Location : News : Media Release : Adelaide Seminar

Former diplomat raises questions about people smuggling from Indonesia

Date: 21 August 2006
Source: Uniya

Former Ambassador to Cambodia, "International Whistleblower of the Year", and author Tony Kevin is raising questions over who may have facilitated the latest boat arrival on Australia's Ashmore Reef of Burmese asylum seekers.

Mr Kevin, who will speak alongside security specialist Dr John Bruni and Jesuit lawyer Fr Frank Brennan in a seminar on Australia-Indonesia relations in Adelaide tomorrow, suggests Australia's relations with Indonesia are "partly confrontational and partly collusive."

His talk analyses the contended history of "people smuggling" from Indonesia to Australia since 1999, and also the impact on Australia-Indonesia relations of the rightful Australian decision to give refugee protection to 43 asylum-seekers from West Papua.

Comparing Prime Minister John Howard and his Indonesian counterpart Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to "two puppetmasters, both protagonists and partners, in a wayang shadow play", he argues that the possibility of the migration bill's defeat would have been anticipated by both leaders as early as June, and fallback public strategies agreed.

"When Howard pulled the bill last week before the Senate could reject it, there was a flurry of ritual official denunciations from Indonesia -- as there had to be. The people smuggling bogy was wheeled out again," he said.

The former diplomat and author of A Certain Maritime Incident, the award-winning book on the SIEV-X disaster in 2001 in which 353 asylum seekers drowned south of Java, believes the "perfectly timed" arrival last week of a new boatload of eight asylum seekers is unlikely to have been a spontaneous commercial people smuggling operation.

"Who facilitated their journey to Ashmore?", he asks of the latest boat people. "Indonesian security agencies sending a timely warning message to Australia? Just possibly, but I think more likely is a collusive action by Australian and Indonesian security agencies."

He claims that the events of recent weeks are a "win-win outcome" for both governments, despite the popular belief that Mr Howard's U-turn on the migration bill was his first major political defeat.

Mr Kevin will speak at the Uniya Seminar Series 2006 on Tuesday, 22 August, in Norwood, Adelaide, titled "Good Neighbour, Bad Neighbour."

The Series was first held in 1999 to mark 150 years of Jesuit work in Australia. Adelaide is the final destination in a free lecture series that also included Melbourne, Wollongong and Sydney.

Founded in 1989, Uniya is a centre for social justice and human rights research, advocacy, education and networking.

Please visit www.uniya.org or call (02) 9356 3888 for more information about the free lecture. Speakers will be available for brief interviews afterwards. Full papers available upon request (embargoed).

[Uniya Seminar Series 2006 - Good Neighbour, Bad Neighbour. Whats the difference?. When: 22 August, 7.30-9.30pm. Where: St Ignatius Parish, 137 William St, Norwood, Adelaide.]

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