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Rights groups concerned about migrants

Source
Reuters - April 1, 1998

Jakarta - International human rights groups expressed concern on Wednesday about the possible torture of more than 500 Indonesians expelled from Malaysia last week because of their possible links to separatist groups.

The London-based Amnesty International said in a statement it was concerned the Achenese who arrived in Lhokseumawe on Saturday were reportedly detained at the Rancung military detention camp without access to local human rights lawyers.

"Rancung was used as a detention facility between 1989 and 1993, the most intensive period of the Indonesian military's counter-insurgency operations against Aceh Merdeka, the armed Acehnese separatists," Amnesty said.

"Suspected members of Aceh Merdeka detained in Rancung were frequently subjected to torture and ill-treatment. Amnesty International knows of recent cases of individuals being held incommunicado at Rancung," the statement said.

"Many of those returned are known to be Acehnese who are at particular risk of human rights violations because of alleged links to Acehnese separatists," it said.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement received on Wednesday that while Malaysia deported the more than 500 Acehnese as illegal immigrants, many had a valid claim to refugee status because of their links to Aceh Merdeka.

Human Rights Watch called for an immediate end to the deportations by Malaysia until the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Kuala Lumpur had an opportunity to interview each Acehnese asylum-seeker there.

"We are concerned about refoulement (refusal of asylum) by Malaysia and torture during interrogation by Indonesian authorities," Sidney Jones, Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said in the statement.

"The only way to prevent both these abuses is to allow access by international agencies to detention centres in both countries," Jones said.

Human Rights Watch said the UNHCR has never had access to the camps in Malaysia and access by the International Committee of the Red Cross to prisons in Aceh has been suspended since March 1997.

Indonesia's military (ABRI) spokesman Brigadier-General Abdul Wahab Mokodongan was quoted in Wednesday's Kompas newspaper as saying those repatriated from Malaysia who were former rebels would not be processed by the law.

"They will not be subject to any legal process, moreover be tortured or killed by ABRI," Mokodongan told a media briefing.

"There have already been 24 former rebels who have returned home and they have been surprised by the behaviour of authorities who have greeted them as family and given them food. While they were on the ship they were wary because of propaganda," he said.

Eight Indonesians and one Malaysian policeman were killed last week when they resisted a secret night time operation by Malaysian authorities to expelled them from camps.

Indonesian media reports said up to 42 repatriated Indonesians were transferred to hospital in Lhokseumawe suffering from gunshot wounds incurred during the riots in the Malaysian camps.

Amnesty said unconfirmed reports talk of more deaths in transit as a result of injuries sustained during the deportation process.

The Indonesian government has denied foreign journalists access to Aceh province to cover the arrival of the expelled Indonesians on national security grounds.

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