Chris Slee

  • Tariq Ali hosts forum on the recolonisation of Iraq

    Three hundred people attended a launch of author and activist Tariq Ali's new book, From Bush to Obama — Change We Can Believe In? on October 6. Ali said Obama’s election campaign had raised people's hopes and mobilised US youth, but people were now disillusioned and angry. He said Obama was a “master of bullshit”. Obama’s rhetoric sounded different, but fundamentally continued the policies of the Bush regime.

  • Melbourne meeting discuses Mr Ward campaign

    Twenty people attended a September 28 Indigenous Social Justice Association (ISJA) meeting to hear Bruce Campbell, from the WA Deaths in Custody Watch Committe, discuss the campaign for justice for Mr Ward. On Invasion Day (January 26) 2008, Mr Ward, a respected Aboriginal elder, was arrested and died of heat stroke in the back of a prison van the next day while being taken 360km in 42°C heat.

  • Sri Lanka: Ties with Israel expose duplicity

    On July 21, the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth published an interview with Donald Perera, Sri Lanka’s ambassador to Israel. Perera, the former Sri Lankan Air Force commander and Chief of Defence Staff, thanked Israel profusely for its support in the fight against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

  • Sri Lanka: Tamils dispossession worsens

    More than a year after its victory over the pro-independence Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) continues to hold large areas of land in the predominantly Tamil north and east of Sri Lanka as “high security zones” (HSZ). Many of the Tamil inhabitants who were evicted from these areas to create the HSZs during the decades-long war are still unable to return to their homes.

  • Sri Lanka: Tamils abstain from poll

    The ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) won nearly two thirds of the seats in the Sri Lankan parliament at the April 8 national elections. The exact figure is uncertain, because the result in two electorates was annulled because of polling day violence.

  • Tamil Three get suspended sentences

    Three Tamil men in Victoria have been given suspended sentences after pleading guilty to charges of providing money or resources to a group on the United Nations list of proscribed “terrorist” organisations.

  • Rally marks Redfern death

    MELBOURNE — Eighty people rallied on the morning of February 14 to commemorate the 2004 death of Redfern teenager TJ Hickey and demand an end to Aboriginal deaths in custody. The crowd observed a minute's silence in memory of TJ, who was killed while being chased by police. It also expressed its support for TJ's mother, Gail Hickey, who has lodged a complaint with the United Nations Human Rights Committee.

  • Tamils face court

    MELBOURNE — A pre-sentence hearing began on February 2 for three Tamil men who have pleaded guilty to providing money to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a group that fought for three decades for self-determination for the oppressed Tamil people of Sri Lanka.

  • Sri Lanka forum discusses war and elections

    On November 29, 50 people attended a forum on Sri Lanka organised by People for Human Rights and Equality, a multi-ethnic group comprising people of Sri Lankan origin living in Australia.