Repatriation of boat people to be delayed
JAKARTA (JP): The development of Galang Island as part of the Barelang (Batam, Rempang and Galang islands) bonded zone area is likely to encounter a further set back due to the delayed repatriation of several thousand boat people originally slated for mid-1995.
"We would like to complete it as soon as possible, but it will be impossible to do it by the end of this year," Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas said yesterday.
Responding to questions during a hearing with the House of Representatives (DPR) Commission I on foreign affairs, Alatas said there were some 7,000 Vietnamese and Cambodian boat people still living on the island.
The foreign ministry's director general for social, cultural and foreign relations, Djauhari Nata Atmaja, who accompanied Alatas at yesterday's hearing, also indicated that the repatriations will not be completed by mid-1995.
"We expect it to be completed by the end of 1995," Djauhari said in response to questions from The Jakarta Post after the hearing.
Based on a deal with Hanoi in October 1993, officials here had set August 1995 as the deadline to completely vacate the island.
Vietnamese President Le Duc Anh, during his visit here last April, agreed to facilitate the expedition of the Vietnamese boat people and guaranteed protection from persecution upon their return.
Nearly all of those on Galang are of Vietnamese origin with Cambodians numbering in the hundreds.
A mass hunger strike by 500 boat people on Galang island was launched to coincide with Le Duc Anh's visit. Over 70 people were hospitalized and at least one committed suicide in the week-long protest.
Most of the boat people on Galang will have to return to their place of origin since they fall into a "non-political refugees" category.
Alatas estimates about 100 political refugees are still on Galang awaiting departure to a third country destination such as Canada, the United States, and Australia.
In the last 15 years, Galang has been home to nearly 250,000 boat people.
According to Alatas the wave of protests in April and the continued refusal to be repatriated back to Vietnam is being perpetrated by a number of instigators.
He said the Indonesian government has been extremely lenient in handling the protests and will remain as such unless it is forced to take firmer action.
"We have had to remove some of those people whom we considered the instigators," Alatas explained.
Some 200 of them have been identified and the government has taken steps to remove and separate them from the others on Galang.
"They have been taken to Tanjung Pinang," Djauhari said referring to the main city of Bintan island located just north of Galang.
The actions taken to separate the "instigators" were criticized and protested by former Vietnamese boat people currently living in the United States.
Alatas however defended Indonesia's treatment of the boat people as being very humane, proven by the praise given by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Despite this fact, Alatas exclaimed: "No doubt Amnesty International will also soon butt-in!"
Timor
Apart from the issue of Galang, Alatas was also questioned about the East Timor issue in relation to the moves Indonesia will make as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council
The foreign minister professed that the two had no connection.
"Indonesia's membership is not meant as a way to solve the East Timor issue," he asserted. (mds)