UNHCR upgrades office in Jakarta

JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) is being upgraded to a regional office covering five countries.

The UNHCR's Asia Pacific director, Francois Fouinat, at the end of a three-day visit on Saturday, said the office in Jakarta would also serve Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore.

Indonesia and its neighboring states had for over two decades sheltered hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese boat people.

The situation in Indonesia was abated only in September when the last batch of boat people were repatriated from Galang Island, Riau. The island had been home to nearly 250,000 boat people since 1975.

Fouinat warned that while the region is currently going through a period of peace, it should not be complacent.

"The presence of an office here doesn't necessarily mean there will be masses of refugees, but there is no place in the world that is immune to the problem of refugees," said Fouinat who is based in Geneva.

He then pointed out that there still exists economic disparities and tensions in the region.

"I can name you the places. Myanmar is a place where there are tensions, Cambodia is a place where the situation is not settled," he added. "So the difficulties are there and the risks are real."

The head of the regional UNHCR office, Staffan Bodemar, added that its role will also be for information dissemination.

Apart from its geographic location, Bodemar said that Indonesia's positive role in helping resolve past crises in Cambodia and, more recently, southern Philippines was a factor in placing the regional office in Jakarta.

He pointed out however that upgrading the Jakarta branch into a regional office did not imply that the UNHCR would be enlarging its operations here. Bodemar said its staff would continue to comprise of two foreign workers and several local people.

During his brief visit here, Fouinat met with Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas with whom he discussed ways to strengthen the already established cooperation.

According to Fouinat, the successful conclusion of the boat people problem which plagued the region for two decades provides a strong basis for cooperation between the UNHCR and countries in the region.

He added that by learning from the past, countries could gain knowledge in dealing with such crises in the future. (mds)