THE NATION: EDITORIAL/Respect the h

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Date: 07 Apr 1998 

                      Publication: The Nation

                                              Section: Editorial & Opinion



EDITORIAL/Respect the human rights of refugees 

Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim warned last year that if the economic growth was
to dip below four per cent, there would be social unrest. Late last month, Anwar revised
downwards, for the third time, the projected growth in Malaysia. Growth in 1998, he lamented, is
estimated to be between two and three per cent. 

And sure enough, as if on cue, Malaysia was rocked by two separate incidents of rioting. Fighting
broke out between Muslims and Hindus in the island state of Penang over the presence of a temple
located near a mosque. More seriously, however, were the riots at the illegal detention camps as the
authorities moved to deport thousands of Indonesians. 

The violence began when the police launched a simultaneous operation to round up detainees from
Indonesia's westernmost province of Aceh in four camps for repatriation. By the time calm was
restored, nine people -- eight Indonesians and one police officer -- were dead, and dozens injured. 

The Acehnese are from the northern tip of the Indonesian island of Sumatra -- one of the three
regions in the archipelago where separatists are fighting for independence in what is considered as a
''little known, dirty war''. 

In the early 1990s, the Indonesian troops launched a brutal counter-insurgency campaign against the
secessionist rebels and human rights groups have complained of widespread killings, torture,
disappearances and arbitrary detentions of suspected guerrilla sympathisers and their relatives. 

But the Indonesian authorities have rejected the accusations and said all Acehnese could return
without fear. 

''There is no such thing as repression here in Indonesia, by the military or anyone,'' Foreign Ministry
spokesman Ghaffar Fadyl said. 

Many will find that hard to believe. Surely not the Acehnese. And not the United Nations either. In
1993, some 55 Acehnese entered the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
compound in Kuala Lumpur and stayed on its grounds for two years. 

They were eventually given refugee status by UNHCR and was permitted to remain in Malaysia. It
appears however that some of these were marked for deportation last month. And last week,
another 14 Indonesians forced their way into the UNHCR compound demanding protection. 

The refugees' fears of the fate waiting for them across the Straits of Malacca appears genuine.
Human Rights Watch reported that the 545 Indonesians deported last month by the Malaysians
were sent directly to the notorious military interrogation centre in Aceh -- the Kopassus (special
forces) camp in Rancong. Rancong is known as a site of extrajudicial executions and torture of
Acehnese rebels. So much for the Indonesian Foreign Ministry's assurances that no harm would visit
the deportees on arrival in Aceh. 

Also troubling is the denial of medical attention given to those injured during the deportation. Of the
Acehnese ferried to Indonesia, some were nursing gunshot wounds and bleeding profusely, and a
number died en route. Such loss of lives could have been prevented had the Malaysian authority
taken steps to give proper medical treatment to those injured. This is an act of nothing short of
callous irresponsibility on the part of the Malaysians. 

Thailand, like Malaysia, has a refugee problem, especially along our borders with Burma and
Cambodia. The policy of pushing refugees, especially the Burmese, back to a certain fate of torture,
forced labour and possibly death has been condemned by human rights groups. However, the
government has recently taken a step in the right direction by giving the UNHCR a greater role in
protecting these refugees and offering them asylum. 

Indeed, at a time when the tiger economies are being battered with a debilitating economic crisis,
governments and citizens tend to economise on compassion. Perhaps, in this hard times, we should
heed the plea from Burmese Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. 

''If you have a lot to eat, it doesn't matter much if you toss a cake to somebody,'' she said, ''but if
you're prepared to share your last bowl of rice with somebody, that is very kind and
compassionate.'' 

True, the people of Thailand and Malaysia have suffered greatly in the current economic downturn.
But surely they are not in such a dire state that they are being forced to share their last bowl of rice
with the refugees. 

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