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Australian Border Protection Command have intercepted a boat carrying 43 asylum seekers

Australian Border Protection Command have intercepted a boat carrying 43 asylum seekers and three crew in waters off Australia's northwest coast. Full Text of Press Release:
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Law Council says new Asylum policies well short of expectations about fair process

Asylum seeker policies announced by both the Government and the Opposition fall well short of expectations about fair process and access to justice for asylum seekers, according to the Law Council of Australia. Law Council President Glenn Ferguson says Australian’s sense of basic decency means treating people fairly and being part of the global response to refugees, and he urges political leaders to adhere to these Australian values.

The Australasian Federation of Tamil Associations (AFTA), the umbrella body of the peak Tamil associations in Australia and New Zealand, is dismayed and deeply concerned about the announcement made by Senator Chris Evans, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship on last Friday that, Australia is suspending with immediate effect the processing of new asylum applications from refugees fleeing Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.

The heat and humidity here on Christmas Island is unrelentingly oppressive. Grey clouds hang damply over the mountain, making visibility poor and the roads treacherous. It is not only the weather that is threatening here. The island's main business, the detention of asylum seekers, is sadly booming. The Immigration Detention Centre at North-West Point that was built for 400 people with a surge capacity of 800, now houses more than 1,500 asylum seekers with a further 500 held at other detention facilities on the island, quirkily known as Phosphate Hill and the Construction Camp.

By GEORGINA ROBINSON
A young Sri Lankan man is in hospital after attempting suicide today after 11 months at Christmas Island detention centre. The Department of Immigration confirmed a detainee was involved in "an attempted self-harm incident" at the Christmas Island Immigration Detention Facility at 4.30am local time (7.30am AEST). "He is receiving care including mental health support and medical treatment," a department spokesman said.

The Federal Government's suspension of refugee claim processing for Sri Lankans and Afghanis is "cruel and inhumane" and will ramp up distress among asylum seekers, an academic says.Professor Linda Briskman, of Curtin University's Centre for Human Rights in Perth, says the suspension could lead to lengthy periods of detention on Christmas Island or the mainland."We know the mental health impact of long term detention," she said on Friday from Christmas Island, where she is conducting research on asylum seeker detention.

The President of the Uniting Church in Australia, the Rev. Alistair Macrae, has condemned the announcement by Foreign Minister Stephen Smith and Immigration Minister Chris Evans that Australia has suspended the processing of all protection applications from Sri Lankan and Afghan asylum seekers. Mr Macrae said, “The Government has broken its promises to uphold the rights of asylum seekers by returning to what is in essence a form of indefinite, mandatory detention.

In 2007, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) used the Commonwealth Criminal Code to charge three prominent members of the Australian Tamil community with serious offences, including being members of a terrorist organisation, namely, the Liberation Tigers for Tamil Eelam (LTTE or Tamil Tigers). The charges carried penalties of 25 years jail.
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The bungled AFP Operation Halophyte initiated after a complaint from Sri Lanka's high commissioner

Full Text from The Age
DURING his 40 years in the criminal justice system, Paul Coghlan has prosecuted remorseless murderers, locked up white-collar fraudsters and watched countless police take the stand to give evidence. His record and experience rank him among the more learned on the Supreme Court bench. Yet if he thought he had seen all that a courtroom could offer, Justice Coghlan would stand corrected in January last year, when he was told by an Australian Federal Police agent that a terrorism suspect could be ''unarrested''.

Meeting Notes - 24TH OF MARCH 2010 AT THE RAMADA HOTEL IN COLOMBO
Kandiah Neelakandan started by saying that we should think carefully at this time, as to what we should do to rectify the situation. There is no point in shouting emotional slogans in the North & East, it does not help the Tamil people, and perhaps the benefit of that goes to President Rajapaksa. Not many people are living in Jaffna and many in the camps are suffering. How many of the Tamils here have helped them. I know for sure that firms controlled by Sinhala businessmen have helped in these initiatives.

Full Text from SMH
THE Australian Federal Police has been criticised by a Supreme Court judge for bungling a two-year investigation into three men who sent funds to the Sri Lankan Tamil Tigers separatist group, including improperly arresting a suspect and abusing his rights.The AFP's mistakes occurred during its 2007 arrest and questioning of Arumugam Rajeevan, one of three men who will be sentenced in the Victorian Supreme Court today for providing money to a terrorist organisation.

Full Text from SMH
THE Sri Lankan government sought to influence an Australian police investigation and prosecution of three Australian citizens charged with terrorism offences in 2007 for their support of the Tamil Tigers.The Sri Lankan Deputy Solicitor-General, Yasantha Kodagoda, exercised extensive control over aspects of the Sri Lankan arm of the federal police investigation, including demands that he advise local witnesses and be present when they testified.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) provided computer equipment and specialized software to the Forest Department's Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing Unit for their mapping operations. USAID, the development agency of the U.S. Government, will also provide three days of technical training to Forest Department staff, led by USAID/Sri Lanka's expert GIS specialist.

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