http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/204448/australia-pm-seeks-indonesia-help-on-refugees
Australia PM seeks Indonesia help on refugees Published: 2/11/2010 at 03:59 PM Online news: Asia Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard sought Indonesian support on Tuesday for her proposal for a regional refugee centre during talks in Jakarta with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. A young Sri Lankan asylum seeker drinks water at a facility in Indonesia, having been stranded aboard a vessel which had run out of fuel, food and water. Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has sought Indonesian support for her proposal for a regional refugee centre during talks in Jakarta with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. A surge of boats carrying more than 5,000 asylum seekers since January has made people-smuggling a hot-button issue in Australia and the centre-left Labor government says offshore detention will be a deterrent. Gillard told a joint press conference after the talks that regional cooperation was needed to "undercut the business model of people-smugglers and take out of the hands of the people-smugglers the product that they sell". Australia hopes to build a refugee facility in neighbouring East Timor and discussed the issue in a series of ministerial meetings in Jakarta and Dili in October. Thousands of asylum seekers head through Southeast Asian countries on their way to Australia every year and many link up with people-smugglers in Indonesia for the dangerous voyage. Yudhoyono said Indonesia believed the issue should be dealt with according to existing frameworks such as the Bali Process and proposed further talks early next year with other countries in the region. "Indonesia is open to that (a refugee centre), but we have to discuss in depth to ensure once again that this is a solution to deal with our regional problems," he told reporters. The two leaders also covered issues such as climate change, the global economy, trade and security, with Gillard thanking Indonesia for the "remarkable progress" it has made in the fight against homegrown extremism. Scores of Australians have been killed in terror attacks in Indonesia over the past decade, mainly the 2002 bombings of Bali nightclubs by members of regional Islamic militant group Jemaah Islamiyah. Gillard announced a major new aid programme totalling 500 million Australian dollars (494 million US) to build 2,000 new schools and bring 1,500 Islamic schools in Indonesia -- a source of cheap education to the poor but also of radical doctrine -- up to national education standards. "My firm belief is that the future of our two countries will be determined largely by what is happening in the schools of our two nations today," she said. She also pledged 1.1 million dollars in aid for victims of last week's tsunami and volcano eruptions, more than doubling Australia's total relief package to 2.1 million Australian dollars. The latest death toll from the tsunami that struck the Mentawai islands off Sumatra last Monday stood at 431 with another 88 missing, feared dead, and almost 15,000 made homeless. Another 50,000 are in temporary shelters in central Java, where the Mount Merapi volcano erupted again on Monday. An eruption last week killed 34 people. Indonesia and Australia -- culturally different neighbours who share a range of strategic interests -- would also work to develop a "comprehensive economic partnership" involving greater trade liberalisation and business links. Both economies shrugged off the effects of the global financial crisis and bilateral trade grew 22 percent to 4.4 billion US dollars in the first half of 2010, Yudhoyono said. Gillard told Yudhoyono her government was supporting a clemency plea from Australian Schapelle Corby, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for smuggling four kilos (nine pounds) of cannabis to Bali in 2004. She said Australia would also support any appeal for clemency by members of the "Bali Nine" drug-smuggling ring facing the death sentence. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Post message: [email protected] Subscribe : [email protected] Unsubscribe : [email protected] List owner : [email protected] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
