UNHCR upgrades office in Jakarta

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)