SYDNEY: Australia stayed silent about human rights abuses in Sri Lanka in exchange for its cooperation in cracking down on people-smuggling, Colombo’s new Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said in an interview published on Monday. Wickremesinghe said former president Mahinda Rajapakse had agreed to help stop boats carrying asylum-seekers leaving for Australia if Canberra kept quiet about alleged abuses by Rajapakse’s regime.

AFP