RI urges KL to reject Acehnese asylum seekers

RI urges KL to reject Acehnese asylum seekers

Agence France-Presse, Jakarta/Kuala Lumpur

Indonesia's top security minister on Monday urged Malaysia to
reject asylum seekers from Indonesia's conflict-hit Aceh
province.

As Indonesia's "close friend" Malaysia had shown a very clear
stance in supporting Indonesia's territorial integrity,
Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono said.

"This means they are not supporting the armed separatist
movement in Aceh," the minister told reporters at the State
Palace.

Bambang said he hoped President Megawati Soekarnoputri would
raise the issue with Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad during her
visit to the Malaysian town of Kuching on Thursday.

A total of 232 Acehnese, including women and children, were
detained last Tuesday as they tried to seek asylum outside the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in
Kuala Lumpur.

Out of the 232, a total of 120 of them had agreed to go home,
said Ishak Mohamed, immigration director in northern Perak state.

Investigations showed that the 120 migrants were not involved
with the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebel group.

In Kuala Lumpur, foreign minister Syed Hamid Albar on Monday
rejected the UNHCR's criticism over the arrest, saying that "it
is not right for UNHCR to register the Acehnese as possible
refugees when they are not refugees."

Syed Hamid said the police arrested the Acehnese because they
did not have valid travel documents and the UNHCR action was
tantamount to giving illegals carte blanche to enter Malaysia and
then to seek refugee status.

Malaysia, which is not a signatory to the UN convention on
refugees, does not recognize refugees or asylum seekers, he said.

The detainees are being held in the Langkap detention center
in northern Perak state, opposite Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD)
across the narrow Malacca Strait, awaiting deportation.

The UNHCR has urged Malaysia to free them and issue them with
temporary protection letters.

But Syed Hamid said: "It will create problems. It will
encourage people to enter Malaysia. We have been cooperating with
Indonesia to ensure there is no overflow to Malaysia."

He pointed out that Malaysia has in the past played unwilling
host to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants from
Indonesia and the Philippines, many of whom were expelled in a
crackdown last year.

"If we encourage refugees to come to Malaysia, all the
illegals will want to come," he said.

Indonesia launched a massive operation to crush GAM separatist
guerrillas on May 19 and says more than 700 rebels have been
killed since then. It says 13 police and 45 soldiers have died.

Violence continues to take place in the province as the
military offensive against GAM approaches its 100th day.

Soldiers had killed a total of 10 rebels since Saturday, said
military spokesman Col. Ahmad Yani Basuki.

Human rights activists and other groups have questioned
whether the military figures for rebel deaths also include
civilians.

An estimated 30,000 troops and 10,000 police are battling the
GAM, originally estimated as having 5,000 members.

The rebel movement has been fighting for the independence of
the northern energy-rich NAD province on Sumatra island since
1976.