14th Asylum seekers boat intercepted

Caption:

The 14th Boat since Kevin Rudd to Office.

CANBERRA - AN AUSTRALIAN official says border patrols have intercepted a boat carrying 49 apparent asylum seekers off the country's northern coast.

The small boat, with four crew members, was the 14th such vessel to be detained in Australian waters this year.

Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor says the passengers will be taken to Christmas Island, an Indian Ocean territory where the government detains and processes refugee applicants.

O'Connor said in a statement Tuesday that the passengers will undergo health, security, identity and other checks.

Their nationalities were not immediately known.

Most of the recent asylum seekers have come from Afghanistan, Iran or Sri Lanka. -- AP

Police 'cautiously' release names of asylum-seekers

THE names of five Afghan asylum-seekers who died in a boat explosion off the coast of Australia have been released by Northern Territory police.

Acting Commander Peter Bravos said the "unusual step" had been taken because there had been problems establishing their identities and police still had questions about the accuracy of the names.

"It has been decided to take the unusual step of releasing the names of those believed to be the deceased in the hope that others may have information which will further assist us with this process," Comm Bravos said.

Awaz Nader, 50, Baquer Husani, 26, Mohammed Amen Zamen, 38, Mohammed Hasan Ayobi, 45, Muzafar Ali Safarali, 45, are among the names NT police have "cautiously" made public.

Three bodies were found at the blast scene while two bodies went missing in the surrounding water.

It is not known which names correspond to the recovered bodies.

Comm Bravos said the formal identification of the five men was continuing.

"A number of difficulties are delaying the process," he said.

"We believe all five of the deceased are Afghan nationals and the current war status in Afghanistan is further hindering our efforts."

It's still unclear what caused the blast, which also injured more than 40 people near Ashmore Reef on April 16.

The vessel, carrying 47 Afghan asylum-seekers and two crew, had been intercepted the previous day and was waiting to be escorted to Christmas Island when the incident occurred.

NT police - conducting an investigation into the incident for the NT coroner - is yet to reveal whether the blast was an accident or the result of sabotage.

But Comm Bravos said more than 130 statements had now been taken, including 44 interviews.

A second round of interviews started last week.

A separate investigation is being carried out by the Australian Federal Police into people-smuggling.

NT police can be contacted by anyone with information on (08) 8922 1505.

In landslide victory, Ahmadinejad declared president

The final results of Iran's closely-contested 10th presidential election indicate that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has won a landslide victory.

"Of 39,165,191 votes counted (85 percent), Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the election with 24,527,516 (62.63 percent)," Interior Minister Sadeq Mahsouli told reporters on Saturday.

Mir-Hossein Mousavi came in second with 13,216,411 votes (33.75 percent), he added.

The two were followed by Mohsen Rezaei with 678,240 votes (1.73 percent) and Mehdi Karroubi with 333,635 votes (0.85 percent), the minister said.

He put the void ballots at 409,389 (1.04 percent).

Over 46 million Iranians aged 18 and older were eligible to vote in Friday's presidential election.

Afghan who tried to return but ended up in dire straits

BOARDING the ill-fated boat of asylum seekers in Indonesia last week, Ali Talash must have had a strange sense of deja vu.

Now lying injured in the Royal Perth Hospital, it was Mr Talash's second trip to Australia on an Indonesian boat.

In 1999, as the Taliban's control of Afghanistan tightened and the persecution of his Hazara community increased, Mr Talash said goodbye to his wife and children. He was taken by people smugglers through Pakistan and Iran, then flown to Malaysia and on to Indonesia, where he boarded a boat.

That boat was intercepted and he spent about a year in immigration detention before being granted a temporary protection visa. He moved to Auburn, in Sydney's south-west, and spent the next four years working as a tiler.

But as the war in Afghanistan progressed he became hopeful his country may have stabilised.

Mr Talash, who is in his 40s, was depressed and missing his wife and children, whom he could not see because the conditions of his visa meant he was not allowed to leave Australia.

So in 2003 he decided to go back to Afghanistan.

Mr Talash called a friend in Perth, Salman Rahmani, and told him of his decision.

"I said, 'If you go maybe you will (get) killed' — but he said, 'It's been so long, I must see my family'," Mr Rahmani said.

"He said he couldn't sleep in the night, he was very worried about his children and after he went back to Afghanistan it was very bad.

"It's sad, because Ali Talash missed (his chance to get) a permanent visa. Everybody else, me, our friends, we got permanent visas and became citizens, but he went home. By now he would have been a citizen, it's very sad."

But when Mr Talash returned to Afghanistan he found it still a violent, chaotic place and decided to try to get his family to Australia.

Increasingly frustrated by the lack of help from Australian embassies in Afghanistan and Pakistan, earlier this year he decided to make a perilous return journey.

The boat carrying him and 48 other asylum seekers was intercepted by the Australian Navy, and before they reached the safety of Christmas Island, there was an explosion on board, knocking many of them into the water.

Mr Rahmani's son Jarajo Zirak, 20, has been going to Royal Perth Hospital every day since Friday, trying to get information about Mr Talash's condition.

Mr Talash's wife called Mr Zirak on Friday, scared her husband had died. So far, Mr Zirak has been able to tell only that Mr Talash is alive, with officials unwilling to give details.

"She called me and was crying and was worried," Mr Zirak said. "She called me last night and I said there was no news yet. For the first few days she called me every two hours."

Indonesia stops nearly 900 asylum seekers: AFP

Australian Federal Police (AFP) commissioner Mick Keelty says authorities in Indonesia have stopped nearly 900 suspected asylum seekers from travelling to Australia since September last year.

Thirteen boatloads of asylum seekers have arrived in Australia in the past five months.

The Navy intercepted the latest boatload near Ashmore Island off the north-west coast of Australia on Sunday.

"Since September 2008, in Indonesia, there have been 40 identified disruptions comprising of 887 foreign nationals suspected of being in transit or have entered Indonesia for the purpose of travelling to Australia illegally," Commissioner Keelty said.

Police yet to reveal cause of fatal boat blast

Five people were killed in the April 16 explosion near Ashmore Reef. (File photo) (Department of Defence)

Northern Territory Police are still to determine whether a fatal boat explosion near Ashmore Reef last month was a result of sabotage or an accident.

They have interviewed 41 asylum seekers who were on the boat, known as the SIEV 36.

Five people were killed in the April 16 explosion.

Of the 44 people rescued, three remain in a stable condition at the burns units of the Royal Perth and Royal Brisbane hospitals.

Earlier this month, government sources told the ABC fuel was deliberately poured on the boat deck as a threat, after the Navy intercepted the vessel.

It is alleged those on board feared they would be turned back to Indonesia.

However, the head of the Afghan community in Western Australia says some of the survivors now in immigration detention say it was an accident.

The Immigration Department is still to interview the survivors.

The asylum seekers are believed to be from Afghanistan, but the department cannot formally identify them until their interviews are finished.

Immigration says its focus remains on providing support and welfare to the group.

Protest in Australia Against the Rape Law

Protesters holding banner in front of Afghanistan Embassy, Canberra Australia.

Tuesday May 12, 2009–- Afghanistani Australians from around Australia gathered in Canberra to voice their concern over the increasing Talibanization of Afghanistan as well as to condemn Afghanistan’s now infamous Rape Law. Protesters shouted slogans against the shameless move by religious fundamentalists to further rid women of their basic rights in clear violation of United Nations declaration on Human Rights, to which Afghanistan is a signatory. They further urged the Australian public and government to use their influence to ensure Human Rights are upheld in Afghanistan.

Large number of protesters were women.

The protesters, majority of who were women, took their concerns to the Australian Parliament House and later to the gates of the Afghanistan Embassy in Canberra where they formally filed their protest with the Afghanistani Ambassador to Australia, who promised to pass the concerns of the protesters to authorities in Kabul.

Some of the articles in The Shi’a Personal Status Law that are in gross violation of the Human Rights are as follows:

• Treatment of women as sex objects
• Legalization of marital rape, including the obligation on women to submit to their husbands’ sexual desires at a minimum of four times a week.
• Age discrimination, legalization of marriage at 16 for girls and 18 for boys
• Legalization of forced marriages
• Child Abuse and Child Marriage, thereby the legalization of intercourse with a minor
• Allowing men to have multiple wives
• And more …

Protesters demanded the Australian Govt. to use its influence against the Rape Law.

Demands:

1. All the people of Afghanistan should have the right to enjoy freedom, liberty, freedom of speech as well as the right to exercise their belief.
2. All marriages should be voluntary and sexual relationship within marriage should be on voluntary basis too.
3. We demand the abolition of laws that allow men to have multiple wives.
4. Women are not the property of men. The obligation on them to be subjects to their husbands’ permission must be abolished.
5. We urge the Australian government to condemn ‘The Rape Law’ and use its influence to ensure Human Rights are upheld in Afghanistan.
6. The Shiite Personal Status Law is in gross violation of Human Rights, it is a cruel attacked against women. It must therefore be repealed and its provisions eliminated without any delay.

Protesters demanded the Rape Law must be repealed.