Lanka cops arrest 44 heading to Australia

Lanka cops arrest 44 heading to Australia

IANS/Colombo

Sri Lankan police yesterday arrested 44 people who were preparing to leave for Australia by boat.

A police officer said that three vans transporting them to a location were checked on suspicion in the southern town of Aluthgama.

Among those found in the van were five women and four children, the police official said, adding that they are residents of the war-affected north.

On Thursday, the Sri Lankan navy said it had also intercepted a boat with 61 people illegally bound for Australia.

The boat was intercepted by a navy patrol craft off the eastern town of Batticaloa. Among those arrested were 60 minority Tamils, the navy said.

The Australian government yesterday said it had forcibly returned 38 asylum seekers from Sri Lanka who made an epic 44-day boat voyage to Geraldton last week.

They will not be entitled to reintegration assistance.

Immigration Minister Brendan O’Connor said none of those returned had raised issues that engaged protection obligations.

Another 28 are still having their claims for protection processed. Another Sri Lankan who had arrived on a separate boat was also deported. Since August 13, the government has returned 1,004 Sri Lankans who arrived on boats - 795 involuntarily.

“Returning this group to Sri Lanka sends the powerful message that people who pay smugglers are throwing their money away and risking their lives in the process,” Australian Minister for Immigration and Citizenship Brendan O’Connor said, adding: “There is no fast track … If they do not engage Australia’s protection obligations, they will be returned home.’’

Sri Lankan asylum seekers are subject to “enhanced screening’’, in which authorities assess whether or not they have a genuine claim for protection before they have gone through the formal application process for refugee status.

Former LTTE hideout is now  tourist spot

Agencies/Colombo

Thoppigala, which used to be an LTTE hideout in Sri Lanka’s east and served as a training base for them during their nearly three decades of separatist campaign, has now been converted into a tourist attraction.

The Thoppigala Heritage Park was declared opened by the top defence official Gotabhaya Rajapakse yesterday.

“This is a multi-ethnic area in the country rich with the nature’s beauty and its flora and fauna. Local and foreign tourists would be welcome to visit Thoppigala. Particularly those overseas who level unjustified accusations against Sri Lanka could visit here and see for themselves the progress we have made after we ended terrorism,” President Mahinda Rajapakse said.

Thoppigala or Baron’s Cap in the eastern Batticaloa district would now be a tourist camping site in addition to its military museum.

The tourists could climb the rock which stands 1,753ft above sea level and survey the thickets and the rocky terrain that surround it.

The Thoppigala thickets served as a key LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) hideout in the eastern province.

In July 2007, the military wrested control of Thoppigala from LTTE signalling the end of their hold in the east.

Weakened by the loss at Thoppigala, two months later the LTTE lost the eastern battle to the army giving the government forces the full control in the east.

The Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) during their stint in Sri Lanka’s north and east between 1987-1990 had carried out several military operations in Thoppigala to comb out the LTTE fighters in the area.

‘Tracking down tourists safety step’

Sri Lanka, which saw record tourist arrivals last year, has said it had started tracking those same tourists to crack down on crime and ensure national security.

The $59bn economy recorded 1mn arrivals last year with annual revenue from tourism jumping to an all-time peak of $1.04bn, helped by the end of nearly three decades of civil war in 2009.

The decision to track the tourists, requiring hotels and guesthouses to submit weekly reports on their foreign guests, comes after several foreign visitors were arrested for crimes including credit card fraud and printing counterfeit money, government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella told reporters on Thursday.

“In the guise of tourists, there are certain elements which are adverse to (security of) the country,” Rambukwella said.

Police in December arrested at least 100 Chinese nationals accused of an Internet fraud scheme targeting people in their home country while separately police arrested a Chinese tourist suspected of swallowing a diamond worth Rs1.8mn ($13,600) at the island nation’s biggest international gem and jewellery exhibition.

Sri Lanka targets $2.5bn annual revenue from tourism with 2.5mn arrivals by 2016 and has invited international hoteliers to invest in post-war Sri Lanka.

Tourism is one of the main foreign exchange earners for Sri Lanka, along with remittances from expatriate workers, garment manufacturing and tea.

Top envoy to visit Colombo

Bangladesh foreign secretary Shahidul Haque is expected to arrive in Sri Lanka tomorrow for a three-day official visit ahead of a crucial Commonwealth meeting later this month, the external affairs ministry said in a statement yesterday.

Haque will take part in the second foreign secretary-level consultations between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, which is a follow-up to discussions initiated at a meeting in Dhaka in January 2011.

“Based on a protocol signed in April 2003, which provides an institutional framework to review the full range of Bangladesh-Sri Lanka bilateral relations, Haque will hold discussions with his counterpart K Amunugama at the ministry of external affairs on Monday,” the statement said.

During his visit, the Bangladesh’s foreign secretary will call on Sri Lanka’s External Affairs Minister G L Peiris, Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapakse and Industry and Commerce Minister Rishad Bathiudeen.

Analysts expect the Sri Lankan government to use this opportunity to lobby for support from Dhaka to prevent the country being included on the agenda of the upcoming Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group Meeting (CMAG).