U.S. Committee for Refugees World Refugee Survey 1997 - Indonesia
Indonesia closed its last camp on Galang Island for Vietnamese and Cambodian boat people on September 8. At the beginning of 1996, there were some 4,494 Vietnamese asylum seekers in Indonesia; at the end of the year, only 29 remained. Most were screened in (determined to be refugees) and awaiting third-country resettlement. During the year, Indonesia also returned some 360 Cambodian asylum seekers to Cambodia, including 183 whom the Indonesian authorities returned by force. An estimated 10,000 Indonesian refugees from the province of Irian Jaya were living in Papua New Guinea. An unknown number of Indonesian Achehnese who may be refugees remained in Malaysia at the end of the year. More than 1,000 East Timorese sought asylum in Australia during the year; dozens of other East Timorese sought asylum in foreign embassies in Jakarta. Hundreds of Chinese migrants and asylum seekers seeking to reach Australia by boat stopped off or were stranded in Indonesia on their way to Australia.
Vietnamese and Cambodians The Comprehensive Plan of Action for Indochinese Refugees (CPA) ended officially in June 1995. However, UNHCR agreed to continue funding care and maintenance programs for screened-out (determined not to be refugees under CPA criteria) Vietnamese until mid-1996 to allow time to complete the repatriation of the Vietnamese. The Indonesian government stepped up its efforts to promote voluntary repatriation of screened-out Vietnamese in late 1995 and early 1996. In June 1996, however, it began to return Vietnamese involuntarily through the Orderly Return Program (ORP). Indonesia and Vietnam had agreed to the ORP in 1993, but had not actually returned any Vietnamese through the program, in part because of Vietnam’s failure to approve even the first group that Indonesia had proposed for the program. The last 486 screened-out Vietnamese left the camp on Galang Island in September. Altogether, 3,117 Vietnamese repatriated voluntarily during the year, and another 1,377 were returned through the ORP. Indonesia is developing Galang Island into a special industrial zone. In all, 70 Cambodian asylum seekers voluntarily repatriated from Indonesia in 1996, and the remaining 290 returned to Cambodia involuntarily through the ORP. Only one Cambodian asylum seeker remained in Indonesia at the end of 1996.
Indonesian Refugees Refugees from the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya have been living in Papua New Guinea since 1984. Irian Jaya is home to some 240 ethnic groups. Many indigenous Irians say that non-Irians who have moved to the province from other areas have discriminated against them, monopolized jobs, and exploited local resources. The Irian refugees fled human rights abuses by the Indonesian military and fighting between the military and the secessionist
Organasi Papua Merdeka (OPM). In 1996, 25 Irians repatriated from Papua New Guinea with UNHCR asisstance; 10,000 refugees remained there. During the year, tensions between the military and local people in Irian Jaya remained high. OPM rebels took several Indonesian and European hostages in February. The Indonesian army launched a rescue operation in May that resulted in the hostages’ release. Large-scale rioting broke out in Irian Jaya in March after the death of an Irian independence leader in prison. Shortly afterward, several Irians sought political asylum in the Dutch embassy in Jakarta, the first time Irians had sought asylum in a foreign embassy in Indonesia in twelve years. In recent years, thousands of Achehnese from the Indonesian island of Sumatra have fled to Malaysia and lived there without documentation. Their reasons for going to Malaysia may have included both political and economic factors. According to UNHCR, at the end of 1996, none were considered refugees. USCR believed that many of the Achehnese were in Malaysia in refugee-like circumstances, but could not estimate their number. The Malaysian authorities continued to detain dozens of Achehnese and threatened to deport them to Indonesia. Several Achehnese sought asylum in embassies in Kuala Lumpur during the year.
East Timorese Asylum Seekers A number of East Timorese again sought asylum in foreign embassies in Jakarta during 1996, including, for the first time, in the Australian embassy. Australia is among the few nations that recognize Indonesia’s 1976 annexation of East Timor. Because the United Nations still considers East Timor to be a Portuguese-administered UN territory, and because East Timorese people may claim Portuguese citizenship, the embassies generally did not grant the asylum requests, but did facilitate the asylum seekers’ transportation to Portugal. During the year, East Timorese continued to protest Indonesian rule, the Indonesian military’s treatment of local people, and what East Timorese call Muslim Indonesians’ colonization of mostly Catholic East Timor. East Timorese opposition groups say colonists are squeezing out local people economically and are attempting to impose their religion. During the year, the Indonesian authorities reportedly used torture and excessive force against separatists and unarmed civilians in East Timor. Random killings and disappearances of East Timorese continued in 1996. The awarding of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize to Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo, the Apostolic administrator of East Timor, and Jose Ramos Horta, the self-exiled East Timorese resistance spokesperson, focused increased international attention on the conflict in East Timor. The Indonesian National Human Rights Commission also opened a branch office in Dili, the principal city of East Timor, in 1996. Although most countries do not recognize East Timorese as refugees, there are many East Timorese living in other countries who may have left East Timor for refugee-like reasons. They include more than 20,000 in Australia, 4,000 in Portugal, and several dozen in the Portuguese colony of Macao, near Hong Kong.
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