The Sri Lankan envoy to Australia and New Zealand has claimed that Tamil refugees, fleeing the island, are ‘paid’ by smugglers to make the dangerous journey across the Indian Ocean.

In a radio interview by Ashley Hall on the AM program on ABC radio, Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe said that Sri Lanka has evidence that these payments have been made.

Extracts from the interview:

ASHLEY HALL: Who are the people on board these boats? Who's trying to leave Sri Lanka?

THISARA SAMARASINGHE: Oh they were a mix of people who were persuaded to come over by various organisations who were trying to get them out of Sri Lanka for whatever the reasons that they have.

There were economic concerns and they have been paid...

ASHLEY HALL: They have been paid?

THISARA SAMARASINGHE: Yeah, in the sense they have not paid for the moment and we do not know the exact arrangements, and I would prefer to keep this information with ourselves or with the investigators because they are continuing to stop and that has resulted in the 113 people being stopped before they boarded a vessel.

ASHLEY HALL: But you have evidence that people were paid to get on a vessel and travel to Australia and seek asylum?

THISARA SAMARASINGHE: They have evidence. They have not paid, the racketeers, these human smugglers, these international racket band, they do this for various reasons - for money, for…

Writing in The Guardian's Comment is Free section, the newspaper's readers' editor, Chris Elliott, expressed regret over the paper's decision last week to include a 24-page promotional Sri Lanka supplement in the same issue as the newspaper's reporting of on-going torture of deportees.

Elliott wrote:

The US has granted seven further countries, including Sri Lanka, exemptions from sanctions for importing Iranian oil.

South Africa, India, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Turkey were given a waiver from meeting a US deadline, which is looming at the end of this month, to reduce imports from Iran.

Countries, which haven’t been granted an exemption and fail to reduce imports, will be cut off from the US financial system.

“Sri Lanka could be pleased with the way things are turning out with regard to the conduct of its international relations.”

Students at the Eastern University boycotted lessons for the third day on Saturday, protesting against the appointment of a paramilitary backed appointment of Dr Jaffer to the university's governing council, reports TamilNet.

Dr Jaffer, the director of the Kalmunai Base hospital is reported to be backed by the paramilitary leader come Sri Lankan deputy minister, Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan (Karuna).

The Sri Lankan government cautioned the US ambassador designate, Michele Sison, over her recent statements on Sri Lanka's human rights record.

The Sri Lankan secretary to the Ministry of External Affairs, Karunatilaka Amunugama, said that although they were not currently taking any action...

A senior official of India's Intelligence Bureau has accused Tamil Nadu police officers of turning a blind eye to Tamil refugees leaving refugee camps and moving to Kerala.

The official is quoted as saying,

The ultra Sinhala nationalist party, JHU, are to take legal action over TNA leader, Sampanthan, for statements 'regarding formation of a Tamil Eelam state', reports Colombo Page.

The spokesperson for the JHU, Nishantha Sri Warnasinghe, asserted that Sampanthan's statements were in violation of the 157th article of the constitution of Sri Lanka.