Word: lankans
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...signals of distress from the Sunda strait, a body of water sandwiched between the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra. Local authorities had no vessels in the area, and called on Australia for assistance. When H.M.A.S. Armidale, an Australian naval ship, approached the troubled craft, they found 78 Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seekers heading for Australia. Unsurprisingly, their wooden boat was not seaworthy, and those on board were transferred to the Oceanic Viking, an armed patrol vessel used by Australian customs to track poachers of the highly endangered Patagonian toothfish in these waters...
...last month, Australia has been grappling with a rising number of asylum seekers making their way to its shores via Indonesia. Around the time that the Tamils were being transferred to the Ocean Viking , another wooden boat carrying 255 Australia-bound Sri Lankan Tamils was intercepted by the Indonesian navy. The ship is now docked in the Indonesian port of Merak, and for three weeks its passengers have refused to disembark. On Nov. 2, another boat capsized near the Cocos Islands, a tiny set of Australian-owned atolls in the Indian Ocean. By the end of the day, 19 male...
According to Fonseka and other Sri Lankan officials, the DHS contacted the general on Oct. 28 during his trip to the U.S. to visit his daughters, who live in Oklahoma. Fonseka, who holds a U.S. green card permanent-residency certificate, was asked to show up for an interview on Nov. 4. According to Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama, Fonseka had been told by the DHS official that the objective of the interview was to "use him as a source against Defense Secretary Gottabaya Rajapaksa." Apart from being a co-author of the successful campaign against the Tigers, Gottabaya Rajapaksa...
Responding to previous international criticism, the Sri Lankan government declared that it would not subject any of its military commanders or civilian officials who led the war to any kind of international investigation or war-crimes tribunal. The apparent request from American officials led to a similar dismissal. In the U.S., the DHS's office of Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE), which reportedly made the Fonseka request, refused to confirm or deny the allegation. ICE spokesman Brandon Alvarez-Montgomery said: "If there was an investigation, there's nothing we can provide. Especially in cases that are very sensitive under human...
Foreign Minister Bogollagama said he had made his government's concerns clear to the U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka Patricia Butenis. "The U.S. authorities should not exert procedures on [Fonseka]," Bogollagama said. "The interview should not take place." The Sri Lankan government believes that despite Fonseka's status as a green-card holder, the U.S. does not have any jurisdiction over him at this point because he entered the country on a Sri Lankan passport. "General Fonseka is a citizen of Sri Lanka and he holds a diplomatic passport from Sri Lanka," said Bogollagama. The minister said that Fonseka could...