Government won't arrest Aceh asylum seekers: Susilo

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government guaranteed on Thursday that it would not arrest two Acehnese students who are now at large after their request for asylum was rejected by the Finnish government and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the two men, Ermiadi and Nasruddin Syah, had left the UNHCR representative office here voluntarily on Wednesday night.

"The two men are somewhere outside and we expect that nobody will engineer any kind of move that might be used to insinuate their security is in jeopardy. Our police will ensure that no threats are made against them," Susilo said after a Cabinet meeting at the State Secretariat.

The two men, members of the Aceh-Sumatra National Liberation Front (ASNLF), slipped into the Finnish Embassy on Wednesday. After that, they were brought to the UNHCR offices to formally request asylum on the grounds that their lives were in danger from the Indonesian Military.

Their requests for asylum were denied as both the Finnish government and the UNHCR considered that the two had failed to fulfill the requirements for refugee status.

Susilo insisted, however, that it was unfair to expect the police to ensure the safety of the Acehnese as they had failed to inform the police of their whereabouts.

"To be fair, if somebody asks the police for protection and he or she fails to let the police know of his or her whereabouts, how can we provide protection. So, we expect nobody to circulate stories that their lives are in danger," he said.

Also after the Cabinet meeting, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda said that his ministry had received reports that the police did not feel any urgent need to detain or question the two asylum seekers.

"My ministry has queried whether there was any urgent need for the police to question them and the police said definitely that there was no need to do so. After midnight, they left the (UNHCR) building," Hassan said.

He said the police had asked the Acehnese to leave the UNHCR building on Thursday morning for security reasons, but the two insisted on leaving on Wednesday evening. The police then drove them to meet their relatives.

"We feel that the there was some kind of a premeditated action involved here as many journalists were already there before it happened. We would like to thank the Finnish government and the UNHCR for their stance in the matter," Hassan said.

He said the incident should teach people a lesson that it was not that easy to seek asylum from other countries as there were requirements that had to be met first.