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.
