Sri Lankan Tamils aim for North America, asylum

An estimated 200 asylum seekers from Sri Lanka, including some believed to be members of a group the United States has labeled a terrorist organization, are aboard a ship in the Pacific Ocean heading toward North America, according to U.S. government officials and other sources.

Lankan boat people killed

Australian authorities today said that five Sri Lankan asylum seekers are presumed dead after their boat went missing last week. The ‘Australian’ website said

Tamil spokesman flees asylum seeker boat

The spokesman for more than 240 Sri Lankan asylum seekers locked in a long-running stand-off with the Indonesian government is on the run.

Sanjeev "Alex" Kuhendrarajah fled the asylum seekers' rickety cargo boat, which has been docked in the western Java port of Merak since October, late last week.

Another of the asylum seekers, Nimal, said Kuhendrarajah crept away in the middle the night without telling anyone.

"We really don't know why he left the boat," Nimal told AAP on Monday.

But Australian refugee advocate Ian Rintoul said Kuhendrarajah decided to flee because he believed his presence was slowing progress toward a resolution of the stand-off.

"He thinks the focus should not be on him, it's never been about him, it's about the future of the 250 people on that boat," Mr Rintoul said.

Kuhendrarajah was also worried about his personal safety after being threatened by local officials, Mr Rintoul said.

Intercepted by Indonesia at Australia's request en route to Christmas Island, the Tamils were taken to Merak and all but a handful have since refused to leave the boat.

They fear they will have to wait years for resettlement if they come ashore without a promise of rapid processing.

Kuhendrarajah, 27, became the group's spokesman because of his impeccable English.

He later said he regretted taking such a prominent role in the affair because doing so had potentially exposed his wife and three children to harm back in Sri Lanka.

Kuhendrarajah spent most of his childhood in Canada after his family fled strife in Sri Lanka in 1983.

He later joined a gang and was convicted of making death threats and possessing firearms before being deported back to Sri Lanka in 2003.

The Sri Lankan government has also accused Kuhendrarajah of people smuggling but he has strongly denied it.

A spokesman for Indonesia's Foreign Affairs Ministry said police were now searching for him.

Tamils say they won't resist removal

Indonesia has denied it is planning to force ashore 240 Sri Lankan asylum seekers who have spent the past three months holed up on their boat in a Javan port.

While some senior officials are losing patience with the Tamils, Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah on Thursday disputed reports Indonesia was planning to force them into immigration detention by the end of next week.

"We are focusing on how to get them to leave the boat with persuasion," Faizasyah told AAP.

A Foreign Ministry-led taskforce set up to deal with the crisis had not made any decision to abandon the "persuasion approach" in favour of force, he said.

The Tamils, intercepted by the Indonesian navy at Australia's request and taken to the Javan port of Merak in October, do not want to come ashore because they fear they will be forced to wait years for resettlement.

They want instead to be given a rapid resettlement deal like that given to the 78 Sri Lankans who spent a month aboard Australia's Oceanic Viking vessel.

The Tamils' spokesman, Sanjeev "Alex" Kuhendrarajah, pleaded with Indonesia for continued patience but said his people would not resist if they were forced ashore.

"We will not resist, we will not be violent in any way," he said.

"We are very peaceful citizens and we will show that."

Some Indonesian officials are increasingly concerned that some of the asylum seekers are Tamil Tigers.

Senior immigration official Harry Purwanto believes that possibility is one reason that force should be used to end the stand-off.

"For me, using force is the only possible way to end this.

"The nice way has not been effective, it has not worked."

But Purwanto conceded the taskforce would have the final say on how to resolve the stand-off.

A senior Navy official, who did not want to be named, also expressed impatience with the Tamils.

"One way or another, they have to get off the boat," he said.

"They shouldn't be permitted to stay there any longer.

"We have a lot of other things to do."

Conditions aboard the boat have worsened in recent weeks as it has been lashed by strong monsoonal wind and rain.

Meanwhile, a boat bound for Australia carrying about 50 Afghan asylum seekers was found stranded off the eastern Indonesian island of Sabu on Wednesday.

Local police say most of the Afghans are now in custody but they are still looking for six who fled inland.