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Australia and Indonesia Defy Mounting Pressure Over Refugee Ship
CHRISTMAS ISLAND, Australia, Aug 30 (News Agencies) - Australia and Indonesia were locked in a standoff Thursday over the fate of hundreds of refugees hunkering down for a fifth night on the deck of a Norwegian freighter.
Neither country showed any sign of ceding any ground in the face of mounting international pressure to accept the migrants.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard sought the help of United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, but even if a deal is struck and a third country agrees to take the asylum seekers, it is unlikely they will be going anywhere on the cargo ship.
The ship's owner, Wallenius Wilhelmsen, said the Tampa, which rescued the mainly Afghan refugees from their sinking Indonesian vessel on Sunday, was in no condition to sail.
"That vessel is uncertified to carry what is now 450 to 460 survivors, so the captain is unable to move the ship," regional director Peter Dexter said in Sydney.
The refugees, some weak and ill, have been sweltering in tropical heat on the steel deck and containers of the ship since they were plucked to safety.
Norway said there was signs Australia might be relenting with foreign ministry spokesman Karsten Klepsvik saying the foreign ministers had held two telephone conversations.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Thorbjoern Jagland and his Australian counterpart, Alexander Downer, "agreed they should find a solution to the refugee problem," according to Klepsvik.
Jagland added: "During the last day I feel that there's been some progress which give reason for some optimism. The signals from Australia are different today than they were yesterday."
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said her country might be willing to take some of the refugees.
"We are prepared to talk with Australia as I hope are other countries, and I hope the U.N. High Commission for Refugees are, to see how the problem can be solved quickly," she told Australian television networks.
The ship was anchored some four nautical miles from the Australian territory of Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean and Howard acknowledged there was a stalemate.
"They [Indonesia] clearly are not anxious to put their hand up," said Howard, who was seeking talks on the issue with Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri.
He said he would argue that Jakarta should accept the boat people "but in the meantime the government will continue to explore other options as well".
The Indonesian armed forces, however, said they would stop any attempt by the Tampa to enter Indonesian waters.
"If the government has decided it won't accept [the ship], the TNI [military] will have to say: 'Don't enter'," Air Vice Marshal Graito Usodo told AFP.
Australian commandos stormed the ship on Wednesday after its captain defied orders not to bring its unwanted human cargo into Australian waters.
Australia's military presence on Christmas Island was strengthened Thursday with a Hercules plane carrying scores of soldiers touching down.
But Wallenius Wilhelmsen denied that SAS troops were controlling the vessel, saying that Captain Arne Rinnan remained at the helm and would refuse any order to return to international waters.
The soldiers were in plain view on the ship's decks, guarding against any attempt by asylum seekers to carry out threats to throw themselves into the shark-infested ocean.
Pressure mounted against the Australian government's tough stand, with Amnesty International calling for urgent action "to avoid a humanitarian tragedy".
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees called for "an international cooperative effort to find solutions and share responsibilities".
The Australian government, which is down in the polls ahead of a general election later this year, had enjoyed the support of the Labor opposition for its hardline refusal to allow the Tampa to berth.
But Labor late Wednesday joined minor parties to defeat a government attempt to rush through retrospective emergency legislation aimed at toughening its legal powers to expel the Tampa and deter boat people.
Labor leader Kim Beazley said he would not be panicked into supporting "bad and draconian" legislation.
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