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From: yfyap@pop.jaring.my (Yap Yok Foo)
To: sangkancil@malaysia.net
Subject: [sangkancil] Lives risked in "heinous" asylum refusal
Date: Sat, 11 Apr 1998 00:33:09 GMT
Organization: Private
Reply-to: yfyap@pop.jaring.my (Yap Yok Foo)
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>From Sydney Morning Herald
MALAYSIA
Saturday, April 11, 1998
Lives risked in "heinous" asylum refusal
By CRAIG SKEHAN, Herald Correspondent in Bangkok
Diplomats from France, Switzerland and Brunei were accused of putting
lives at risk yesterday by handing over to Malaysian authorities 27
Indonesians who broke into embassy compounds to seek asylum.
"This is ridiculous - they should have called in the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)," said Ms Elizabeth Wong from
the Suaram human rights group.
"What they have done is put these people's lives in danger.
"We are shocked that countries such as Switzerland and France, who are
strong advocates of human rights in the international arena, could
have done such a heinous act."
The Indonesians entered the Brunei, French, Swiss and US compounds,
some of them scrambling over high walls, others rushing through gates,
in a co-ordinated move at about 7.30am, diplomats said.
Malaysian police quickly removed 12 Indonesians from the Swiss
embassy, seven from the Brunei embassy and eight from the French
embassy.
But eight Indonesians who scaled the wall of the US embassy were
staying there overnight and a spokesman said the matter had been
referred to Washington for a decision on what should happen next.
The US embassy was closed as Malaysian police stood guard.
Ms Wong said handing over the Indonesians to Malaysian police breached
the universal declaration of human rights which guaranteed the right
to seek asylum. She praised US representatives for calling in the
UNHCR.
Suaram urged the US to protect the Indonesians until a resettlement
country could be found.
A representative of the Aceh National Liberation Front (ANLF) said all
35 men, in detention or at the US embassy, were supporters of the
secessionist group from the north of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
They were among 105 men who escaped from a Malaysian detention centre
on March 26.
"We don't understand why the French, Swiss and Brunei embassies would
not save them," the ANLF spokesman said.
"If they are sent back to Indonesia, they could be killed."
Human rights groups say that some 500 Indonesians from Aceh province
deported earlier had been held at the notorious Rancung Military
Detention Centre and questioned by the Kopassus special forces army
unit about separatist activities. They said the International
Committee of the Red Cross had been denied access to those being held.
The head of the Kuala Lumpur office of the UNHCR, Mr Gottfried
Koefner, said interviews would be conducted to determine whether the
men at the US embassy should be granted refugee status.
He also said that if the 27 Indonesians who were detained sought
refugee status, a request would be made to the Malaysian Government
for access to them so an assessment could be made.
Human rights groups have been highly critical of the way the Malaysian
Government has handled deportations of thousands of foreign, mostly
Indonesian, workers in recent months against the backdrop of the
regional economic crisis.
At least eight Indonesians and a Malaysian policemen died in recent
violence during a repatriation operation from an overcrowded detention
centre.
A decision is yet to be made on an asylum request by 14 Indonesians
from Aceh province who used a truck last month to ram their way into
the UNHCR compound in Kuala Lumpur.
http://www.smh.com.au/daily/content/980411/world/world6.html
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