Tamil Justice

News.com.au – Australia to aid Sri Lanka’s rehabilitation

The two countries signed a memorandum of understanding overnight to strengthen legal co-operation to “increase opportunities for investigating and prosecuting people smugglers”. More

Bloomberg - Sri Lanka Says 164,000 War Refugees Remain in Northern Camps

Sri Lanka said 164,000 civilians displaced by the civil war with Tamil Tiger rebels remain in camps in the north and the government intends to reduce the number to less than 50,000 by the end of January.

“We are now moving with incremental swiftness” to settle people from the camps, Rajiva Wijesinha, the secretary at the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights, said late yesterday, according to the government’s Web site. More

The Advertiser – Asylum saga stuck in mud

THE Prime Minister again has been forced to defend his handling of the asylum seeker issue, as the Government looks to strike a deal aimed at stemming the flow of Tamils fleeing Sri Lanka for Australia.

As Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith met officials in Colombo yesterday, Kevin Rudd remained under pressure over his so-called “Indonesia solution”.

The 78 asylum seekers aboard the Australian Customs vessel the Oceanic Viking have threatened suicide if forced to disembark in Indonesia.

The 78 Tamils are believed to have been offered a deal that would fast-track their resettlement and see them placed in community housing rather than detention, while their refugee claims are assessed.

But Mr Rudd yesterday appeared to rule out Australia’s being a part of any such deal.

“Let me be absolutely clear – that policy of ours . . . will not be changed in response to any protests, any threats, any threats of harm, and threats of self-harm,” Mr Rudd said in Bathurst. There also have been reports that authorities on the Oceanic Viking have used water cannons in an attempt to stop media from approaching the vessel. A spokesman for Home Affairs Minister Brendan O’Connor could not confirm the reports.

The Federal Government remains hopeful of an agreement with the Sri Lankan Government on a way to stem the flow of asylum seekers, with Mr Smith yesterday scheduled to meet Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama.

Immigration Minister Chris Evans said Australia was poised to provide Sri Lanka with ongoing reconstruction aid.

Another group of 250 Tamil asylum seekers, moored in their boat at the port of Merak in Indonesia, also are refusing to disembark.

The move comes after a spokesman for these Tamils, known as Alex, confessed he was once a member of a violent gang in Canada and was jailed for death threats.

The Tamils, intercepted by the Indonesian navy en route to Australia on October 11, have spent four weeks in the Javanese port city.

Sydney Morning Herald – Diplomatic dynasty sent into the breach

HE IS the son of one of Australia’s most famous diplomats, but Peter Woolcott is perhaps best known as the envoy who had to make way forAmanda Vanstone as ambassador to Rome.

The election of Kevin Rudd in 2007 saw a marked turnaround in the fortunes of one of the nation’s most distinguished diplomatic families.

In June last year, Richard Woolcott, 82, a former head of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and ambassador to the United Nations and Indonesia, was pulled out of retirement to promote the Prime Minister’s proposal for an Asia-Pacific Community.

In June this year his son Peter, 56, a career diplomat, was appointed the first full-time ambassador on people smuggling. The influx of boat people – and the toll it appears to be taking on Mr Rudd’s popularity -have thrust his role into the spotlight.

This week Mr Woolcott travelled to Sri Lanka with the Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith, and the newly appointed special envoy to thecountry, John McCarthy. More