Australia on Sunday, November 8, urged Sri Lanka, having defeated the Tamil Tigers in May, to now embrace political reform and reconciliation to stem the flow of asylum seekers leaving the country.
Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith met his Sri Lankan counterpart Rohitha Bogollagama in Colombo on Monday, November 8 amid a standoff in Indonesia involving 78 Tamil asylum seekers, who are refusing to leave an Australian vessel that rescued them last month.
"I will reiterate Australia's view that having won the war, Sri Lanka now needs to win the peace through political reform and reconciliation," Smith said in a statement before his meeting with his Sri Lankan counterpart.
"Mr Bogollagama and I will discuss bilateral and regional cooperation on people smuggling and ways in which Australia will continue to assist Sri Lanka rebuild after decades of internal conflict."
The Australian statement however was not publically reiterated after Smith’s arrival in Colombo. Instead, Australia and Sri Lanka signed a legal cooperation agreement to fight people smuggling.
The memorandum of understanding will make it easier to investigate and prosecute smugglers while legal assistance and extradition measures will be strengthened, Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said in a statement, without detailing specific steps.
“People smuggling remains a high priority,” Smith and Bogollagama, said in a joint statement. “It presents a threat to the integrity of border security.”
The standoff in Indonesia involves an Australian customs vessel which rescued a group of boatpeople in Indonesian waters.
It took them to the Indonesian port of Tanjung Pinang but the asylum seekers have refused to leave the vessel.
Last Friday Indonesia extended for another week a deadline for the ship to leave its waters.
The arrival in Australia of several boats carrying asylum seekers, many of them Sri Lankan Tamils displaced by the conduct and end of civil war, has ignited what is a hot-button political issue in Australia.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has had to defend his border security policy, which critics say has been softened and is attracting more boatpeople. Opinion polls show the popularity of Rudd's government has taken a tumble in the past few weeks as a result of its handling of the issue.
Almost 300,000 civilians were forced from their homes and moved into the cramped camps in the north of Sri Lanka during the final months of Sri Lanka's civil war against the LTTE which ended in May.
