Vol. 78/No. 6      February 17, 2014

Many hundreds of refugees seeking asylum in Australia have perished in perilous sea voyages, fleeing government repression and hardship in Sri Lanka, Iran, Afghanistan and other countries.

As part of its military-led “Operation Sovereign Borders,” the government of Liberal Prime Minister Anthony Abbott has stepped up naval presence near Indonesia. In response, Indonesian government official Agus Barnas announced Jan. 17 that its military was deploying patrol boats and a frigate to protect “its sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Jakarta had already criticized the actions of Australian ships in towing several asylum-seeker boats back to the Indonesian 12-mile maritime border.

The Abbott government has suppressed information about boat arrivals and refused to comment. But Canberra did apologize to the Indonesian government for its navy’s “inadvertent incursions.”

Relations between Jakarta and its imperialist neighbor were already strained last November by revelations that Australian spy agencies tapped phone calls of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, as well as those of his wife and ministers.

At the same time, Washington and Canberra are trying to strengthen alliances with Jakarta as part of the imperialist campaign to counter Beijing’s growing military capabilities and economic and political influence in the Asia-Pacific region.

Protests by asylum-seekers in the remote prison compounds on Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean close to Java, have erupted again recently over their indefinite detention.

By decision of the previous Labor government, asylum-seekers who reached Australia in the months before the federal election Sept. 7 are held indefinitely on Christmas Island, where 2,000 refugees are detained, 78 of whom are on hunger strike.  
 
 
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