GoSL-Australia on collision course over refugee boats
Sri Lanka and Australia are on a collision course over what the Australian High Commissioner in Colombo Ms Robyn Mudie asserts is the failure on the part of the Sri Lankan Navy (SLN) to put an end to human smuggling.
Australian HC Mudie urged Navy Commander Vice Admiral Somathilake Dissanayake to step up SLN action, at a hurriedly arranged meeting at SLN headquarters to discuss the issue last Wednesday (18).
Asked whether Australian action had been prompted by his failure to take tangible measures, Vice Admiral Dissanayake told The Island that trawlers carrying hundreds of men, women and children had been detained since the conclusion of the conflict in May 2009. Those who found fault with the SLN for the crisis had conveniently forgotten that about 400 men, women and children had been taken into custody over the past two weeks alone.