Wrong priorities in Sri Lanka

A MONTH after Sri Lankan forces crushed the last resistance by the separatist Tamil Tigers, the island's conflict has faded from the world's news bulletins. Yet 280,000 Tamil civilians remain in government detention camps, under what are reported to be conditions of privation, while officials screen them - in a process of so far indefinite length - for hidden Tiger fighters and cadres.

Among them, we now learn, are three Australian passport holders of Tamil extraction who were in the combat zone, whether involved with the rebels or just helping relatives is not known. Sri Lanka's high commissioner in Canberra, Senaka Walgampaya, says his government doesn't know who they are or their whereabouts, but airily states they will be subject to the same screening as any other internees.
This is an extraordinary claim, pointing to either neglect of duty by Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in making concerns for the safety and wellbeing of our nationals known to Sri Lankan authorities, or Colombo wilfully ignoring Canberra's approaches. Either way, Mr Walgampaya should be summoned to DFAT forthwith and the concerns spelt out to him.
Officials from the Australian High Commission in Colombo are on their way to the Tamil detention camps in Sri Lanka's north, but it is unclear how much access they will get, either to look for the Australians or assess general conditions. International agencies have had only limited opportunities to visit. A shipload of relief supplies sent by Tamils in Britain has been turned away at sea, not even allowed to unload its cargo in Colombo under government supervision. A Canadian MP has been turned back at Colombo airport.
Possibly the Sri Lankan Government thinks the Rudd Government is not really concerned about the plight of Tamil civilians, Australian citizens or otherwise. After all, Australia's deputy navy chief, Rear Admiral David Thomas, was there on Tuesday - to talk about people smuggling. This suggests a government more in fear of a popular media backlash from more boatloads of asylum seekers.
But that prospect will actually be increased if foreign countries don't put pressure on Sri Lanka's President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, to modify his hubristic celebration of victory, and put ethnic reconciliation into practice before Tiger remnants find support for a renewed fight. Openess to scrutiny must be part of this. So far, and suspiciously, Mr Rajapaksa is shutting out third-party observers, while local thugs - men in white vans - brutalise his critics with impunity, the latest victim being a journalists' union leader, Poddala Jayantha