Vietnamese team to expedite Galang repatriation

Vietnamese team to expedite Galang repatriation

JAKARTA (JP): A special team from Vietnam is scheduled to
arrive on Galang Island, Riau, to help accelerate the
repatriation of Vietnamese boatpeople living there.

An Indonesian Foreign Ministry official said yesterday that
the team's task will be to screen as many boatpeople as possible
and determine whether they are ready for immediate repatriation
back to Vietnam.

"Hopefully this will help expedite departures, as you know the
program has been put back long enough," said the official who
asked not to named.

The official said that how soon the team would be arriving
would depend on the readiness of Hanoi. "However, we hope they
will arrive as soon as possible, preferably within the next two
weeks."

Galang still hosts more than 3,000 boatpeople, the majority of
whom are Vietnamese. The deadline to clear the island of the
refugees, which extend as far back as 1994, have been
continuously put back.

In the last 15 years, Galang has been home to nearly 250,000
boatpeople. At the beginning of the year, there were still more
than 4,400 boatpeople on the island.

Located just south of Singapore, the island has been
designated for development as part of the Indonesian government's
Barelang (Batam, Rempang and Galang islands) bonded zone area.

The Jakarta representative of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees, Robert Cooper, yesterday also
confirmed that Hanoi had agreed to send a high level team to
Galang.

He was quoted as telling Reuters from Tanjung Pinang yesterday
that the agreement was reached on Wednesday.

"This team will be able to make decisions on the spot whether
somebody is cleared to go back to Vietnam," Cooper said.

Last month the Indonesian Armed Forces spearheaded a program
to repatriate the boatpeople by using naval transport ships in
the hope of emptying the island by the end of this month.

The transport ships would accommodate up to 200 boatpeople on
the four-day journey from Galang to Ho Chi Minh city.

Military officials have pledged to avoid using force in
boarding the Vietnamese on to the boats.

"The Indonesians are going for the very quick fix and closure
by the end of July, but the Vietnamese are going at a nice slow,
regular but routine pace," Cooper said. (mds)