Abbott "excused torture then, now he’s excusing war crimes” - Tamil Refugee Council

War crime civilian deaths "unavoidable" - Abbott. Sri Lankan government troops near the town of Mullaitivu, the epicentre of the civil war, in 2009. Photograph: Reuters

Where the hell is wet fish slap Turnbull? Abbott has gone rouge yet again and has put the Abbott/Turnbull gov right in the shit over his comments in the Quadrant article the other day. Retarded as they were, obviously those who suffered under the Sri Lankan regime are deeply offended at Abbott saying that torture and deaths of Sri Lankans were "unavoidable". 

I’m sure that the Sri Lankan president was pleased that Australia didn’t join the human rights lobby against the tough but probably unavoidable actions taken to end one of the world’s most vicious civil wars. Quadrant

Predictably the Tamil Council has been scathing of both Abbott and the Lieberal party for not pulling Abbott into line over it. It's typical Abbott, managing to offend an entire section of a country's population in one single sentence. The below quote goes on to say Grant wants Lieberal Julie Bishop to publicly reject Abbott's comments.

Tamil Refugee Council convenor Trevor Grant told Guardian Australia “he excused torture then, now he’s excusing war crimes”.

Grant said Abbott’s comments were “predictable but despicable” as Abbott had “a history of aligning himself with the brutal [Rajapaksa] regime”, referring to their cooperation on stopping boats of asylum seekers from Sri Lanka reaching Australia.

“For Abbott to say that sort of thing flies in the face of all known facts, put out there not just by Tamil groups but also by independent investigators of the UN.” The Guardian

The Tamil Refugee Council convener is not alone in condemning Abbott, with groups lining up to put the boot in to Abbott and demand an apology from the Abbott/Turnbull gov.

Australian Tamil Congress national spokesperson Sam Pari said “it is disappointing that rather than upholding human rights, Abbott chose instead to please the Sri Lankan president who failed to protect and promote international human rights law and international humanitarian law”. 

Human Rights Watch Australia director, Elaine Pearson, said Abbott’s comments were unacceptable and offensive. 

“The UN has described the final stages of the war as a bloodbath – tens of thousands of people were slaughtered in indiscriminate shelling. To suggest that war crimes are ‘tough but probably unavoidable’ is giving a green light to abusive leaders and armies everywhere,” she said. 

“It is a slap in the face to the tens of thousands of victims of wartime atrocities and their families.” 

Abbott said Australia and Sri Lanka “became even stronger partners in the Abbott government’s most urgent initial task: to end the people-smuggling trade that had resulted in more than 1,200 deaths at sea, more than 50,000 illegal arrivals by boat and more than $10bn in border protection budget blow-outs”. 

Labor’s foreign affairs spokeswoman, Tanya Plibersek, said: “I think it would be a good thing for the foreign affairs minister to have a few words to Abbott about some of these comments. The Guardian 

Remember folks, we're in an unofficial election campaign.........  This all must be music to Labor's ears. Abbott is of course to campaign on his own in marginal Lieberal seats. Far out.