REFUGEE

MORE than 260 Sri Lankan asylum-seekers were last night threatening to blow up their boat if the Indonesian navy forced them to disembark at the port in Merak after the large cargo boat they were piloting towards Christmas Island broke down.

"We have gas canisters and we have told the navy we will blow up the boat and jump into the ocean if they try to force us off the boat," said a spokesman for the asylum-seekers, who would only give his name as Alex.

Alex said the Sri Lankans had each paid $US15,000 ($16,533) to board the wooden craft in Malaysia 13 days ago, after travelling there by air from Jaffna.

"If the authorities in Sri Lanka know this is me on this boat, they will hunt down my wife and children in Jaffna and kill them," the frightened man said. "I have been waiting for my wife and children to follow me here. As soon as possible, we need to get to Australia."

The Sri Lankan asylum-seekers and six Indonesian crew members were under military guard aboard the cargo ship in western Java after being intercepted trying to sail to Christmas Island.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono intervened directly in the case of the asylum-seekers, who were detained trying to sail to Christmas Island at the weekend.

Dr Yudhoyono has ordered his navy chief of staff to treat with care the group of hungry and tired refugees, who last night were expected to be towed to shore after their cargo boat's engine died. They were then to be dealt with by immigration officials after having refused for the past three days to leave their stricken boat.

Kevin Rudd confirmed yesterday he had made a personal plea to Dr Yudhoyono for the Indonesians to intercept the boat.

Alex denied last night that those on board the boat were associated with Tamil Tigers.

"We are civilians, not Tamil Tigers. Every day there are Tamils being killed and raped in the refugee camps. Men are blindfolded and shot in the back of the head.

"In Sri Lanka if you are Tamil there is no opportunity - the government can detain you without cause, and take you to trial without evidence."

Alex said the group's choice of Australia as a destination was not based on intimate knowledge of federal government immigration policy, but simply "because we had to flee somewhere".

"Another boat full of Tamils left Malaysia for Canada, and for that people were paying $US45,000 per person," he said. "That was far too expensive."

He said the group had been at sea for 13 days before being captured by an Indonesian navy vessel early on Saturday morning. "We spent a month in the jungle in Malaysia before that," he said.

International Organisation for Migration staff were working with Immigration Department officials last night to resolve the standoff, with the Sri Lankans adamant they wanted to continue their journey to Australia.
Alex refused to give details of the agent who had taken money from members for the group in Malaysia, repeatedly saying he feared for his life.

He was allowed to speak to The Australian for only a few moments, before senior navy officers made him rejoin the larger group.

The group consisted of women and children as well as men, and a number of extremely young children.

Four of the boatpeople were in hospital last night being treated for non life-threatening issues, including one woman who reportedly was pregnant.

A military source, who refused to be named, said navy ships guarding the asylum-seekers had accompanied the boat after it was intercepted in the Sunda Strait near Anak Krakatau, an active volcano that attracts thousands of tourists to its spectacular displays.

"We're guarding them so that no one can get on or off, and so they don't escape," the source said.

The boat was moored alongside an Indonesian submarine chaser and bore a large hand-painted sign saying: "We are Sri Lankan civilians plz save our life."

Australian Federal Police and Immigration Department officers had already visited the boat people, the source said. However they were refusing to speak to officials.

A doctor dealing with the four people in hospital said they included a baby with skin problems, a woman who is seven months pregnant, another with gastritis and a fourth who had a spinal injury sustained on the cargo boat.

Others had been given medical assessments on the boat and determined to be fine.

Erwin Hilianka, from the Banten province health department, said the illegal immigrants were suffering no serious illnesses but were only sick due to weakness and not eating.

The boat was intercepted early on Sunday morning, authorities said, and arrived in Merak harbour late the same day.

Indonesian police said they were investigating whether the six Indonesian crew members were involved in a known people-smuggling ring.

Thousands of asylum-seekers from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Sri Lanka and Burma use Indonesia as a staging point to get to Australia where they apply for refugee status, often travelling first through Malaysia.

Many make their initial applications to the UN High Commission for Refugees in Jakarta, giving them temporary right to stay in the country while their claims are processed.

A large number of them then use this opportunity to organise risky voyages such as the most recent one to be intercepted, often with the services of organised people-smuggling rings.

Australia has launched a joint policing program with Indonesia to combat the people trafficking wave, with at least a dozen ports across the country being targeted.

Despite tough language from Jakarta for Australia's benefit, officials admit they are unable to stem the flow of refugees through the country. Many of the asylum-seekers themselves admit the flow has increased as a result of the Rudd government's softer measures on the problem.

These measures, which many asylum-seekers believe will give them a greater chance at being accepted as refugees by Australia if they try the journey by boat, have led to the main detention and processing centre at Christmas Island being filled beyond its capacity.

However Indonesian detention centres are also stretched beyond capacity, despite financial and other assistance from foreign governments including Australia and from the International Organisation for Migration.

The IOM works with the UNHCR giving shelter, food and medical treatment to thousands of asylum-seekers living in the community in areas such as Puncak, a mountainous resort region full of low-rent hostels south of Jakarta.

Hundreds more are in immigration detention centres across the country, with the latest boatload almost certain to join that category unless any of them can produce documentation showing they had refugee applications already being assessed by the UN.

Asylum-seekers who are successful in such applications while living in Indonesia then have the right to be considered for resettlement in a third country that has signed the international treaty dealing with refugees.

Chief among these countries are Australia, the US and Canada. Indonesia has never signed the treaty and, despite promises by Dr Yudhoyono during a visit by Mr Rudd last year, has not enacted anti-people smuggling legislation.