Jack Smit [0], of Project Safecom [1], is a long term Webdiarist and supporter. His last piece on Webdiary was Howard's latest trick: Australia banishes all boat people ....  [1]

Just three days after many people started contacting new immigration minister Chris Evans to raise the issue of the swathe of refugees holed up on Nauru, he declared his hand. See The Age [1] for a report on the Nauruans, who will be coming to Australia for settlement. Nice to see an end to the Pacific Solution actually announced - but it would even be better to have them here before Christmas and before all bureaucrats and administrators vanish for their holiday.

While Evans is right to send the other 'caseload', the 16 Indonesians, economic asylum seekers, back home, as he also announced, there are several issues activated around those Indonesians who either stray in our waters or fish here.

For centuries the Roti Islanders have been close to us and have sought their fish in areas as close to Australia as Ashmore Reef, but the issue has only been aggressively escalated by the Howard government, and they have done so since the establishment of Operation Relex.

Ruth Balint's Troubled Waters: Borders, Boundaries and Possession in the Timor Sea [2] is a good exploration of this issue, and is a must-read for anyone trying to grapple with it - and it should not be forgotten that Howard also escalated Australia's border dispute with the UN's set international maritime boundaries in the context of the Timor Gap. Balint talks about her book with Peter Mares here [3]. She also made a documentary about the same material which carries the same title.

It is true that some fishing syndicates have formed on Roti, but this does not take away the UN Convention of Indigenous Fishing Rights, which also intersects with this issue.

I hope the Rudd government revisits all these issues in a more peaceful way than Howard. After all, threatening Indonesian fishermen at the point of a gun - I'm talking about a machine gun mounted on the deck of an Australian Operation Relex vessel - is not helping anyone. We intimidate and subjugate the Roti Islanders, but we close our eyes for the same indigenous fishing practices off the coast of Papua New Guinea. Why?

[1] http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/pacific-solution-ends-but-tough-stance-to-remain/2007/12/07/1196813021259.html

[2] http://www.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=94&book=9781741143614

[3] http://www.abc.net.au/rn/arts/booktalk/stories/s1422318. htm