Tamil women begin new hunger strike

TEN women among a group of almost 250 Sri Lankan asylum seekers refusing to leave their boat in Indonesia have begun another hunger strike.
The move comes after the spokesman for the Tamils, known as Alex, confessed he was once a member of a violent gang in Canada and was jailed for making death threats.

The Tamils, who were intercepted by the Indonesian navy en route to Australia on October 11, have now spent four weeks moored in the Javanese port city of Merak.

They say they will come ashore after they meet with a representative of the UNHCR but claim the Indonesian government is refusing to allow such a meeting.

Most adults on board the boat took part in a hunger strike last month but abandoned it after two days.

But Alex - who the Sri Lankan foreign ministry has named as Kulaendrarajah Sanjeev - said the 10 women, who began the fresh hunger strike this morning, were growing desperate.

"They would like to let the world know that they want a future for their children," Alex said, adding others were likely to join the hunger strikeAlex again hit back at Sri Lankan Government claims that he has worked as a people smuggler, calling them "completely false".

But he admitted he had belonged to a notorious Tamil gang in Canada.

"It's true," he told ABC Radio.

"I did get involved in some things in Canada that I shouldn't have gotten involved in," he said, adding he "did my time in jail".

The most serious conviction was for making death threats.

Alex was deported in 2003 and returned to Sri Lanka.

Alex said the Sri Lankan Government dug up the dirt because it was desperate to divert attention from its role in human rights abuses, particularly against Tamils.

"The fact that I lived in Canada for a period of time and was removed from Canada has no bearing whatsoever on my claim or the claim of the other 250 people for asylum," he said.

Alex said he hoped human rights would be high on the agenda during Foreign Minister Stephen Smith's talks with the Sri Lankan government in Colombo today.

He dismissed as "ill-informed and reckless" Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce's call for Tamil asylum seekers to be returned to Sri Lanka.