Repatriation of boatpeople on target

Repatriation of boatpeople on target

By Meidyatama Suryodiningrat

JAKARTA (JP): The repatriation of all Vietnamese boatpeople
currently held on the Indonesian island of Galang is expected to
meet its year-end deadline, despite the fact that over 5,000
boatpeople remain.

Both government and United Nations officials expressed
confidence yesterday that the deadline could be kept and said
that, at worst, repatriation of all boatpeople would occur
shortly after the target date.

"Recently there was another conference and it was agreed that
it would be completed, if not this year, then slightly into next
year," Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas said, referring to
a UN conference in Geneva on the return of the boatpeople.

Separately, the representative to Indonesia of the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees, Jean-Noel Wetterwald, told The Jakarta
Post yesterday that "we are optimistic we can reduce the number
by the target date."

He said that this year alone 1,325 boatpeople had been
repatriated, with an average of between 440 and 540 people being
sent back to Vietnam each month.

Galang, located just south of Singapore, was established as a
temporary shelter for Vietnamese and Cambodian boatpeople in 1975
and has since been home to some 248,000 boatpeople.

Jakarta is now planning to develop the island as part of the
Barelang bonded zone area, which includes the islands of Batam,
Rempang and Galang. For this reason the government is anxious to
expedite the repatriation of the boatpeople from the island.

Earlier deadlines, of December 1994 and August 1995, were
moved back because of the large number of boatpeople to be
transported and the slow pace of the repatriations.

Wetterwald said there were about 5,300 boatpeople living on
Galang, of which only 60 had been "screened-in" to receive
refugee status. These 60, alone, would be resettled in
industrialized countries, he said.

The boatpeople on Galang have been scrutinized to determine
whether they left their country in search of political sanctuary,
and therefore qualify as refugees, or whether they are merely
economic exiles.

Those who are "screened-in" are resettled in a third country,
such as Canada or the United States, while those "screened-out'
must return to Vietnam.

"Clearly we shall settle the matter so that all those who do
not receive refugee status can be returned to Vietnam," Alatas
said.

In April 1994, a group of "screened-out" boatpeople rioted and
several went on hunger strikes or attempted suicide to protest
their impending repatriation. Dozens had to be hospitalized and
at least one person died. There have been unconfirmed reports of
several other deaths.

The protests coincided with the visit of Vietnamese President
Le Duc Anh to Jakarta. At the time there were still close to
9,000 boatpeople on Galang, almost all of them Vietnamese.

Voluntary

Although Jakarta is clearly anxious to begin development of
the island, Alatas has repeatedly said that the government would
not resort to forced repatriation.

"We will not use force and it looks like it is already
working, albeit slowly," Alatas said, citing the principle of
voluntary and orderly repatriation

Wetterwald confirmed that this year the situation had been
calm and that "the Indonesian authorities are under control."

When asked if the rioting and forced repatriations that have
taken place in other camps had also occurred on Galang,
Wetterwald replied: "Not at all, we are unlike Hong Kong."

Alatas said that the lapsing of a general repatriation
agreement with Vietnam provided a further impetus for meeting the
year-end repatriation deadline.

A Comprehensive Plan of Action was formed in 1989 to help
expedite the return of the boatpeople. During his visit here, Le
Duc Anh gave support to the arrangement by guaranteeing that the
boatpeople would be free from persecution upon their return.