Indonesia rejects Australian proposal on refugees

By Amit Baruah

SYDNEY, SEPT. 8 Indonesia has declined an Australian request to set up a ``refugee processing centre'' on its territory as talks between the two countries on the issue of people-smuggling failed to make progress. An Australian Associated Press (AAP) report said today that the Foreign Minister, Mr. Alexander Downer, the Defence Minister, Mr. Peter Reith, and the Immigration Minister, Mr. Philip Ruddock, ``walked away empty-handed'' from talks with the Indonesian side.

The report came on a day when the Australian Prime Minister, Mr. John Howard, stated that the country's navy had intercepted a boat carrying around 200 refugees.

The ship was boarded and the refugees transferred to the HMS Manoora, which is sailing towards Papua New Guinea with some 450- odd asylum-seekers from the Tampa, the Norwegian vessel which Canberra refused to permit into Christmas Island.

Mr. Howard claimed that a request was made to Indonesian authorities to board the vessel while it was in Indonesian waters, but the request was rejected.

``At no stage did this....vessel reach Australian territorial waters....as a result, the questions of application for asylum status do not arise,'' Mr. Howard was quoted as saying.

Separately, The Sydney Morning Herald has reported that guards at the Curtin refugee detention centre smashed mirrors and doors just before the Immigration Minister, Mr. Philip Ruddock, was to pay a visit. The newspaper, which quoted accounts of refugees about a day in July or August last year, said that Mr. Ruddock was taken to that part of the camp and told that the damage had been caused by the refugees.

``Many people wanted to speak to Ruddock and give him a letter, like a letter of complaint to him, and they wouldn't

let anyone to get near him,'' one refugee was quoted as saying. It also referred to other incidents of inhuman treatment at the hands of the security guards.

The newspaper quoted from a Government report prepared by Mr. Philip Flood, a former permanent secretary at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which said there was a ``small proportion of detention centre staff'' who treated ``detainees, including children as they were worse than criminals.''

``Credible witnesses have told me of derogatory remarks to detainees, humiliation of people in room searches and people sworn at in an abusive manner....I am satisfied....that these claims are valid,'' Mr. Flood was quoted as saying.

An Afghan man told the newspaper that the guards went to great lengths to ensure that they did not have any contact with the outside world.

``Every morning, when all of us went to the dining room for breakfast, the ACM (Australian Correctional Management) come and check all of our rooms for pencil, pen and paper - it was not allowed to be kept by us,'' he said.

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Section  : International
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