investigation taking place as I myself was asked to meet with the police to answer some questions. We have refused this request.

“My political associates in Sri Lanka are receiving death threats on a daily basis and have on a few occasions narrowly escaped attacks. The Socialist Party is in the process of gathering intelligence information that will prove that some of these death threats are coming from government supporters here in Melbourne. When we make this available we expect the police and the federal government to act in the same swift manner against the supporters of state sponsored terror.

“Whilst we don’t agree with the terror tactics that the Tigers are using we totally support the right of the Tamil people to have there own homeland if they wish. The oppression that not only the Tamils but also trade unionists and anti war activists are facing in Sri Lanka is something else. Howard has spent millions of dollars on the ‘war against terror’ I want to know what he is doing about the state terror being unleashed against ordinary people in Sri Lanka. This is total hypocrisy from the Howard government” Anthony said.

War criminal foreign minister Alexander Downer says his department has known for some time that financial contributions were being made to the Tamil Tigers [alleged] terrorist organisation from Australia.

Two Melbourne men were yesterday charged with being members of the Sri Lankan organisation and knowingly providing it with funds under the guise of raising money for tsunami relief.

The Sri Lankan Government says up to $10 million, or 30 per cent of the money raised for the Tamil Tigers, comes from Australia.

But Mr Downer rejects the claim [publicly like he's just answering a question about the case when the question was 'obviously' a pre-emptive strike against the accused.]

"Some of it comes from Australia, probably nothing like 30 per cent, but small amounts do come from Australia. I don't think there's any doubt about that," he said.

"It's been very hard to collect evidence, though, about money in Australia and paid directly to the Tamil Tigers, which is, by the way, an offence."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200705/s1912614.htm

What happened to the long standing SEPARATION OF POWERS in this country? The hide of the political establishment to insinuate that these people are guilty before they have been tried.

So not only did the political establishment war criminal attorney-general broadcast them guilty yesterday without them being charged with any offence now the war criminal foreign minister publicly insinuates them guilty by smearing them.

If these people have been charged with an offence then let the court find them guilty even though the law itself is unjustified and draconian.

Lock up Ruddock and Downer for contempt of court immediately!