From: "DR. PHUA KAI LIT" To: wsn@csf.colorado.edu Date: Sat, 11 Apr 1998 09:14:13 +0000 Subject: (Fwd) [sangkancil] Lives risked in "heinous" asylum refusal ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- 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) ________________________________________________ This week's sponsors -The Asia Pacific Internet Company (APIC) Business Internet Services. Some talk. Some do. We talk and do! for instant info ________________________________________________ >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 -________________________________________________ List Owner: M.G.G. Pillai Free Homepages on malaysia.net - send blank Check out the malaysia.net web site on List Postings to ________________________________________________