Seven Iraqi asylum-seekers on hunger strike in Lombok
Seven Iraqi asylum-seekers on hunger strike in Lombok
Luh Putu Trisna Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post,
Mataram, Nusa Tenggara Barat
Seven Iraqi immigrants here continued their hunger strike on
Monday in an attempt to put pressure on the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to recognize them as refugees.
Currently living at the Wisata Ampenan Hotel in the West Nusa
Tenggara capital of Mataram, on Lombok island, they also demanded
that they soon be sent to a Western country that wanted to grant
them asylum, rather than return to their home country.
The immigrants -- Ihsan, 44, Muneb, 27, Akel, 23, Haxtham, 27,
Husen, 30, Muhammad, 29, and Fathel, 23 -- stopped eating on
Sunday and were languishing on the hotel's first floor with their
bodies covered with posters.
"We don't want our lives to be just sleeping and eating here,
it's better for us to die," a poster read. Another said, "We
request the secretary of the UN Mr. Kofi Anan (sic) to intervene
personally to save the lives of women, children and men".
They are among the 23 Iraqi immigrants who have been in
Mataram for more than two-and-a-half years since they fled
oppression and death threats under the regime of then president
Saddam Hussein. They are under supervision of the UN's
International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Claiming to be opponents of Saddam, who was recently captured
by American troops, they refused to return to their homeland
fearing retaliation from Saddam's loyalists.
"If only we faced no problems in our country, we'd return to
our country. But we are political exiles. Many of our relatives
have been killed due to our political stance against the Saddam
regime.
"We just want to have a normal life, a place where people
don't kill each other," said Ihsan, one of the hunger strikers.
Another Iraqi, Muneb, said that he fled his country nine years
ago because Iraq was too dangerous, but now there was danger of a
different sort.
"With (anti-coalition) bombings taking place everyday, how
could I return to Iraq?," he asked.
They further complained that living in Indonesia would just
pose new problems because the world's largest Muslim country
turned down their requests for citizenship, which would allow
them to work and send their children to school.
Early in January, the Iraqis sent a letter to UNHCR's
representative office in Jakarta, asking for clarification of
their status. There was a reply by regional representative Robert
Ashe, who promised to process their case, but did not mention a
date.
Dozens of other Iraqis were arrested by Indonesian police in
2001 on their trip to Australia due to the lack of documents.
Out of the asylum seekers, 90 people were cleared by the UNHCR
for refugee status and 15 returned to Iraq, while the remainder
stayed in shelters in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara and Jakarta.