Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Sri Lankan protest on Boxing Day



December 12, 2012 | The Age

Chloe Saltau

Chief cricket writer for The Age

Sri Lankan Socialist Party activists demonstrate in Colombo on Monday, the first anniversary of the disappearance of two of their colleagues in the northern district of Jaffna. Normalcy is yet to return to the north more than three years after the civil war ended. Photo: AFP
ORGANISERS of a campaign for a boycott of Sri Lanka's cricket matches expect about 1000 people to protest outside the MCG on Boxing Day but have promised they won't disrupt the biggest day on the Australian cricket calendar.
The Tamil Refugee Council says it is determined to draw attention to the Sri Lankan government's human rights record by holding a demonstration between Jolimont Station and the MCG on the first morning of the Boxing Day Test.
''At no point will it be disruptive, it will be a very peaceful protest and we won't interrupt anyone going to the match or anything happening on the field,'' the group's spokesman, Aran Mylvaganam, said.
A smaller demonstration is planned for the first morning of the series opener in Hobart, on Friday.
Former prime minister Malcolm Fraser this week called for an independent assessment of the situation in Sri Lanka, including whether members of the Tamil minority are being persecuted and how those sent back from Australia after coming by boat are being treated.
Before Australia toured Sri Lanka last year, the country's most famous cricketer and Tamil, Muthiah Muralidaran, argued that sport should not be mixed with politics.
But Mylvaganam claimed the Sinhalese government used the national cricket team to project a favourable image of the situation in Sri Lanka three years after the brutal end of the civil war.