http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,26297222-25837,00.html
Crisis talks called over 'Indonesian solution' Stephen Fitzpatrick, Tanjung Pinang | November 03, 2009 Article from: The Australian SENIOR officials have been scrambled from Canberra to a secret Jakarta meeting today in a bid to save Kevin Rudd's crisis-hit "Indonesian solution", as Foreign Ministry officials decried what they said was the lack of an adequate "Australian solution" to the boatpeople problem. Indonesian spokesman Sujatmiko said today's talks would determine whether the Customs vessel Oceanic Viking's permission to remain in Indonesian waters off the city of Tanjung Pinang with 78 protesting Sri Lankan asylum-seekers on board would be extended beyond Friday. Describing the crisis talks as a "very, very high senior official meeting", he said they would "discuss the issue of this stalemate as well as the long-term issue, how we resolve this problem when similar issues arise". "(We need) a win-win solution," Dr Sujatmiko said. "If there is an Indonesian solution there should also be an Australian solution." Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has said he was "not setting a deadline on" the matter being resolved. But Dr Sujatmiko refused to rule out the possibility of the Customs ship eventually being sent to Christmas Island for the asylum-seekers to be processed there, if they continued to hold out on the Indonesian offer of refugee processing at the Australian-built Tanjung Pinang detention centre. He said a decision on whether to extend the ship's security clearance would be made "at the highest level". The Oceanic Viking was granted a week's grace last Friday after officials realised they would not be able to persuade the Tamil refugees on board to leave it by the deadline first set by Indonesian officials. However, a senior navy official warned yesterday that if a decision were made not to grant further time, the Oceanic Viking would need to leave Indonesian waters by Friday. "If the permission is expired, that's it, they have to go," said Colonel Darwanto, deputy commander at the Indonesian Navy's Fourth Base in Tanjung Pinang. Dr Sujatmiko's warning of the need for an Australian solution to the standoff echoed similar comments made by Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah and reported in local newspapers yesterday. "We question the concept of an Indonesian solution, because if there is an Indonesian solution why is there no Australian solution?" Mr Faizasyah said. Mr Faizasyah also said Indonesia had never considered itself a centre for processing refugees who would end up in other countries. And he said the Lombok Treaty, which enshrines the bilateral relationship between Jakarta and Canberra, was not intended to be used in the ad-hoc fashion as it currently seemed to be. Dr Sujatmiko said the current standoff was "a very sensitive issue" which involved difficult negotiations between the countries.
