THE GUARDIAN , SYDNEY
Thursday, Apr 08, 2004,Page 5
More than 350 refugees who were drowned in one of the worst maritime disasters of recent years were put on their boat by Indonesian police officers acting in cooperation with the Australian police, it was alleged in a Brisbane court on Tuesday.
The allegation increases the pressure on the Australian government, which has denied any responsibility for the deaths of 353 men, women and children when their wooden fishing boat sank in heavy seas 110km south of Java in October 2001.
Australian federal police officers in Jakarta have admitted that they were sponsoring the Indonesian police to disrupt people-smuggling operations at the time, but deny any connection with the sinking of the boat, which the Australian authorities codenamed Siev-X.
Mahmod Salem Yussef, a former Iraqi soldier who left the boat before it sailed, told the court that the Indonesian police had helped put passengers on to the Siev-X, and had been present at an earlier staging post in their journey.
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