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UNHCR-Brokered Talks Over Stranded Refugees to Resume Saturday
GENEVA, Aug 31 (News Agencies) - Four-country talks brokered by the U.N.'s refugee agency in Geneva to resolve the plight of a shipload of refugees in the Indian Ocean are to resume Saturday, the UNHCR said.
The negotiators, from Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and Norway as well as the UNHCR, took time out late Friday to consult with their respective governments over a three-point plan drawn up by the UNHCR.
U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees Soren Jessen-Petersen has proposed that the refugees be allowed to disembark on Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the Indian ocean, where each of their cases would be examined separately before they were transferred to a third country.
Intense negotiations had been underway Friday to resolve the plight of the refugees as Australia ignored global outrage and steadfastly refused to take them in.
Canberra was coming under increasing pressure as a Norwegian envoy visited the refugees and reported food and water supplies were running low.
Hundreds of refugees have been packed on the Norwegian freighter, the Tampa, since Sunday after the captain and crew rescued them from a sinking Indonesian wooden boat.
At the meeting Jessen-Petersen asked New Zealand and Norway to take in the refugees, who are mostly from Afghanistan, UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said.
"The Tampa is now close to Christmas Island, the people have been on board far too long, and that island is the most logical place for them to go for the time being."
That view was echoed by Norway's ambassador to Australia, Ove Thorsheim, who spent more than five hours aboard the Tampa Friday and said Christmas Island was "the most viable option."
"I'm happy to say that the condition of the rescued people is as good as can be under the circumstances," he told reporters on his return.
But he said food and water were running low and sanitation for the 438 men, women and children refugees on board, plus 26 crewmembers, was "unsatisfactory."
"They are very determined to come to Australia. No where else will do," he said, adding he was bearing a letter from the refugees for Australian Prime Minister John Howard.
The fledgling nation of East Timor and tiny New Zealand indicated they would both consider offering safe haven to the refugees.
But Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer ruled out sending the refugees to East Timor, which is still trying to rebuild after being reduced to ruins by Indonesian-backed militias two years ago.
"They really don't have a formal government in place, that's not likely to be appointed until around the 15th of September, so there are obviously some complications with East Timor," he said.
U.N. chief in East Timor Sergio Vieria de Mello admitted relief at Australia's decision.
"We probably would have done that [taken in the shipload] had the UNHCR asked us to do it but we have enough problems of our own," he said.
"I wouldn't have wanted to be stuck here with a group of persons that no one else would accept, who presumably would feel frustrated after a while."
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said earlier that Wellington would like to help.
"We have a relatively small refugee quota a year because we don't have a big population, but we're prepared to look, and I hope others are prepared to look," she said.
Norway said it would consider accepting some of the refugees but insisted Australia first had a duty to acknowledge its primary responsibility for the asylum seekers.
"We will contribute if requested by the UNHCR," Foreign Minister Thorbjoern Jagland said.
In Melbourne's Federal Court an injunction was granted temporarily stopping Canberra from removing the Tampa, which was boarded by elite SAS troops on Wednesday, from Australian territorial waters.
The Victorian Council for Civil Liberties sought the injunction, which will remain in force until 0415 GMT Saturday, hoping the refugees will be brought ashore and allowed to apply for refugee status.
The Christmas Islanders appeared to be in favor of allowing the refugees to land, and about 150 protested Friday at the harbor calling for an end to the standoff.
Canberra has insisted the boatpeople should be returned to Indonesia, where they started their ill-fated journey.
But Indonesia says that it has enough trouble coping with 1.3 million of its own people who have been made homeless by sectarian or separatist conflicts.
U.N. human rights chief Mary Robinson said it was worrying that a country with a "fine tradition" like Australia had not done more to help the refugees.
The United States also added its voice to calls for a swift solution but Australian Prime Minister John Howard showed no sign of wavering.
"I believe it is in Australia's national interest that we draw a line on what is increasingly becoming an uncontrollable number of illegal arrivals in this country," he said.
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