Ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Perth, Australia, Starting on October 28th, a major International conference on Sri Lanka held on October 20th, in Sydney Australia. As Sri Lanka becomes the hot topic on this common wealth summit, this conference attracts more interest.

Meanwhile the Australian police have confirmed they’re examining a war crimes dossier alleging Sri Lankan authorities shelled civilians during the civil war. The International Commission of Jurists provided the brief to police, which includes testimony from Sri Lankans who say they were attacked by government forces.

The international conference is co-hosted by Australian Tamil Congress (ATC) and Global Tamil Forum (GTF) held at the Sheraton on the Park, in Sydney. The Conference will be into 4 sessions:

Session 1: National reconciliation on the basis of Justice and Accountability.

Session 2: Recognising identities and democratic rights of the peoples

Some of the Key Speakers attending the Conference:

Bruce Haigh – Haigh initiated Australian Embassy contact with members of the black South African resistance, including the Black Consciousness Movement in 1976. Included amongst the friends he made at this time were Steve Biko

Lionel Bopage – Former General Secretary of the JVP in Sri Lanka who resigned from the party on principle as he disagreed with the Party’s approach to the Tamil issue

Damien Kingsbury – Professor Damien Kingsbury holds a Personal Chair in the School of International and Political Studies at Deakin University. His research interests include the politics of South-East Asia, particularly Indonesia, East Timor and Sri Lanka Politics; the role of the military in politics; security and terrorism; post-colonial political structures and nation formation; assertions of self-determination and civil and political rights.

Jake Lynch – Associate Professor Jake Lynch, PhD (City University, London) is Director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPACS) at the University of Sydney, an Executive Member of the Sydney Peace Foundation and newly elected Secretary General of the International Peace Research Association, having hosted its Sydney conference in July 2010. Jake has spent the past 13 years researching, developing, teaching and training in peace journalism – and practising it, as an experienced international reporter in television and newspapers. He was an on-air presenter, anchoring over a thousand half-hour news bulletins for BBC World TV. Before that, he was the Sydney Correspondent for the London Independent newspaper, and a Political Correspondent for Sky News.

Graham Thom – Dr Graham Thom has been Amnesty International Australia’s Refugee Coordinator since 2000, working on behalf of individual asylum seekers as well as on broader human rights issues relating to refugees. Dr Thom publishes and lectures on domestic and international refugee issues and has represented Amnesty International at UNHCR’s Annual Tripartite Consultation on Resettlement in Geneva for the past three years. He completed his doctoral thesis on post-war migration at the University of Sydney in 2000.

Peter Arndt – Executive Officer of the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission of Brisbane and a Mission Development Officer for the Archdiocese. Peter has many years experience in community grassroots advocacy and activism and in Church social justice action. His principal areas of interest are reconciliation and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander justice, refugee and asylum seeker rights, industrial relations, human rights in West Papua, and ecological sustainability.

Rev. John Barr – The Rev. John Barr has had a distinguished and varied career. John originally trained as an electrician then earned his BA Hons in Social Anthropology and MA in Religious Studies from Sydney University. He was ordained to the Uniting Church in Australia in 1992 and trained at the United Theological College. He has served in West Timor as a mission co-worker and taught at the Christian University in Kupang. Upon his return to Australia, John served as a Uniting Church Minister in the Parish of Armidale and was University Chaplain for the University of New England. In 1996 he was transferred to the National Assembly to work as Secretary for People in Mission. In 1999 he was appointed as Indonesia Secretary for Uniting International Mission and in 2002 commenced work as the Associate Director for Church Solidarity Asia, which includes responsibility for 17 partnerships in the Asia region.

Prof. Suriyanarayanan of India – Amongst many achievements in his personal and professional life, most notable was that he was was a member of the National Security Advisory Board of the Government of India during 2008-2010

Sisa Njikelana MP -ANC (Republic of South Africa) – Member of Parliament (African National Congress) of Republic of South Africa from 2004 to date. Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Energy. Deputy Chairperson of the Permanent Committee on Agriculture, Rural Economy, Natural Resources and Environment in the Pan African Parliament from 2009 to 2011.

Abdul Kader – Former General Secretary of Teacher’s Union and General Secretary of Malayaka Thamilar Munnanni in SL. He was also one of the first people to be arrested under the notorious PTA (from the Muslim community)

Prof Dr Aluwihara – (Former Vice Chancellor of Peradeniya University. His father Aluwihare resigned from the Banadaranayake’s SLFP government when the Sinhala ONLY law was introduced in protest – Current Sri Lanka President Rajapakshe’s father crossed over from the UNP to SLFP in support of the law

John Dowd QC – The former Supreme Court Judge who filed action with the Federal Police here in Australia against the Sri Lankan High Commissioner former Admiral T. Samarasinghe, President Rajapakshe and the former Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohana

Ms. Meena Krishnamoorthy – The eye witness from the ‘no fire zone’ who appeared on the recent ABC 7.30 Report Programme

Prof. Ivan Shearer – Representative of Australia in the IIGEP, which worked and withdrew abruptly from SL

Saravanabawan MP (TNA) of Sri Lanka (Tamil Community)

Manogaran MP of Malaysia – Tamil MP who recently visited Vanni to see for himself the suffering without disclosing that he was a Malaysian MP

Johari Abdul MP of Malaysia – MP from the Muslim community

Senthorun (Sen) Raj (NSW President of Amnesty International Australia)

Courtesy: Tamil News – October 20, 2011

Published on: Oct 20, 2011 12:14:59 GMT