{"id":69188,"date":"2013-01-12T18:25:07","date_gmt":"2013-01-12T18:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=69188"},"modified":"2013-01-15T08:15:09","modified_gmt":"2013-01-15T08:15:09","slug":"stop-harassing-bishop-rayappu-joseph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/stop-harassing-bishop-rayappu-joseph\/","title":{"rendered":"Stop Harassing Bishop Rayappu Joseph"},"content":{"rendered":"<p lang=\"en-US\"><strong>By\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\">Fr Pan Jordan OP and\u00a0Fr Claude Mostowik MSC<\/a><\/span> &#8211;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\">We<\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\">, Christians and concerned people, are disturbed by past and continuing actions by the Sri Lankan government against the Catholic Bishop of Mannar, Most Rev Dr <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Rayappu+Joseph&amp;x=6&amp;y=4\">Rayappu Joseph<\/a><\/span>. Bishop Joseph has consistently expressed concern at the plight of the all people of the North and East of Sri Lanka. His concerns have been taken President <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Mahinda+Rajapaksa&amp;x=8&amp;y=7\">Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/a><\/span>\u2019s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=LLRC&amp;x=6&amp;y=5\">LLRC<\/a><\/span>), the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=unhrc&amp;x=11&amp;y=6\">UN Human Rights Council<\/a><\/span> (by Skype, because travel was too dangerous), to visiting US Ambassadors who came to Sri Lanka prior to the UNHRC meeting in Geneva (March 2012), and a detailed letter to President Mahinda Rajapaksa himself expressing his concerns at the problems faced by civilians in the north and east..<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/stop-harassing-bishop-rayappu-joseph\/26-1\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-69189\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-69189\" title=\"26-1\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/26-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"294\" height=\"221\" \/><\/a>Bishop Joseph has raised major concerns about the fate of the asylum seekers deported to Sri Lanka by Australian authorities without any proper investigation and sometimes with no investigation at all.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Having had no response from the Sri Lankan President, Bishop Joseph wrote to the Australian Government urging it not to send back any asylum seekers to Sri Lanka because of harassment, and worse by Sri Lankan Armed Forces and Police who are 99% and 95% Sinhalese respectively.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Bishop Joseph was subsequently questioned for 3 hours by the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) of the Sri Lankan police when he was in the Bishop\u2019s Conference building, Balcomb Place, Kotta Rd Colombo. He has been interrogated by the TID and the Criminal investigation Department (CID) with the aim of intimidating him into silence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><strong>We <\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><strong>call on President Mahinda Rajapaksa to:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p lang=\"en-US\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">stop the harassment of Bishop Joseph immediately; and<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p lang=\"en-US\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">respond constructively to Bishop Joseph\u2019s suggestions to improve the human rights of people in the north and east of Sri Lanka.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p lang=\"en-US\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/span><\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-US\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">President <\/span><\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-US\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Socialist Democratic Republic of Sri Lanka <\/span><\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-US\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">C\/-Office of the President <\/span><\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-US\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Temple Trees <\/span><\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-US\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">150 Galle Road <\/span><\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-US\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Colombo 3<\/span><\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-US\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">SRI LANKA<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\">E-mail: <\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><em>secretary@presidentsoffice.lk<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><strong>We call on the <\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><strong>Australian Government to:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p lang=\"en-US\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">urge the Sri Lankan Government to stop the harassment of Bishop Joseph immediately; and<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p lang=\"en-US\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">halt the arbitrary deportation of Sri Lankan asylum seekers and that their applications for protection be properly processed in accordance with the UN Refugee Convention and Australia\u2019s own immigration policy.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p lang=\"en-US\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">The Hon Julia Gillard MP<\/span><\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-US\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Prime Minister<\/span><\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-US\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Parliament House<\/span><\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-US\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">CANBERRA ACT 2600<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\">E-mail form: <\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><em>http:\/\/www.pm.gov.au\/contact-your-pm<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><strong>We call on <\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><strong>UN Human Rights Council and church groups to:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p lang=\"en-US\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">urge the Sri Lankan Government to stop the harassment of Bishop Joseph immediately; and<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p lang=\"en-US\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">urge the Australian Government to halt the arbitrary deportation of Sri Lankan asylum seekers and that their applications for protection be properly processed in accordance with the UN Refugee Convention and Australia\u2019s own immigration policy.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Honourable Ms. Navanethem Pillay<br \/>\nUnited Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights<br \/>\nOffice of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)<br \/>\nPalais Wilson<br \/>\n52 rue des P\u00e2quis<br \/>\nCH-1201 Geneva<br \/>\nSWITZERLAND<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\">E-mail: <\/span><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"mailto:npillay@ohchr.org\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><em>npillay@ohchr.org<\/em><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-US\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><em>This material has been produced through the collaboration of Pax Christi Australia, the Catholic Justice &amp; Peace Commission of Brisbane and the Sri Lanka Justice Forum Brisbane. For further information, please contact:<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Fr Pan Jordan OP \u2013 <\/span><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"mailto:pancrasjordan@gmail.com\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">pancrasjordan@gmail.com<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\">, 61 (0)415 461620. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Fr Claude Mostowik MSC &#8211; <\/span><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"mailto:mscjust@smartchat.net.au\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">mscjust@smartchat.net.au<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> 61 (0)411 450953<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":69190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - 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