Boatpeople facing expulsion over security concerns on former Tamil fighters

as posted here

Paul Maley | October 06, 2009

Article from: The Australian

SECURITY officials may move to expel some of the Sri Lankan boat people detained at Christmas Island over concerns they are Tamil Tiger fighters and could pose a risk to the community.

Some young men are believed to have raised suspicions because they have injuries consistent with warfare, such as shrapnel wounds. Officials are concerned they could be Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam fighters trying to pass themselves off as asylum-seekers.

While not proscribed in Australia, the LTTE has been listed as a terrorist organisation here since 2001.

It is either banned, proscribed or listed as a terrorist organisation in 31 other countries, including the US, UK and Canada.

Yesterday, Sri Lanka's high commissioner to Australia, Senaka Walgampaya, said security agencies in Colombo had indicated there was a strong possibility Tigers were among the latest wave of boat-borne asylum-seekers to reach Australia.

"I have in fact informed (the Department of Immigration and Citizenship) also that there is a really strong possibility that the combatants, the LTTE cadres, will try to infiltrate, will try to come into Australia," he said.

In May, Sri Lankan troops crushed the decades-old Tamil separatist movement, sparking a humanitarian calamity.

The high commissioner's remarks came as Immigration officials prepared to repatriate three Sri Lankan boatpeople, who landed as part of a group of 12 at Shark Bay on the northwest coast in November. Eight of the group have been deported, including two forcibly returned on Sunday.

Mr Walgampaya said the repatriation of the men, understood to be Sinhalese economic migrants, would discourage other potential boatpeople. The increasing number of boat arrivals threatens to overwhelm the offshore processing centre at Christmas Island, with immigration officials preparing to open the Northern immigration detention centre in Darwin to cope with the overflow.

The high commissioner's advice is in line with concerns raised by Australian security agencies, who are understood to have warned Immigration that ASIO could be set to issue adverse security assessments against some Sri Lankans already in detention.

Such a finding would make the men ineligible for an Australian visa and create a dilemma for the Australian government, who would risk jeopardising the men's safety should they return them to Sri Lanka.

Several Sri Lankan detainees at Christmas Island had aroused the suspicion of guards with their regimented behaviour, such as exercising in small groups at first light. Some of the men, understood to be young and fit, are also said to carry injuries similar to those suffered in combat.

An Immigration Department spokesman yesterday refused to say if any adverse security assessments had been issued, saying it was a matter for ASIO.

And, while it is likely at least some of those in detention fought with the Tamils, it is not certain they will be denied visas as a result.

The Tamil Tigers are not a proscribed terrorist organisation in Australia and not everyone who served with them necessarily poses a threat to the community.

The fall of the last Tamil redoubt in May triggered a humanitarian catastrophe in Sri Lanka and warnings from the Australian government that increased refugee numbers were likely.

The UN estimated that up to 7000 civilians may have died as a result of the fighting in the first four months of this year.

More than 250,000 Tamil civilians have been interned by the Sri Lankan government, which claims it is screening the Tamil population for former fighters.

Mr Walgampaya said his government was "rehabilitating" ex-combatants and denied unsuccessful Sri Lankan asylum-seekers faced any risk should they return home.

Mr Walgampaya said there was a risk ex-Tamil fighters would come to Australia to "reactivate" their networks.

This risk, he said, was based on advice from the Sri Lankan government.

"There is a large Tamil diaspora here and really it's a very dangerous situation here if they come and start their activities again here," Mr Walgampaya said.

"Now that the LTTE have been defeated militarily in Sri Lanka they will try to come here and reactivate their network."

When asked if he believed LTTE fighters might already be on the boats, he replied: "I believe so ... I can't tell you the information I have but that's a firm belief."

Last month around 500 asylum-seekers arrived by boat, with favourable seasonal conditions expected to deliver similar - or greater numbers - in the months ahead.

The surge makes it all but certain the government will begin transferring asylum-seekers to the mainland for the final stages of processing, with the Christmas Island detention centre near capacity.

Immigration Department officials are understood to be readying a facility in Darwin that has an normal operating capacity of 382 and a surge capacity of 546.

as posted here

Melbourne Storm like a well-oiled corporation

as posted here

This posting is not really about ASIO as such, but the story does make reference to ASIO in the sense of being a watchdog, which shows how the security organisation is seen in Australia by Australians

THE Melbourne Storm are the worthiest of grand final winners. It's just that it's like barracking for BHP.

It was a relief to see the Storm players throwing themselves around and whooping it up a little after Greg Inglis's field goal and again at the fulltime siren which announced their second premiership of Craig Bellamy's reign.

I have been worrying about how much fun is to be had in this Storm cell ever since Dallas Johnson disclosed last week that he and Cam Smith have a debrief meeting after every training session. During a 30-week season, that's near enough to 100 meetings a year.

It further emerged in grand final week that Storm ball-players Smith, Cooper Cronk and Brett Finch were called to a clear-the-air meeting with Bellamy in the days after their home loss to Manly late in the regular season.

While life at the Storm seems from the outside to be one big meeting, I guess there must be some fun to be had, otherwise players such as Inglis and Slater would have taken the chance to play somewhere else.

But structure is king within Bellamy's brutally efficient organisation.

The main ones to provide some innovation on the field are Smith, Cronk, Inglis and Billy Slater. Finch can pop up with the odd clever play, but generally the Storm play with the spontaneity of an East German military parade.

Other players run their lines in attack. They hit to hurt in defence before they set to work on the wrestle.

It's just the way Bellamy likes his teams to play and he has, in Smith and Cronk, expert organisers able to take his demands from the whiteboard and on to the football field.

In Sunday's grand final against Parramatta, structure won out over the ad-lib and the offload. In rugby league, it usually does in the most important games. Melbourne can play with tremendous skill in delivering passes just on the advantage line. Passes from Finch and Cronk were timed to perfection to put Adam Blair charging through the Eels defensive line for tries scored by Blair and Billy Slater.

It's a fantastic achievement for Bellamy to coach his team to four grand finals in succession. The only remaining question about Bellamy as a man manager now is whether his personality and brand of motivation can lead NSW to a series win at State of Origin time. He was close in 2008 and his team were closer this year than many Queenslanders would want to admit.

Yet in winning their grand final, the Storm also leant heavily on one of sport's simplest motivators, the old "stick it up our critics" ploy.

The previous week, Geelong AFL player Paul Chapman said he had enjoyed the way his team had won their grand final after wearing so much criticism. If ASIO had been charged with a house-to-house search of AFL media pundits who said Geelong could not win the grand final, they would have come up without an arrest.

Smith said last week some senior players and the coaching staff liked proving "the doubters" wrong. Melbourne lost some games and punters and commentators seemed to prefer the chances of the Dragons and Bulldogs in the run-up to the finals.

Interestingly, Bellamy mused on Sunday night that eight or 10 weeks earlier he had not envisaged a grand final appearance, let alone a second premiership.

In terms of a legacy left by the Storm's four grand final appearances, there are promising signs in Melbourne.

There was hope to be found in the television audience figures that showed there were more people in Melbourne (average of 682,000) watching the grand final than there were in Brisbane (563,000).

The Brisbane figure itself was an increase of 62,000 on the average figure for the 2008 grand final, indicating the NRL grand final keeps growing in its standing as a must-watch television event. I watched the game along with about 400 others at a Sunshine Coast surf club and the noisy enthusiasm for the game didn't suffer much at all for the lack of a Queensland club.

The Storm's win was carried on the front page of both Melbourne's daily newspapers and its main sports page to boot, which considering we are only entering week two of the Brendan Fevola trade is pretty good going. "Victoria's domination of Australian sport is complete," noted the Herald Sun after the win by a team entirely drawn from outside Victoria.

As ever, winners can smile and interpret victory any way they like.

And 11 years on, though, rugby league looks for signs of green shoots in Melbourne as carefully and hopefully as a boy who plants seeds which promise a big tree.

as posted here