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Refugees Sail as Australian Government Wins Mass Support for Stand
CHRISTMAS ISLAND, Australia, Sept 4 (News Agencies) - More than 430 asylum seekers sailed for Papua New Guinea Tuesday as the Australian government reveled in polls showing it had won overwhelming public support for its hardline stand against allowing the refugees to land in Australia.
The refugees left here early Tuesday after being transferred to the Australian troopship Manoora from the Norwegian freighter Tampa which rescued them from a sinking ferry boat on August 26th.
The Manoora's departure ended an eight-day stalemate that plunged Australia into a major legal and diplomatic crisis, and provoked unprecedented international criticism.
However, two new polls confirmed Tuesday that despite the criticism, Prime Minister John Howard had won overwhelming public support in Australia for his uncompromising handling of the crisis.
A poll for The Australian newspaper showed his conservative coalition had surged to a winning lead in the run up to an election due in December while another in the
Sydney Morning Herald showed 77% support for Howard's stance.
He foreshadowed likely attacks on Australia's handling of the crisis from within United Nations ranks on Tuesday, saying democratic nations had become easy targets for international criticism.
"We won't be the first democratic nation to be attacked by the United Nations," Howard told ABC radio.
"The Americans have been attacked, they are regularly attacked - it seems in the eyes of some in the United Nations that the really democratic nations in the world are an easy game for attack."
But he continued to shrug off international criticism, saying: "We have demonstrated a determination not to just meekly accept a situation where people can without authorization say 'We are coming to your country'."
When it arrives in Papua New Guinea's capital of Port Moresby, the Manoora's passengers will be flown to New Zealand and the tiny Pacific island of Nauru where their applications for asylum will be assessed.
Offers by New Zealand and Nauru to accept the Tampa's human cargo defused the diplomatic row that raged while the Tampa lay anchored off Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean.
However, the ultimate fate of the asylum seekers could be decided by Australia's Federal Court where a hearing resumed Tuesday of a challenge by civil liberties groups against the government's right to deny them entry into Australia.
Australia's Solicitor-General, David Bennett, QC, told the court the asylum seekers' problems were self-inflicted because they had ordered the captain of the Tampa to sail for the Australian territory of Christmas Island.
Four Indonesians taken off the Norwegian freighter Tampa were charged with people smuggling in Christmas Island on Tuesday.
The four, Aldo Benjamin, 21, Bastian Disun, 32, Notbames Nordin, 31, and a 17-year-old juvenile who cannot be identified were remanded in custody until September 11th after a brief appearance before a magistrate.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Russell Northcott opposed bail saying the four face up to 20 years imprisonment.
Meanwhile, Australian Federal Police were Tuesday investigating packages containing bullets and detonators sent to prominent national politicians in what police see as an attempt to intimidate them after they criticized the government's stand.
The packages were sent to opposition leader Kim Beazley, Australian Democrats leader Natasha Stott Despoja and Greens leader Bob Brown.
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