Malaysian arrest 250 Aceh refugees<\/p>\n
Agence France-Presse, Kuala Lumpur<\/p>\n
Malaysian police on Tuesday arrested some 250 Acehnese from
\nneighboring Indonesia outside the UN refugee agency's office for
\nnot holding valid travel documents, a senior police official
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
\"They do not have legal travel documents. We are taking then
\nto a detention center in northern Perak state and they will later
\nbe deported,\" he told AFP on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n
Many of the men, women and children taken into custody at the
\nBrickfields police station had recently fled Indonesia's war-
\nravaged Aceh province only to be confronted by road blocks
\nleading to the United High Commission on Refugees office in Bukit
\nPetaling, near the capital Kuala Lumpur.<\/p>\n
Family members descended on the police station hoping to
\nsecure their release.<\/p>\n
The police action drew immediate, if gentle, criticism from
\nthe UN agency, which sets aside Tuesdays to process new
\napplications.<\/p>\n
\"We are surprised by what the police did. We are concern about
\nthe well-being of the Acehnese,\" Evan Ruth, head of the UNHCR
\nrefugee eligibility unit told AFP.<\/p>\n
\"We know there has been a significant rise in Acehnese
\narrivals in Malaysia since the conflict in Aceh broke out.\"<\/p>\n
Ruth said the UNHCR would appeal to the Malaysian government
\nto grant temporary protection for all the detained Acehnese since
\n\"we need to verify their status.\" Their lives could be threatened
\nif they were deported to the conflict region, he added.<\/p>\n
\"We are intervening at all levels. Our officers are at the
\npolice station. We are appealing to the foreign ministry. The
\nUNHCR in Geneva has been alerted to the incident,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Ruth said Malaysia was bound by an internationally-accepted
\nobligation not to deport immigrants to conflict regions.<\/p>\n
Dewi, 30, rushed to the police station upon hearing of the
\narrests of the Acehnese, among them her cousin Maimun Sa Putra,
\nalso 30.<\/p>\n
Choked with tears, she said: \"Please release him. He will not
\nsurvive in Aceh. Life there is akin to living at the edge of the
\nsword.\"<\/p>\n
The military campaign against separatist rebels in the
\nprovince at the tip of Indonesia's oil-rich Sumatra province
\nentered its fourth month Tuesday.<\/p>",
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