Viking deal 'to sway others': Sri Lanka

SRI Lanka has attacked the decision to resettle the 78 refugees rescued by the Oceanic Viking, warning it will encourage more boatpeople to risk the dangerous ocean journey to Australia.
Australian and UN authorities are frantically preparing to meet the next resettlement deadline of December 29, laid out in the agreement struck with the Tamils to end their month-long standoff aboard the Customs vessel.
Colombo's high commissioner to Australia, Senaka Walgampaya, warned that Sri Lanka was closely watching the fate of the Tamils rescued by the Oceanic Viking, all of whom have been found to be genuine refugees.
He said Sri Lanka respected Australia's right to admit whomever it chose.
"But we don't like this sending the wrong signal to Sri Lanka for the prospective asylum-seekers," he said.
"The fact that these people are taken, of course, sends a bad message, so that may in a way encourage people to come here."

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Sweden refuses to resettle Viking Tamils The Australian, 10 Dec 2009
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The warning came as Tony Abbott renewed his assault on the deal offered to the 78, accusing Kevin Rudd of caving in to blackmail.
"Mr Rudd was effectively blackmailed into giving people what they wanted," the Opposition Leader said.
"That's the last thing that an Australian government should be -- vulnerable to blackmail."
On Sunday, an intellectually disabled man and his carer became the first of the Oceanic Viking Tamils to arrive in Australia.
They touched down in Melbourne as 13 of their fellow passengers flew on to Romania, where they will be processed in a UN transit facility before resettlement in Canada.
Norway and New Zealand are also expected to take some of the refugees. Sources close to the negotiations said the US was prepared to take a "sizeable" number of the Tamils -- possibly up to 20.
More of the Tamils are expected to arrive in Australia next week ahead of the December 29 deadline.
Rescued from their wooden boat, the 78 Sri Lankans refused for four weeks to leave the Oceanic Viking, moored off the Indonesian island of Bintan, unless they were taken to Australia, their original destination.
They were eventually promised resettlement to a third country within four to 12 weeks if they agreed to disembark and be processed by officials in Indonesia.
Australian and UN officials in Indonesia are working to meet the next of the rolling deadlines set out in the deal.
But their efforts have been frustrated by the difficulties of organising complex logistical movements, such as charter flights, over Christmas. Several sources have also complained of intransigence on the part of Indonesian authorities.
Yesterday, Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor warned that Customs and Border Protection would remain vigilant over Christmas.
"Australian waters will be well protected with sustained border protection activities being conducted over this period," he said.
The warning came as authorities prepared to intercept more boats, with sources telling The Australian about two arrivals were expected this week.
The number of unauthorised boat arrivals has jumped from 161 people last year to nearly 3000 in the past 12 months.
The opposition has blamed the spike on the Rudd government's softened treatment of boat-borne refugees, a claim the government rejects, blaming increased regional instability for the surge.