Dr. Noel Nadesan., Editor of the anti-Tiger Tamil community newspaper in Australia, is a courageous journalist cum novelist who has faced the wrath of LTTE agents and risks his life. Last month he even dared to lead the team of Tamil expatriates to engage the GOSL in constructive development for peace and the Tamils in the north and the east.

Angered by this new peace initiative the agents of Tamil Tigers have threatened him with serious consequences. Tamil radio stations in Sydney and Melbourne are running virulent campaigns vilifying him and branding him as a "traitor". Ramesh. Balakrishnar, who runs the 3ZZZ Tamil radio in Melbourne has circulated an e-mail letter to leading pro-Tiger activists, urging action against Dr. Nadesan and other "traitors" who joined him. The following extract from his e-mail (unedited) says it all: "Why should we keep quite about this Traitors?? Because of our soft approach in the past & our keep quite attitude, we let this Traitors to do whatever they like & divide our community as per the GOSL wishes.(Additional Info: They going to organise more seminars & Public meetings all over Australia)

Physical threats to silence critics of Tigers or those Tamil peace activists, who engage in non-violent peace initiatives, are quite common. They are also constantly under threat. The independent Canadian think-tank, The Mackenzie Institute, in its latest report (The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam: Essential Points, Issue # 25 – April 2009, John C. Thompson) highlights the plight of dissident Tamils in the diaspora. It says, "Tamils who had left Sri Lanka found that every Tamil cultural body, temple, newspaper, or language and immigration service that they might resort to was pro-Tiger.  Being known to hold anti-Tiger views was to risk ostracism (a severe threat to a new immigrant) or a beating.  Trying to avoid paying ‘War Taxes’ meant running the same risks; and could result in penalties to family members still living in Tiger-controlled areas back in Sri Lanka."

This is not the first time that Dr. Nadesan has faced the threats of Tamil Tiger agents. His paper, Uthayam, was removed forcibly from distribution outlets in Sydney and burnt. Shopkeepers who distribute his paper are threatened with reprisals if they continue to distribute it. Despite these threats neither the Australian authorities nor the media has taken any serious notice of his plight. Imagine for a moment if a similar incident was faced by a Sri Lanka journalist. All the Western diplomats would march into the Foreign Office to lodge protests and write reports to their respective foreign offices. In Australia not a peep has come out in defence of Dr. Nadesan.

This is a part of the new trend of violence initiated by the agents of Tamil Tigers in Australia. For the first time the pro-Tiger activists have led violent attacks on the Sinhalese undermining the communal harmony that existed among all Sri Lankan expatriates in Australia. It began with these agents, waving Tamil Tiger flags, attacked Sinhalese students who participated in a peace rally held on the steps of the Victorian Parliament on April 4, 2009. One student heading home after the rally was hit on the head with the brace of a wheel chair and was hospitalized with a cracked skull. This happened in the presence of the Police down Collins Street in the heart of Melbourne.

Second six Sinhala shops in Melbourne were attacked in the same night. Police keep saying that they were inquiring but no arrests have been made. If this happened in the streets of Colombo the NGOs, the INGOs and the diplomatic colony would be up in arms accusing the Sri Lankan government of complicity. But when it happens in the streets of Oslo or Melbourne or London, no diplomats or NGOs are there to take up the case of victims. Instead, it is the victims that are blamed.

The Sri Lankan High Commissioner, Senaka Walgampayo, met the Australian Police yesterday to discuss the threats faced by the Sri Lankans domiciled in Australia. The Sinhala community on its own has made representations to their local MPs urging them to take precautionary measures to protect the Sinhalese from Tamil Tiger thugs. The young hot heads are rearing to confront the Tiger agents. One lone protester was caught on TV cameras marching towards the Tamil protesters in front of the Prime Minister’s residence in Sydney. When the police turned him away he kept shouting: "Will you let Al Qa’ida to demonstrate in front of PM’s house with Osama Bin Laden’s flag?"

Besides, The Sri Lankan Foreign Office is never short of Western diplomats protesting even when Ranil Wickremesinghe loses elections, or when the GOSL retaliates to protect its citizens and its national interests adopting the same strategies as the West in dealing with terrorism. For example, the US snipers killed a group of Somali pirates who had kidnapped a US captain.

The Sri Lankan plight has been summarized neatly in the Mackenzie Report: "By way of analogy, imagine being repeatedly kicked in the shins by someone until you punch him in response, so that he can cry to all nearby that you just hit him without provocation.  There’s always someone prepared to believe him." In other words, the Western Foreign Offices and media are never short of suckers ever ready to buy self-serving sob stories.