A leading academic and lawyer says Australia has shown contempt for the United Nations by its treatment of vulnerable refugees and does not deserve a place on the Security Council.

By the end of the week a vote in the UN General Assembly will decide whether Australia's $25 million campaign for a seat on the Security Council has been successful.

However, Professor Ben Saul claims Australia is not only breaking international law by keeping genuine refugees locked up indefinitely, but it is flouting a guarantee made to the UN to keep them safe.

That is because one of those refugees, a brain-damaged torture survivor, was allegedly assaulted by guards inside Sydney's Villawood Detention Centre.

At age 20, Premakumar, a Tamil, was beaten into a coma by Sri Lanka soldiers.

The attack left him brain-damaged and psychotic as a result, which Australia accepts.

Dr Neil Phillips, a community psychiatrist with 41 years' experience, knows Premakumar's history and describes his treatment as the worst he has ever seen.

"After he came back from the torture camp and was brought home by his family when he regained consciousness, he was in a terrible state," Dr Phillips said.

"It's just [an] awful sight to see someone after torture like that."

Now 29, Premakumar has been locked up since his arrival in Australia in 2009, despite being given refugee status.

A genetic eye condition has left him nearly blind.

ABC's Lateline program secretly filmed an interview with him two months ago in which he pleaded for his freedom.

"It's traumatic being locked up," he said.

"It's mental torture for me."

Incarceration challenged

Premakumar is among 38 Tamil refugees whose indefinite incarceration has been challenged by Professor Saul.

He lodged a formal complaint with the UN's Human Rights Committee in August 2011, arguing Australia is breaking international laws by detaining them indefinitely because of adverse ASIO security assessments.

"I don't think any Australian can have confidence that these people are risks to security as long as the cases remain secret and no evidence has been presented to any tribunal or court to demonstrate that they are a security risk," he said.

"Because a fair hearing in this kind of security process is not just about protecting the human rights of the person, it's also about making sure that the security decision is right, that the intelligence is not marred by error or grudges or torture or other forms of unreliability which sometimes leads security agencies to get it wrong."

As their long detention is inflicting serious mental illness, Professor Saul argues it amounts to inhumane treatment, also illegal under international law.

So desperate are the refugees that several have already attempted suicide.

"One of our clients tried to electrocute himself, another tried to kill himself by drinking bleach," he said.

"Another one cut himself and yet another tried to overdose on drugs."

Despite their serious mental health issues, the Government has apparently stonewalled the UN case.

In February it missed the UN's six-month deadline to provide a submission to the Human Rights Committee and then missed an extension to July.

Australia then told the UN it must wait until the end of this year - 16 months after the original complaint was lodged and after the committee meets to consider the case in November.

"Australia has refused to comply with the procedures of the United Nations Human Rights Committee," Professor Saul said.

"I think this shows a real disrespect and it's hard to say why other countries would want to vote for us if we're not going to respect the United Nations itself."

'Terrible state'

Despite the Government's assurances to the UN that it would maintain the physical and mental well-being of the refugees, Lateline has been told that the Government has failed to protect Premakumar from physical harm too.

Late one night in March he was taken by ambulance from Sydney's Villawood Detention Centre to Liverpool Hospital's emergency.

"I saw him a few hours before. He was - I was actually talking to his brother mainly about some of his brother's medical problems which I was trying to help with," Dr Phillips said.

"And he was playing with a telephone and dialling the reception again and again and again and making funny noises over the phone.

"Later he also said to me that he'd wanted to sleep in a tree that night."

Reportedly that evening Premakumar was finally coaxed down from the roof of a shipping container. According to another detainee, that was when a group of security guards began to assault him.

"About seven SERCO officers were manhandling him. One had him by the neck," the detainee said.

"Another pushed him onto the concrete floor and they punched him. Then they took him into an empty cottage where they kept punching him."

Dr Phillips said Premakumar was left physically distressed by the incident.

"What I heard was that he was crying, he was vomiting, he was wetting his pants during and after the beating and he was in a terrible state," Dr Phillips said.

"In my view, whatever sort of beating he got and for whatever reason he got it, it's done him an enormous amount of harm."

Premakumar remained in Liverpool Hospital some days before he was returned to Villawood. Dr Phillips describes his incarceration as torture.

"His illness is steadily being made worse by a government policy that to me makes no sense whatsoever," he said.

"And whatever treatment he's getting doesn't work because every day they're making him worse.

"I see it as the equivalent of - in a physical sense of burning someone with a red-hot poker in the morning and then applying nice, clean dressings for the rest of the day and then the next morning you burn them again.

"That's, to me, the equivalent thing that's going on and I think it's absolutely frightful and in 41 years it's the worst thing like that that I've ever seen."

International citizen

Six months ago, Premakumar's legal advocates requested an investigation into his alleged bashing.

They say their request was denied, but the Immigration Department told Lateline: "Claims that a client was assaulted and suffered serious injuries in March this year are completely untrue."

"One client was taken to hospital for medical treatment on the night in question, but the department is unable to disclose further details on privacy grounds."

The UN is still awaiting a response from Australia.

"Australia's trying to demonstrate to the world that it's a good international citizen as it seeks a seat on the United Nations Security Council and at the same time it's tearing down the UN human rights system which Australia helped to build after the Second World War," Professor Saul said.

The Government says it is finalising its submissions in response to the complaints.

Last night the Government said a retired judge would review ASIO's security assessments, but ASIO will still have the right to disregard the judge's recommendations.

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young says the Federal Government should enshrine its new review process for adverse ASIO security determinations in legislation.

"If we believe these things are necessary if we want to enshrine justice, fairness and the basic fair go to some of the most vulnerable people then it's got to be in law," she said.

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Following the case filed by the wife of the missing journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda, Homagama Magistrate today (19) released a notice ordering the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) parliamentarian Arundika Fernando to appear before court on June 16th. The notice has been released following the request made by the counsel appearing on behalf of the aggrieved party, Attorney-at-law Upul Kumarapperuma denoting that Arundika Fernando must be questioned regarding the statement he made to the media. In his statement he had stated that Eknaligoda is currently residing in France.

A tense situation erupted at the Open University in Nawala after a student had attacked a lecturer, sources told Ada Derana. The lecturer has been admitted to the Kalubowila Hospital with cut injuries. The student who attacked the lecturer is still within the university premises carrying the sharp object used in the attack, sources claimed. Despite police being notified not a single policemen has arrived at the scene, it is reported.

Democratic Party leader Gen. Sarath Fonseka yesterday vowed to make his party the second force in the local political arena, claiming that it had already taken third place. Addressing a gathering, after presenting appointment letter to his party's electoral organisers and candidates for the forthcoming provincial council elections, the former army commander said that more than the government, it was the Opposition which feared his party. Citing an example from Pakistan, Fonseka said that the present opposition, led by former cricketer Imran Khan, had started out with only one member in parliament and in a few years it had become the main Opposition. "Likewise, the DP also expects to go on its political journey with the support of the people," he said.

The government says administratively the 13th Amendment to the constitution is a "white elephant" and past experiences have proven this. In a live Twitter interview today, President's Secretary Lalith Weeratunga said that the 13th Amendment must be viewed from the angle of the citizen. "It's no secret that administratively it's a white elephant. Pres Rajapaksa will always honour the Constitution. 13 A has to be viewed from people's standpoint. Devolution must be to the village. Power must be devolved to the lowest possible level, the village - the Gramarajya or Panchayat. Sub nat'l level PCs haven't served purpose," he said. He also rejected the assertion that the actions of the government contravene the recommendations of the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC).

MP Duminda Silva arrived in Parliament a short while ago for the first time in 18 months following the shooting incident in Kolonnawa that resulted in the death of former MP Baratha Lakshman Premachandra in 2011. The UPFA Parliamentarian was hospitalised with gunshot wounds to the head following the incident in Kolonnawa on October 8, 2011. MP Silva was further treated in Singapore where he made his recovery and returned to the island. Charge sheets were filed against 13 suspects including MP Duminda Silva over the murders of four persons including former Parliamentarian and Presidential Adviser Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra.

A group of young Sri Lankan cricket fans have reportedly assaulted a group of Tamil activists who were staging a peaceful protest against the Sri Lankan government at the entrance of Oval grounds in England. The incident has occurred after the Sri Lanka national cricket team gained victory over Australia in Champion Trophy. Over 100 Tamil activists including children have participated in the protest and they have been issuing leaflets, which indicated that people should boycott the matches played by the Sri Lankan cricket team as the Sri Lankan government is involved in the genocide of the Tamil ethnics. The fans who came out excited after victory of Sri Lanka over Australia has attacked the demonstrators, who were wearing yellow T shirts and holding LTTE flags, with bottles and stones. Several demonstrators have sustained injuries following the assault.

Sri Lanka Navy Wednesday intercepted and arrested 80 illegal migrants bound for Australia in the seas off the eastern coast. A fast Naval Patrol Craft attached to the Eastern Naval Command has intercepted a multi-day fishing vessel with the 80 people onboard in the seas off of Batticaloa this morning, the Navy said. The arrested migrants are being brought to the Trincomalee Harbor to be handed over to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) for further investigations. Despite Sri Lanka Navy's efforts and Australia's recent measure of returning the boat people back to home country, would-be asylum seekers continue attempting to migrate to Australia.

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said the Northern Province should be opened up for all communities to live in without further delay. That would be of pivotal importance to promote bonding among the people in the post-war era. The Defence Secretary emphasised that the Sinhalese shouldn't be deprived of their right to buy land in any part of the country, including the Northern Province comprising the administrative districts of Jaffna, Mannar, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu and Vavuniya. The outspoken official said that the Sinhalese and the Muslim public servants too, should be allowed to serve in the Northern Province as well as in the predominantly Tamil areas of the Eastern Province.

For the first time since the end of the military annihilation of the LTTE in May 2009, and a raging debate within Sri Lanka on the way to go about redressing the political and social grievances of the island nation's Tamils, India has expressed dismay over reports suggesting that Colombo is mulling over a review of the key issues related to devolution of powers to the provinces. At an interactive session with a delegation of the Tamil National Alliance, the legislative representative group of the Sri Lankan Tamils in the North-Eastern province, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is reported to have told them that reports of the Rajapaksa regime reneging on its commitment to New Delhi on a political package for resolution of the concerns of the Tamil community in the island nation are disturbing.

Sri Lanka's external affairs minister has pleaded with Tamil refugees in Australia who fled the nation's bloody civil war to come home - having quietly slipped into Canberra for talks on combating people smugglers. G.L. Peiris told Fairfax Media in an exclusive interview Sri Lanka is now perfectly stable, with an economic boom in the once devastated northern Tamil regions running at three-times the national average. But he warned smugglers sending record numbers of Sri Lankans by boat to Australia were making "unconscionable profits" and cared nothing for the people they put on unseaworthy vessels. "Sri Lanka is today a land at peace, it is a perfectly stable society. The northern province is developing at about 22 per cent, when the average population of the country is between 6 or 7 per cent," Professor Peiris said.

Two suspects have been arrested by the police rearding the warehouse fire which broke down at the Colombo harbor recently. They have been arrested by the Colombo Crime Division. The fire broke down on the 24th May around 1.00 am. Ports authority Fire brigate with the help of the military and the CMC was able to put out the fire.

DIG Vaas Gunawardena who is in remand over the alleged involvement in an abduction and murder of a businessman has been interdicted, the Police Spokesman stated. DIG Gunawardena, who is a suspect in the abduction and murder of a businessman in Dompe was taken from the Colombo National Hospital to the Prison Hospital on June 15 after falling ill while in custody. The DIG was further remanded until June 25 by the Colombo Additional Magistrate A.M. Shabdeen. Bambalapitiya-based businessman Mohamed Siyam was abducted and murdered in the Dompe area on May 22.

Tamil National Alliance MP C Yogeswaran on Sunday demanded that immediate steps be taken to stop the aggressive and meticulously planned sinhalicisation of Punaanai East, situated 52 km northwest of Batticaloa city. During the times of the LTTE, the presence of the Tiger forces from Kudumpimalai in the South to Vaakarai in the North had thwarted the earlier attempts of sinhalicisation. In the absence of LTTE, sinhalicisation is now rapidly taking place along Batticaloa and Polonnaruwa border, where Punaanai is situated. Besides occupation of Sinhalese families, Punaanai has also witnessed various instances of Sinhalicisation including the statue of the Chief deity of a Pi'l'laiyaar temple going missing and demolition of Saivite temples under the guise of archeological excavations.

The Principal of the Anuradhapura Niwanthaka Chetiya College had been allegedly assaulted by the son of the SLFP Pradeshiya Sabha member Anil Pushpananda today. The assailant, an Advanced Level student in the college had allegedly assaulted the Principal when he asked the students to attend additional classes during the holidays.

The Registration of Electors (special provisions) bill that ensures voting rights to displaces persons in the North passed in parliament with amendment a short while ago. The Supreme Court ruled that the special bill that gives voting rights to the displaced in the North is consistent with the constitution, Speaker announced in parliament on June 5. The issue of whether it is in accordance with the constitution that those who were internally displaced in the North could cast their votes according to the areas they resided in before being displaced was brought up to the Supreme Court for interpretation. Deputy Solicitor General Arjun Obeysekera who was present for the Attorney General pointed out that internally displaced persons can, with a certificate from the Grama Sevaka, cast his vote for the area of residence prior to being displaced.

The 13th Amendment to the Constitution has opened up a dialogue in the media and the public space. It is a characteristic of democracy. Some say the 13th Amendment is needed; some say it is not required. However, Police powers and Land powers referenced in the Amendment are not required at this juncture, Prime Minister and Buddhasasana and Religious Affairs Minister D.M. Jayaratne said. The Prime Minister made these comments at a meeting at the Prime Minister's Office yesterday. He said giving Police and Land powers will create needless issues in a small country like Sri Lanka. "This would lead to many problems in the future. The 30-year war in Sri Lanka was brought to an end under the leadership of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha, the new High Commissioner of India to the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka arrived in Colombo today, the Indian High Commission said in a release. Mr. Y.K. Sinha is a seasoned diplomat and during his career of 32 years, has handled several important assignments at the Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi and in Indian diplomatic missions in the Middle East, Europe, South America and the Permanent Mission of India at the United Nations headquarters in New York. Before coming to Sri Lanka, he was Additional Secretary in the Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran division at the Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi. He was Ambassador of India to Venezuela from January 2007 to August 2009 and Consul General of India in Dubai from August 2003 to December 2006. Earlier, he served as Minister and Deputy Chief of Mission at the Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi (UAE) from March 2002 to July 2003.

Democratic National Alliance (DNA) Leader Sarath Fonseka said today the fact that President Mahinda Rajapaksa himself had to call the victimised teacher to assure her that justice will be done goes to prove that there is no justice in Sri Lanka. Mr. Fonseka was referring to the incident where a UPFA member of the North Western Provincial Council had allegedly humiliated a female teacher for disciplining his daughter on Friday. At a ceremony to appoint DNA electoral organisers, Mr. Fonseka said the provincial councillor should have praised the teacher for advising his daughter.

Sources close to the main coalition party of ruling alliance, Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), say that the controversial Provincial Councilor of the North Western Provincial Council has submitted his resignation to the party. North Western Provincial Council member Ananda Sarath Kumara forced a female teacher in charge of discipline at the Navagattegama Navodya Vidyalaya to kneel down before him in her classroom as a punishment for warning his daughter that her school uniform is too short. The politician has been arrested and remanded until June 27th. He has sent his resignation from the remand prison, sources said.

Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella yesterday said that the UPFA would be very strict when nominating candidates for the Central and Wayamba Provincial Council elections. The two councils would be dissolved very soon, he said. Some of those elected at the previous Provincial Council elections on the UPFA ticket had been charged with murder, rape, assault robbery, arson and misconduct and party would be very careful as to whom nominations would be given, Rambukwella said. Such politicians, he said, had tarnished the good name of the party, which had won praise from the masses and was known as the party which could deliver. "We will not allow the aforementioned people to contest on the UPFA ticket and will carefully filter those who are seeking nominations," he said.