Rohingyas hit with multiple charges for not registering as ‘Bengalis’

 

By AYE NAI-30May 2013

Men offer Friday prayers in a temporary mosque after returning to a Rohingya IDP camp from a shelter from cyclone Mahasen, outside of Sittwe, on 17 May 2013. (Reuters)

Prosecutors in Sittwe have hit seven Rohingyas in Arakan state with myriad charges, including rioting, after they were arrested for refusing to register as ‘Bengalis’.
During a hearing on 23 May, senior immigration official Yan Aung Myint charged the seven suspects from Thetkalpyin displacement camp with robbery, intimidation and disturbing officials on duty. Twenty-four individuals, who authorities claimed might be on the run, were also charged in absentia.
The hearing comes after a scuffle erupted between government officials and the Rohingya on 26 April, after authorities tried to register the internally displaced persons (IDPs) as ‘Bengalis’ in accordance with a programme headed by the Ministry of Immigration and Population.
Prosecutors said that around 100 residents, armed with sticks and swords, quickly gathered at the scene and began attacking authorities, which included policemen and soldiers who were accompanying the officials.
According to the defendants’ attorney Hla Myo Myint, the skirmish began after one of his clients, Suleman, was slapped in the face by an official, which prompted children in the camp to begin throwing rocks at authorities.
Army sergeant Win Aung reportedly sustained a head injury after being struck by a rock at the scene, while local Arakanese team member Tun Hla Aung and immigration official Sai Myint Thu sustained lacerations on their backs.
Security forces reportedly fired shots in an attempt to disperse the crowd as they hurled rocks and screamed “Rohingya! Rohingya!” Seven individuals from Thetkalpyin and two from Bawdupha displacement camps were arrested in the skirmish’s wake.
According to Hla Myo Myint, the officials who went to the camps to register the IDPs had no legal right to force his clients to identify as Bengalis – a term commonly used by government officials that implicitly infers that the group are illegal immigrants
“The officials had no authority to determine their ethnicity – according to the 1982 Burma Citizenship Law, the decision has to come at the last stage and made by a government body,” said Hla Myo Myint.
“Reportedly the [officials] were listing them [as Bengali] by force.”
Hla Myo Myint, who has represented high-profile opposition activists including the National League for Democracy’s chair Aung San Suu Kyi in the past, said his clients’ families and the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) asked that he provide legal counsel to the group. Two of the individuals Kyaw Myint and his son Hla Myint who are being charged are both USDP members.
“I’m doing this for the rule of law – one of the main objectives of the NLD – to allow human rights for them regardless of their religion and ethnicity,” said Hla Myo Myint.
The next court appointment has been set for 6 June, but will likely to be postponed until officials can decide if the 24 individuals charged in absentia have actually fled.
Arakan state is home to more than 140,000 IDPs, after two bouts of religious violence pitting Arakanese Buddhists against Muslim Rohingya last year led to massive displacement.

While Thai Prime Minister Visits Sri Lanka – 90,000 Tamil War Widows Face Sexual Abuse by Sri Lankan Forces: TGTE

Friday, 31 May 2013 

While Thai Prime Minister Visits Sri Lanka, 90,000 Tamil War Widows Face Sexual Abuse by Sri Lankan Forces said by TGTE

• As a leader, who is a mother, you are best suited to raise this issue.

• Urged to raise war crimes and genocide committed by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse.

• UN Internal Review Report: 70,000 Tamils killed in five months.

- In an urgent appeal to the Prime Minister of Thailand, Ms. Yingluck Shinawatra, the Prime Minister of the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE), Mr. Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran, urged her to raise the plight of 90,000 Tamil war widows and their daughters during her visit to Sri Lanka. The Thai Prime Minister begins her state visit to Sri Lanka on May 30th.

“We urge you to remember that while you are visiting Sri Lanka, 90,000 Tamil war widows and their daughters are facing rape and sexual abuse by the Sri Lankan security forces.”

“We urge you to raise the plight of these widows and their daughters during your address to the Sri Lankan Parliament on May 31st. As a leader, who is a mother, you are best suited to raise this issue. We are confident you will not miss this opportunity” continued Mr. Rudrakumaran.

According to a May 2012 report by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office on Human Rights and Democracy; there are up to 90,000 Tamil war widows in the North & East of Sri Lanka.

The Thai Prime Minister was also urged to raise war crimes and genocide committed by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse and the forces under his authority.

"As a member of the UN Human Rights Council, you have a duty and responsibility to raise war crimes & genocide committed by the Sri Lankan President and his armed forces," said Mr. Rudrakumaran.

"According to a UN Internal Review Report on Sri Lanka, troops under the Sri Lankan President's command, killed over 70,000 Tamils in five months and raped hundreds of Tamil women," said Mr. Rudrakumaran. "Tamils were singled out to face these abuses simply and solely on account of their Tamil nationality."

The appeal to the Thai Prime Minister also explained that Tamils have faced repeated mass killings since 1958 and that the killings in 2009 prompted UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to appoint a Panel of Experts to report on the scale of killings. According to this UN report tens of thousands of Tamil civilians were killed in five months due to deliberate and intense shelling and bombing of areas designated by the government as "no-fire zones", where Tamil civilians had assembled for safety.

"The Sri Lankan Government also restricted food and medicine for Tamils, resulting in large numbers of people dying from starvation and many of the injured bleeding to death," noted Mr. Rudrakuamran.

According to the UN Panel, the killings and other abuses that took place amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Independent experts believe that there are elements of these abuses that constitute an act of genocide.

The UN Human Rights Council looked into this mass killing and passed two Resolutions on accountability for these international crimes in 2012 and 2013.

"According to Bishop of Mannar, Dr. Rayappu Joseph, 146,679 Tamils went missing when Sri Lankan forces attacked Tamil people. Members of the Sri Lankan security forces are almost exclusively from the Sinhalese community and the victims are all from the Tamil community," Mr. Rudrakumaran concluded.

For information contact: pmo@tgte.org

About Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE):

Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) is a new political concept. It is a new political formation based on the principles of nationhood, homeland and self-determination. The raison dâetre for the TGTE is lack of political space inside the island of Sri Lanka for the Tamils to articulate and realize their political aspirations fully due to Constitutional impediments, racist political environment and military strangulation; and the coordination of diaspora political activities based on democratic principles and the rule of law.

TGTE held internationally supervised elections in 12 countries. These elections were held to ensure that core believe of democracy be upheld within the TGTE and to demonstrate TGTE’s belief and reliance upon democratic ideals. TGTE has a bicameral legislature and a Cabinet. Although an elected body, TGTE does not claim to be a government in exile. The Constitution of the TGTE mandates that it should realize its political objective only through peaceful means.

Presently, in addition to the campaign for an international investigation, the TGTE is also campaigning for an International Protection Mechanism and the release of documents pertaining to Tamils prepared by the Office of the Special Advisor of the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide. TGTE is also in the process of preparing the Freedom Charter incorporating the “freedom demands” of Tamils across the globe.

TGTE believes that the referendum among the Tamils inside the island of Sri Lanka and the Tamil diaspora will contribute to the political resolution of the Tamil national conflict. So far, the human cost has reached 100,000 as it grows. There are also 90,000 Tamil war widows, facing sexual abuse by the Sri Lankan security forces.

For information contact: pmo@tgte.org

Web: www.tgte-us.org

Courtesy - http://world.einnews.com/

Thailand, SL should promote Buddhist way of life: Thai PM

FRIDAY, 31 MAY 2013 

Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra told Sri Lanka's parliament today the two countries should work together to strengthen Buddhism as a religion and as a way of life.

Yingluck, in Colombo on a two-day visit to commemorate the 260th anniversary of Sri Lankan Buddhist monks obtaining higher ordination from Thailand, followed her brother in addressing parliament.

Then Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra addressed parliament in 2003 on a visit to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the same event.

Yingluck added both Sri Lanka and Thailand deeply value democracy, which "is not an internal affair" of any other country.

She also had talks with President Mahinda Rajapaksa and will also visit Kandy.

Yingluck will be also signing bilateral agreements on tourism, science and technology during her stay in Sri Lanka.(Kyodo)

Appeal Court Issues Notice On Respondents In Cases By 2176 Jaffna Tamils Seeking Relief Against Land Grab By Rajapaksa Regime

May 30, 2013

The writ applications filed by 2176 Jaffna Tamils in a desparate bid to prevent their lands and homes being grabbed by the Rajapaksa regime were taken up for support in the Appeal Court today (30.05.2013), before Justice S. Sriskandaraja, President of the Court of Appeal.

The Appeal Court heard counsel and issued notice on the respondents to show cause if any through filing of objections, as to why the court should not grant the reliefs asked for. The date given for the purpose was10.07.2013.

Counsel for the petitioners were permitted by the Appeal Court to reserve and retain the right to press for interim relief.

CA (Writ) 125/2013 (with 1474 petitioners) and CA (Writ) 135/2013 (with 702 petitioners), both fixed for support today, were by petitioners who set out in their petitions, the grave prejudice caused by the forcible acquisition of an area of the Jaffna Peninsula equivalent to two-third of the entire city of Colombo.

The petitioners in CA (Writ) 125/2013, who first came to court upon learning of initial steps under section 2 of the Land Acquisition Act, had amended their petition, to include the fact that thereafter, a purported publication under section 38 Proviso A of the Land Acquisition Act had been gazetted by the regime, making out that the land is needed urgently.

The petitions in both cases ask the Appeal Court to quash both steps taken – notice under section 2 and further decision to acquire under section 38 Proviso A by writs of Certiorari and for writs of Prohibition preventing further steps in that direction. The petitions stated the grave and irreversible prejudice that would be caused to them, unless the respondents were stayed from taking any further steps until the cases are gone into by court.

The petitioners in both cases who say they are forcibly prevented from accessing their lands, urge effectively that the steps to acquire their traditional lands to perpetuate their illegal military occupation is perverse and does not constitute a genuine or acceptable public purpose, and that no steps under Section 38 Proviso A could be legitimately taken in the given circumstances.

Among the prejudice complained of by the 2176 petitioners, is effective erosion of the rights of Tamils of the Jaffna Peninsula under their personal laws (known as “Tesawalamai”) which has been enjoyed and applicable for hundreds of years.

The petitioners in both cases were represented by K. Kanag-Isvaran, PC with M. A. Sumanthiran, Viran Corea, Lakshmanan Jeyakumar, Niran Anketell and Bhavani Fonseka instructed by Suntheralingam & Balendra, Attorneys-at-Law. Deputy Solicitor General Murdu Fernando appeared for the respondents.

Related posts;

Acquisition Notices: Militarization Through Grabbing Of Tamil Lands

1474 Northern Tamils Petition Appeal Court To Help Prevent Grab Of Their Homes By Rajapaksa Regime

702 More Jaffna Tamils Petition Appeal Court To Prevent Damage To Their Tesawalamai Rights By Land Grab Of Rajapaksa regime

UIC physicist named White House Champion of Change

Jeanne Galatzer-Levy
May 29, 2013

Siva Sivananthan at the Sivananthan Laboratories in Bolingbrook. (click on image for larger file size)

Sivalingam Sivananthan, professor of physics at the University of Illinois at Chicago, has been named a White House Champion of Change. He was presented with the honor at a ceremony this morning at the White House.

The honor recognizes immigrant innovators and entrepreneurs—”the best and brightest from around the world who are helping create American jobs, grow the economy and make our nation competitive in the world,” the White House said in a press release.

Sivananthan’s work with a semiconductor material, mercury cadmium telluride or MCT, is at the heart of night vision technology and made the raid that took down Osama Bin Laden on a moonless night possible. Developing “technology that protects our protectors” has given him the opportunity to give back to his adopted country, said Sivananthan.

“Immigrants have long made America more prosperous and innovative, and the Champions we are celebrating today represent very best in leadership, entrepreneurship, and public service,” said U.S. Chief Technology Officer Todd Park. “We are proud to recognize these leaders who work every day to grow our economy, advance science and technology, and support their home communities.”

Sivananthan is the founder of the high-tech, Bell-Labs-styled incubator, Sivananthan Laboratories, Inc. in Bolingbrook, Ill. The Laboratories’ focus is on infared technology, radiation detection, materials research and biosensors.

Because, at its most fundamental, MCT technology is about transforming light into electricity, Sivananthan is also leading an effort to develop next-generation solar power. To that end, he helped found InSPIRE (the non-profit Institute for Solar Photovoltaic Innovation, Research, and Edu-training), whose mission is training Illinois’s workforce and exciting Illinois undergraduate and high school students to create a renewable energy and solar eco-system in Illinois.

In Sivananthan Laboratories Sivananthan is promoting economic growth by fostering cutting-edge, fundamental research and development that bridges the gap between academia and industry.

Sivananthan credits much of his success to the support he received from UIC from his days as a student to his continuing engagement on the faculty.

“UIC is a community of individuals that has treated me with respect for who I am,” he said.

“I have been blessed with having talented people around me,” said Sivananthan. “I can take credit only for hiring them. Our success has been and always will be a product of  team work.”

Immigrants make America more prosperous and entrepreneurial.  Immigrants are more than twice as likely to start a business in the United States as the native-born, and more than 40 percent of Fortune 500 companies – from GE and Ford to Google and Yahoo! – were founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants, according to the White House.

The White House ceremony can be viewed at the White House website.

Undoing Constitutional Tomfoolery

By Basil Fernando -

Basil Fernando

May 30, 2013 

That the United National Party (UNP) has published a few ideas on the changes to the constitution they would bring about if they come to power is an indication that a serious critique that has been made about the 1978 Constitution, can no longer be ignored. As it is good to have even an inadequate debate on vital issues rather than nothing at all, it would be better not to ignore the UNP proposals but rather to utilise the occasion to raise all the vital issues that need to be addressed if the mess created by what retired Justice C.V. Wigneswaran charaterised as tomfoolery with the constitution, is to be brought to an end.

What has to be asserted clearly and unequivocally is the fundamental elements of the basic structure of the constitution. The notion of basic structure implies that certain permanent notions are entrenched in the constitution and that attempts by any government to change that basic structure will be resisted. The tomfoolery with the constitution became possible only because there was no agreement on such a basic structure and because the judiciary did not consider it their fundamental obligation to defend and to promote such a basic structure.

The basic structure of the constitution must recognise that the inalienable sovereignty of the people is guaranteed by the recognition of the following principles:

1. That Sri Lanka is a secular democratic republic where all persons are equal.
2. That the basic structure of the government envisaged in the constitution is organised on the principles of the rule of law.
3. The recognition of the principle of the separation of powers.
4. The recognition of the independence of the judiciary and the right of the judiciary to be the final arbiter on interpretations of the law and with the power of judicial review (as it existed before the 1972 Constitution).
5. The independence of the public institutions within the framework of the rule of law.
6. The recognition of human rights as expressed in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, with the recognition that everyone is entitled to the enforceable right to a legal remedy for violations of rights.
7. That the peoples’ right to participation is guaranteed by free and fair elections held at fixed periods and through the freedom of expression.
8. That the public accountability of all public servants must be guaranteed through public hearings before state organs created by the Constitution.
9. That the character of the welfare state will be safeguarded.

The prime importance of agreeing on the basic structure

The making of a constitution or replacing a constitution is not just a matter of writing a new essay. It is an historical act. In an historical act addressing in the clearest terms possible the fundamental errors that have led to the present impasse need to be clearly expressed. A new constitution is a clear departure as well as a clear beginning.

Therefore it would require a prolonged and a sometimes painful discussion in order to enable a clear agreement being expressed through the basic laws of the country. This does not mean that all issues can be finally settled through a constitution. A constitution is a dynamic document and the problems of a nation are also dynamic. Resolving these problems is a perpetual preoccupation. However, there are basic and fundamental areas where the people recognise that things went wrong and that these must not be allowed reoccur. Therefore a thorough reflection of the past is an essential aspect of any serious attempt to develop the country’s basic law for the future.

The UNP in entering into this area of the national debate has done itself a favour. However, in the very preamble of its declaration on the basic constitutional issues it has done great harm to the credibility of this initiative by being an apologist for the 1978 Constitution. The UNP’s credibility will be tested by its capacity to unequivocally condemn the enormous harm caused by the 1978 Constitution and the practices which developed under that constitution. Accepting full responsibility for the catastrophic consequences caused by introducing this constitution is an essential step for establishing credibility for its initiative for constitutional reforms.

Jaffna University students stage protest on demanding to dismiss lecturer

[ Thursday, 30 May 2013, 09:14.23 AM GMT +05:30 ]

Arts faculty students of Jaffna University stage protest on demanding to dismiss economic lecturer S.Ilankumar on attempting to create sexual disturbances to female students of the university.

Students burned the effigy of Ilankumar. Large amount of students present at this protest and hand over petition towards Vice Chancellor. Several army intelligence unit members deployed in the university compound to monitor protest campaign.

The Land Of The Indifferent

By Tisaranee Gunasekara -May 30, 2013 

“That girls are raped, that two boys knife a third, Were axioms to him, who’d never heard. Of any world where promises were kept, Or one could weep because another wept” - Auden (The Shield of Achilles) 

The Lankan crisis is a multi-dimensional one. There is the political crisis which encompasses the crisis of democracy and the crisis of peace-and-nation-building. There is the economic crisis.

There is also a psychological crisis, a moral-ethical crisis, a crisis of values. This societal affliction was cast into sharp relief by two incidents which happened during the Wesak season.

The callous manner in which several doctors and nurses in the General Hospital treateda seriously injured patient has received a fair degree of publicity thanks to the efforts ofSeylina D Peiris, the Good Samaritan who took the young woman to the hospital and witnessed the pageant of indifference first hand. This incident cannot be pigeon-holed as typical of the state sector, because similar horror stories have emerged from private hospitals as well, the most recent being the death of a young child at Nawaloka[i]. Nor is this problem limited to hospitals. It is present in every possible space, public and private, political and non-political.

In today’s Sri Lanka, a militarised value system ensures that weakness is scorned, strength worshipped and victims ignored. This is augmented by religious brands which enthrone empty piety in place of real kindness.

The state Wesak Festival was held in Buttala, under the patronage of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. A few days previously, the local authorities poisoned 38 homeless dogs in the area to prevent them from disturbing the Wesak celebration. Can anything encapsulate the damning hypocrisy and the vacuous exhibitionism which pass off as Buddhism today than this act? Killing living beings in the name of celebrating the Birth, Enlightenment and the Final Extinguishing of a teacher who placed compassion to all living beings at the forefront of his teaching: is this what Buddhism is becoming in Sri Lanka?

This week 35 families in Dambulla were given 24 hours by the local authorities to vacate their homes of more than 3 decades. That callous order was made supposedly in furtherance of developing Dambulla as a Sacred City. As illegal occupants of state lands, these families may not be entitled to any compensation; but as human beings and as citizens, they are entitled to some sympathetic consideration. Rendering men, women and children homeless and destitute to protect a temple does not accord with the teachings of the Buddha.

According to another media report, 13 islands in Kalpitiya have been sold to foreigners. This will deprive thousands of people of their homes and their livelihoods. But this tragedy too will pass us by.

This is what happens to a country when pity dies.

When Pity dies

In October 2009, a man started throwing stones at passing vehicles in Bambalapitiya.

We all know, instinctively, that no sane man would throw stones at passing vehicles; that a man who does so is indubitably an insane one. The normal, ordinary, civilised reaction would be to restrain such a man and ensure that he gets some medical attention.

But in Bambalapitiya, on that day, monsters reigned. A mob consisting of policemen and civilians started chasing the stone-thrower. When he waded into the sea to escape from his demented pursuers, two policemen waded in after him and started beating him with stout poles. The footage shows the victim begging for mercy, but his attackers, immeasurably more unhinged than him, had none to give[ii]. In the end, he waded ever deeper into the sea in order to escape the savagery, and drowned.

Having caused a man’s death and watched him die, the two attackers and the more than 100 spectators returned to their momentarily interrupted ordinary lives.

Initially the police claimed that the victim died of drowning. But a cameraman from a private TV station had videoed the tableau of inhumanity. It was after the footage was made public that the police admitted that a crime was committed.

Eventually it was discovered that the victim was indeed a mental patient.

That grisly incident, and the moral depravity and lawlessness it embodied, was a forewarning of the rapid de-sensitisation and brutalisation of Sri Lanka.

In commenting on the Holocaust, Hannah Arendt said, “The deeds were monstrous but the doer…quite ordinary, commonplace”[iii]. Clearly her observation has a relevance far beyond that time and that place:

The men and women who watched passively as a defenceless man was beaten and forced to drown, the doctors and the nurses who ignored the plight of a patient (and watched television amidst the Wesak decorations honouring the Compassionate One) are not monsters; they are perfectly ordinary people, and in all probability, good family men and women in their private lives.

What does this say about our future?

Sri Lanka has had her share of times when ordinary virtues which underpin a liveable life such as decency, sympathy and kindness were in abeyance. The Black July, in which the killers were ordinary people rather than soldiers, militants or even terrorists, was an ideal case in point. That was a time when crime became the norm and legality the exception, when deeds of brutality were committed in the wide open, with pride – often to the acclaim/approbation of onlookers – while acts of mercy, of ordinary humanity were carried out in stealth. What made that horror even more appalling was the way it continued, day after day – every morning mobs would come out to burn, pillage and kill; every evening the constituent individuals would go home to their families, and to a few hours of normal existence; the same surreal process would be repeated the next day.

But until recently such descents into savage amorality were incidental and episodic; they flared up, lasted for a while, and died.

Today the germs have infused every fibre of Lankan society. Today no corner ofSri Lanka, no aspect of Lankan life is immune to the disease.

The culprits are not just politicians, though they too bear their share of blame in setting this devastating trend, especially by enthroning impunity in the name of patriotism. Religion, as it is institutionally practiced in Sri Lanka, is a part of the problem. It will build magnificent edifices while helping to create people devoid of basic human decencies.

The self-immolation by a Buddhist monk has merely added another layer of deadly violence to a society already choking on violence.

In the past, after atrocities happened, there would be some shame and guilt, and perhaps even some soul-searching. But that necessary, civilising practice died with the Humanitarian Operation and the Welfare Camps. Not only did we shut our hearts to natural human pity during the war and in its immediate aftermath. Four years later, we still have no pity to give; nor see a need for it.

Pitilessness is habit-forming; now it’s devouring our own.

The Rajapaksas can be ejected, democratically, someday. The political and economic crises can be resolved, to some extent, in a post-Rajapaksa Sri Lanka. But curing Lankan society of the plague of ruthless-indifference will be far more difficult, if not impossible.

---

[i] http://www.dailymirror.lk/news/25676-mother-seeks-justice-.html

[ii] http://lkvideos.com/view/13854/police-men-attacking-a-mental-patient/

[iii] Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report of the Banality of Evil

Sri Lankan freed from Qld detention centre

news.com.au-May 29, 2013

KNEELING before a statue of Jesus in a remote Queensland church on Sunday, Jesurajah Vasanthan prayed to be freed from the detention centre where he was held.

On Monday his prayers were answered.

Mr Vasanthan sailed for 14 days toward Australia from Sri Lanka earlier this year before being captured by authorities on Christmas Island, off Western Australia.

"I am Tamil (an ethnic minority group in Sri Lanka) and I was afraid for my life so I had to leave," he told AAP.

Mr Vasanthan, 38, has spent the past three months at the Scherger Immigration Detention Centre, about 30km east of the Cape York mining township of Weipa.

On Monday he was told he had been granted refugee status and the following day he flew to Perth to make a new life for himself.

He's only been granted a temporary visa which will be reviewed in six months.

He can't work until a permanent visa is granted.

Mr Vasanthan, a former IT worker, told AAP he hopes he can remain in Australia and that one day his wife and eight-year-old child can join him from Sri Lanka.

"I am very excited about my new life but I miss them very much," he said while waiting for his flight to Perth from Cairns.

Mr Vasanthan spoke to AAP after a church service in Weipa last Sunday, days after seven Vietnamese men broke out of Scherger by climbing a fence.

He said the other detainees had no idea the men were planning to escape and all were shocked by the breakout.

He was surprised anyone would want to break out of the centre as the detainees are treated very well, he said.

Six men, aged 23 to 32, managed to board a plane at the local airport last Thursday and fly to Cairns, 770 kilometres away.

They were nabbed at a popular backpackers' lodge in Cairns later that day.

The seventh man was stopped before he could get on the plane.

He has not been charged but police say investigations are ongoing.

Immigration Minister Brendan O'Connor has ordered an independent review of the incident.

Mr O'Connor has asked Serco, the firm that runs Scherger, to explain how the men were able to escape and what was being done to stop more breakouts.

"Any escape from an immigration detention facility is unacceptable," he said.

Serco has not responded to requests for an interview.

However, a spokesman said in a statement that Serco was taking the incident seriously and the firm was committed to providing a safe and secure centre.

The six men who escaped appeared in Cairns Magistrates Court on Tuesday where they were granted bail.

They were handed over to the Department of Immigration and will be transferred to an unspecified detention centre.

Five other Vietnamese men, two in Cairns and three in Weipa, have been charged with helping the escape.

Meanwhile, Mr Vasanthan has arrived in Perth and is coming to terms with life down under.

"I'm very excited and very happy," he said.

"I hope one day my wife and child can come here but at the moment what I needed was protection so I had to come here (to Australia)."

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/national/sri-lankan-freed-from-qld-detention-centre/story-e6frfku9-1226653186008#ixzz2UnoP75Gb