Stephen Smith (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I wish to update the House on the situation in Sri Lanka since my last report to the House in September last year.

In particular, I wish to update the House on the ongoing political and humanitarian challenges facing Sri Lanka and Australia’s strengthened financial and diplomatic support for the people of Sri Lanka to help Sri Lanka meet these challenges.

I highlight some recent progress on resettling internally displaced civilians which is an enormous task.

I underscore Australia’s longstanding bilateral relationship with Sri Lanka, underpinned by substantial people-to-people links. Our bilateral cooperation continues to expand in important areas, including combating people-smuggling and human trafficking. Addressing transnational issues such as these is important, not only to Sri Lanka and Australia but also to our region.

I do so at a time when President Mahinda Rajapaksa has recently been re-elected, following Sri Lanka’s first nationwide election after over two decades of conflict and at a time when Sri Lanka prepares for parliamentary elections on 8 April.

As I said in my statement to the parliament in September last year, the military victory in Sri Lanka has changed the situation on the ground irrevocably.

During my visit to Sri Lanka in November last year, I urged the Sri Lankan government to win the peace, after decades long military conflict, by forging an enduring political settlement for all Sri Lankans.

I acknowledged that this would not be easy. Nor would it occur overnight. It would come only after a process of political reform and rapprochement between all parties and communities. While the outside world could help in practical ways, the solution needed to come from within Sri Lanka, from the people of Sri Lanka.

The re-elected Sri Lankan government has both a special responsibility and a special opportunity to use its second term to promote the political freedoms and the reforms, including the empowerment of minority communities, which will enable all citizens to have a stake in the country’s future. Australia believes that Sri Lanka’s democracy, its rule of law and its national security would be enhanced by a stronger civil society and an independent and free media. Such freedoms could enhance Sri Lanka’s prospects for lasting reconciliation.

Another crucial part of the reconciliation and peace-building process is the proper conduct of elections. In this regard, it is notable that polling for the presidential election proceeded reasonably peacefully in most areas. There were, however, reports of violence and possible violations of election law in the lead-up to and following the presidential election. As we approach the 8 April parliamentary elections, Australia urges the government of Sri Lanka and its civil institutions to ensure that there are credible investigations into past election incidents and measures are put in place to prevent similar problems arising again.

As members would be aware, the former army chief and presidential candidate, General Fonseka, was taken into detention on 8 February and faces charges of undertaking political activities while still in the military and violating military procurement guidelines. General Fonseka was brought before a military court at navy headquarters on 16 March and is due to appear again today. General Fonseka is challenging the legality of his detention through Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court. The international community, including Australia, has been and is watching these developments closely. Australia has underlined the importance of General Fonseka and his supporters being treated fairly and transparently in accordance with Sri Lankan law.

Decades of civil war have impacted terribly and adversely on Sri Lankan civilians. Australia made repeated calls during the conflict, and since, for all parties to make the welfare and protection of civilians the absolute priority, and for international law to be respected. Australia has called on the Sri Lankan government to investigate allegations of human rights violations and violations of international law. Proper and transparent investigation of these allegations is an important step towards reconciliation. Australia welcomed the announcement by the Sri Lankan government on 26 October last year that it would establish an expert committee to investigate allegations contained in the United States State Department’s Report to congress on incidents during the recent conflict in Sri Lanka. The deadline for the committee’s report was extended from 31 December last year to 30 April this year. It is important that the expert committee moves more quickly to progress its investigations and implement its findings. We look forward to the committee’s report, by 30 April 2010.

I welcome President Rajapaksa’s re-election statement on 27 January in which he committed to govern for all Sri Lankans, to build on the peace already achieved and move forward on a reconciliation program. Others have indicated a willingness to explore options for reconciliation and long-term stability. The Tamil National Alliance said in its platform for parliamentary elections that it would accept a ‘federal structure’ in the north-east. Obviously this is a sensitive political issue for Sri Lankans to resolve. Australia encourages all political voices in Sri Lanka to engage together in a sincere process to achieve lasting political reconciliation in Sri Lanka.

Following my visit to Sri Lanka on 9 and 10 November last year, the first by an Australian foreign minister since 2004, it was very clear that the humanitarian task facing Sri Lanka was immense. Australia has been a close observer of the humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka both during the recent intensified fighting and since the end of the military conflict in May last year. Throughout, Australia has stressed the need to make the welfare of civilians an absolute priority.

Australia held concerns about the camps for internally displaced people and we put these concerns directly to the Sri Lankan government at the time, calling for freedom of movement for displaced persons and management of the camps in accordance with international humanitarian standards. My discussions with the Sri Lankan government in November, including with President Rajapaksa and foreign minister Rohitha Bogollagama, revealed that progress had been made in tackling the challenging task of resettling hundreds of thousands of displaced citizens and rehabilitating their communities. However, for several reasons—including the scale of the resettlement task—the Sri Lankan government was not able to meet its self-imposed deadline of 31 January for completing the return of all internally displaced people to their place of origin.

This process is continuing. Of the nearly 300,000 civilians displaced by the conflict, over 185,000 have been released and are living either in their own homes or—in greater numbers—with host families. Living conditions in the 12 remaining camps, which now house over 90,000 internally displaced people, continue to be difficult but reduced numbers have relieved the problem of overcrowding. Efforts are being made to meet the basic needs of people still in these camps and essential services are being provided.

During my November visit to Colombo, I discussed with the Sri Lankan government the importance of freedom of movement for all internally displaced civilians. Accordingly, Australia welcomed the Sri Lankan government’s announcement on 1 December last year which allowed freer movement for people in the camps. Tens of thousands of people have taken advantage of that decision to travel outside the camps.

Many of these civilians and those recently resettled have suffered immensely through decades of conflict which has resulted in significant trauma for many Sri Lankans. In addition to the situation in the camps and the resettlement areas, we remain watchful of the conditions for over 10,000 individuals who have been separated from the civilian population and held in detention as ex-combatants. We urge the Sri Lankan government to regularise the legal status of this group and afford international agencies access to those so held in detention.

Australia has adopted an enhanced diplomatic and humanitarian effort to help Sri Lanka address the challenges of recovery from over two decades of civil war. On 2 November 2009, the Prime Minister announced the appointment of Mr John McCarthy as Australia’s special representative to Sri Lanka. Mr McCarthy’s role has reinforced the messages that I and Australia’s high commissioner in Colombo have put to the Sri Lankan government on the importance of—and Australia’s support for—stabilisation and resettlement of internally displaced civilians within Sri Lanka.

Special Representative McCarthy has also engaged with the international community widely on the challenges faced by Sri Lanka. He has been consulting extensively on the importance of supporting reconstruction and rehabilitation programs in the north of the country. These programs are important both for humanitarian reasons and for laying the foundations of lasting peace. Mr McCarthy visited Colombo with me in November and has just completed a further visit to Sri Lanka this month, where he met President Rajapaksa. During this February visit, Mr McCarthy was also able to travel north with our high commissioner to the Jaffna peninsula where they visited camps for internally displaced civilians and resettlement areas, and met local government and community leaders.

In a number of discussions overseas, both in the corridors of international meetings and bilateral visits, including in London in January and in New Delhi in March, I underlined the importance of international support to assist Sri Lanka meet its challenges.

Australia continues to respond generously to the humanitarian challenges facing Sri Lanka. Our aid program is targeted to meet the needs of displaced civilians, their resettlement and the rehabilitation of their communities. Our aid efforts in the camps are focused on the wellbeing of internally displaced people, and not on the camps being a long-term settlement option.

The proper, transparent and compassionate treatment of those citizens of the north and east will be important for post-conflict reconciliation in Sri Lanka. It is for this reason that Australia continues to advocate resettlement of all remaining displaced persons in safe and dignified conditions as soon as possible. Australian officials in Sri Lanka are working closely with central and local government authorities and community groups to determine how best Australia can continue to address the needs of the displaced, and support their resettlement and rehabilitation. A senior AusAID official visited resettlement areas in northern Sri Lanka in late February for this purpose.

In many cases resettlement areas have been badly affected by the conflict. There are impassable roads, destroyed houses and a lack of potable water. Infrastructure, including schools and health facilities, is damaged or non-existent. Large swathes of agricultural land are as yet unusable and tools to restart livelihoods are scarce. In addition, there is the ever-present danger of landmines and unexploded ordnance. Demining is an essential first step to allow people to return home and rebuild their lives. For this reason, Australia has already announced its commitment to provide up to $20 million for demining over the next five years to ensure that the northern part of Sri Lanka can be made safe for resettlement.

In November 2009 following my visit to Sri Lanka I informed the House that Australia was looking favourably to assisting both the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank on their reconstruction projects in the north and in the east. In Singapore in the margins of APEC I had a conversation with Mr Zoellick, the Executive Director of the World Bank, indicating Australia’s in-principle support for those reconstruction efforts so far as the World Bank is concerned.

Today I announced that Australia will provide an additional $20 million in targeted assistance for Sri Lanka. This support will be delivered through international organisations who are making a practical contribution to stabilisation efforts. It is focused on enabling people to return to their homes and communities and to re-establish the economic and social infrastructure required for recovery.

Twelve million dollars will be provided to the World Bank to co-finance the World Bank’s emergency northern reconstruction project. Over an 18-month period, the World Bank project plans to help over 100,000 displaced people by providing cash grants, raising standards of living and rebuilding essential community infrastructure. Australian funding will go directly to resettling families, allowing them to regain some control over their own lives and to start repairing their houses and clearing their fields and wells. Our assistance will also provide seeds and essential farming and fishing implements to improve food security.

Eight million dollars will be provided to co-finance the Asian Development Bank’s north-east community restoration and development project. This project aims to rapidly improve living conditions by restoring basic social infrastructure including critical health facilities and schools. It will restore village roads, provide irrigation and water supply schemes and restore electricity supplies. It will give priority to districts affected by conflict including parts of Jaffna, Mannar and Kilinochchi.

The assistance I am announcing today builds on Australia’s existing support for housing to enable internally displaced people to be resettled more quickly. Large-scale damage to basic housing infrastructure in the north remains a critical challenge, with the total number of houses damaged or destroyed reported to exceed 230,000. This announcement and support follows on from the $3 million Australia provided in November 2009 to UN Habitat to provide cash grants to affected families for quick repairs and longer term reconstruction of housing, as well as restoring land titles.

Sri Lanka is important to Australia. Sri Lanka and Australia share strong bilateral relations, built on our shared Commonwealth membership, as well as links in trade and investment, defence, education, sport, culture and development cooperation. The people-to-people links between Australia and Sri Lanka are strong with around 100,000 people of Sri Lankan extraction now living in Australia, contributing to all aspects of our society.

The opportunity now exists for the Sri Lankan diaspora to play a constructive role in promoting the conditions for sustainable peace. I urge the diaspora to look forward and work in positive ways to help communities inside Sri Lanka realise a peaceful future for themselves. Australia is committed to working with Sri Lanka to help address the serious challenges facing today’s world, including counterterrorism and people smuggling, climate change and organised transnational crime. Such issues require global solutions and Australia is firmly committed to supporting and enhancing the vital role of multilateral institutions, including the United Nations, in meeting these challenges.

People smuggling is an issue that affects our entire region, not just Australia. We are working more closely than ever before with international organisations, in particular the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and with regional partners to combat this issue, through such groupings as the Bali Process on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crime. People smuggling remains a high-priority transnational issue for source, transit and destination countries in our region, including Australia and Sri Lanka.

People smugglers and people-smuggling syndicates work without regard for human safety or national legal frameworks. Australia is working together with Sri Lanka to address people smuggling. In a joint ministerial statement I issued with the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister on 9 November 2009, Australia and Sri Lanka reaffirmed our continuing commitment to work together to combat people smuggling and related organised criminal activities, including enhancing cooperation to bring to justice the criminal organisers of the people smuggling trade, taking a leading role to promote regional cooperation to act against transnational people-smuggling networks and undertaking a public information campaign to alert Sri Lankan citizens to the dangers of maritime people smuggling.

We acknowledged our ongoing constructive bilateral cooperation between key domestic operational agencies and underlined our commitment to work together in practical ways to address people smuggling issues in a cooperative and comprehensive manner.

Mr Speaker, Sri Lanka is emerging from a long period of conflict and insecurity towards greater stability. With new presidential and parliamentary terms soon to begin, now more than ever is the time to forge a new beginning for all its citizens and take forward national reconciliation and lasting peace.

As a long-time friend, Australia has been, and will continue to be, committed to working with Sri Lanka to build a peaceful and prosperous future for all Sri Lankans.

I ask leave of the House to move a motion to enable the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and member for Curtin to speak for 18 minutes.

Leave granted.

I move:

That so much of standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent Ms J Bishop (Deputy Leader of the Opposition) speaking in reply to the ministerial statement for a period not exceeding 18 minutes.

Question agreed to.

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In rising to respond to the ministerial statement on Sri Lanka I acknowledge the further assistance to Sri Lanka announced today by the Minister for Foreign Affairs. It is important that our aid effort be focused on our region and that it be targeted and delivered in the most cost-effective way to ensure value for money for the benefit of the aid recipients and the Australian taxpayer.

Sri Lanka is emerging from arguably the darkest chapter in its history since independence in 1948. The people of Sri Lanka have suffered terribly through a civil war in the decades since 1976, culminating in the final confrontation that led to the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in May last year. The events which followed that military defeat raised international concerns as hundreds of thousands of Tamil people were held in camps. A decision to prevent access to the camps for humanitarian workers from NGOs raised further concerns in the international community. The situation in Sri Lanka was further complicated by allegations of war crimes and the decision of Sri Lanka’s top military officer, General Sarath Fonseka, to resign from the military late last year and contest the January presidential election against the incumbent president. General Fonseka was unsuccessful at the election. He was arrested and is currently facing courts-martial for alleged violations of military law. The government has been accused of conducting a campaign of persecution against General Fonseka, raising further concerns about political freedom and democracy in Sri Lanka.

Without seeking to pass judgment on the government of Sri Lanka, it is my wish and the wish of most people around the world that Sri Lanka find a path to sustained peace and prosperity. Sri Lankans share the aspirations of most people in most nations, wanting their government to provide a safe and secure environment in which they can raise their families and live their lives in safety. Having won the war against the LTTE, it is important that the Sri Lankan government win the peace. It is vital that international standards for human rights be maintained as Sri Lanka continues its transition to a post-conflict society.

I note the European Union withdrew Sri Lanka’s trade privileges last month due to concerns about what it described as ‘significant shortcomings’ on human rights issues. However, overnight a spokesperson has said that the European Union is committed to working with Sri Lanka to see whether the conditions for a reversal are in place. A high-level delegation from Sri Lanka visited Brussels this week, with further meetings scheduled which will hopefully prove to be a constructive exercise. It is also worth noting that the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, had proposed to establish an advisory council to investigate ways of holding accountable the alleged perpetrators of human rights violations during the final days of the battle against the LTTE. In recent days, a spokesperson for the Secretary-General has said that Ban Ki-moon is still discussing the idea of a panel of experts to investigate alleged war crimes and that ‘it is unlikely such a panel will be established very soon’.

It has also been reported that the 118 nations of the Non-Aligned Movement wrote to the Secretary-General, expressing concern about such an investigation. There is a difficult balancing act for the international community in that anyone who has committed crimes against humanity or war crimes should be held to account for their actions. At the same time, there is a need to ensure that actions by the international community do not cause further internal turmoil within Sri Lanka and do nothing to undermine efforts to develop a sustainable peace on the island. It is vital that the seeds for long-lasting peace be sown from the current situation and that it does not sow the seeds for a return to violence. There can only be a political solution to the tensions in Sri Lanka—a negotiated solution that accommodates the reasonable concerns of all parties.

One positive development is the recent report from the Tamil National Alliance, which was regarded as the political wing of the LTTE, calling for a new federal structure that provides Tamils with a level of independence under the umbrella of the Sri Lankan national government. This is a major step forward, as the TNA had previously supported the establishment of a separate Tamil homeland. A report has said that the TNA wants a negotiated solution and its leader has effectively renounced violence as a means of achieving its goals. The Sri Lankan government has assured the international community that it is working on a political solution and that time is needed to obtain a consensus. The President of Sri Lanka, in his speech declaring victory over the LTTE, spoke of the need to end ethnic and religious conflict and promised a home-grown solution to this conflict. The coalition in Australia welcomes recent reports that 185,000 people have just been released from the camps and allowed to return to their homes. While this is a positive development, it is vital that the process of release and resettlement be completed as quickly as possible.

The sooner that people are able to return to their homes and start to rebuild their lives, the sooner that steps can be taken to rebuild trust and respect between all communities in Sri Lanka. That process has begun, according to respected analyst Sergei DeSilva-Ranasinghe, who wrote in a recent report of Future Directions International:

The defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam in May 2009 has given vital democratic space for previously suppressed and sidelined Tamil political parties to meaningfully engage in the democratic process. As such, the political landscape for Tamils has changed dramatically over the last six months in particular, which has seen a new energy and optimism emerge among Tamil leaders in Sri Lanka eager to make headway in restoring normality and rebuilding their society.

Mr DeSilva-Ranasinghe went on to say:

Although the Sri Lankan Lankan government remained overly cautious after the defeat of the LTTE, it steadily relaxed its security posture, which was first demonstrated in May 2009, when it launched a major recruitment drive to recruit 2,000 Tamil speaking police constables in the Eastern Province.

He wrote that the previous atmosphere of tension had dissipated and had been replaced by a vitality and energy that brought great hope for a longer lasting peace. While it is not possible to form an independent view of the situation on the ground without visiting the region, these reports are greatly encouraging. If accurate, there appears to be much greater hope that future tensions between ethnic groups in Sri Lanka will be solved at the ballot box and not through the use of violence.

I also note that in the minister’s statement to this House he said that the situation on the ground in Sri Lanka had changed irrevocably since the military defeat of the LTTE. That is welcome news, as it would indicate that there will be a lessening of pressure on Australia’s borders through the people-smuggling trade in people from Sri Lanka. Given that the government has consistently claimed that push factors are driving the surge in boat people to Australia through the people-smuggling trade, I would hope that there will be an assurance from the government that the number of asylum seekers will drop.

Australians are rightly concerned that the almost daily arrival of boats, many from Sri Lanka, continues the massive surge in unauthorised arrivals under Labor which will end up costing Australians more than $1 billion. The Rudd government has already admitted to a $132 million blow-out in the cost of processing boat arrivals on Christmas Island this financial year plus another $34 million to increase the number of beds on Christmas Island because the government had predicted only 200 people would arrive illegally by boat this financial year, a massive underestimation which ignored the pull factor of the government’s weakening of our border protection laws. So far this financial year, over 3,000 people have arrived by boat and, even on a conservative estimate, by the end of July the Rudd government will be forced to spend an extra $230 million to deal with the sustained surge in arrivals under its failed policies.

As the shadow minister for immigration and citizenship pointed out recently, the Rudd government is currently planning on spending only $130 million per year over the next three years. Based on this year’s expected cost blow-outs, it will have to upgrade these estimates by an extra $300 million each year. Over four years, including 2009-10, this will leave Australians with an additional bill of over $1 billion in immigration costs alone because of the government’s failed immigration policies and the weakening of the coalition’s strong border protection regime. So we anticipate that at some point the government will reflect the views of the Minister for Foreign Affairs and revisit its estimates of likely boat arrivals, including from Sri Lanka, given the changing political environment there.

I have spoken previously in this House on the efforts of the member for Canning who, as chair for a number of years and now Deputy Chair of the Australia-Sri Lanka Parliamentary Friendship Group, has played a major role in building greater understanding between our two nations. The member for Canning has long recognised that personal relationships between Australians and Sri Lankans underpin strong diplomatic, cultural and economic relations. Australia, as a friend of Sri Lanka, will continue to support efforts at building peace and greater prosperity.