Jakarta, NU Online
The Indonesia's biggst Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Thailand's Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya discussed about the unfortunate fate of Rohingyas that are now still stranded in Aceh following a report recently that Thailand also kicked out the poor refugees from the country.
Chairman of the Central Board of Nahdlatul Ulama (PBNU) Masykuri Abdillah as receiving Kasit's visit to the PBNU headquaters Wednesday (11/2) asked Piromya about his government's policy in dealing with refugee issues including in terms of its poor and unhuman treatment to them.
<>Kasit who was accompanied by diplomats explained that the refugee problem should be in seen in wider context rather than concentrating on such micro aspects.
"Our country has since a long time accomodating millions of refugees from Vieatnam. There have now been some 1.5 refugees and approximately 2.5 million ilegal migrants living in my country, he said, adding that they were from such countries as Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and North Korea.
Kasit considered that many Western media had exaggeratedly reported the problem about Rohingya boat people without extensively seeing that Thailand has done many things to facilitate the the refugees.
"Every year we spend around USD 10-15 million to finance refugees. We never differentiate their religious backgrounds like Islam, Buddhism, and Cristianity. We treat all of them equally," he said.
Formerly general chairman of the PBNU KH Hasyim muzadi expressed his deeply concern over the unfortunate fate of the Rohingyas and called on all parties including international communities to pay more attention to them.
Over the past one month, Aceh Province has received nearly 400 Rohingya refugees. Some 193 Rohingya boat people got stranded in Sabang, Aceh on January 7, 2008, and another 198 Rohingyas reached the coast of Aceh after 21 days at sea, with some of them in a critical condition on February 3, 2008.
Shocked and cautious about the arrival of the 391 Rohingya boat people mostly hailing from Myanmar and some from Bangladesh, the Indonesian government has called for a stop to human rights violations and the flow of people from those countries.
Referring to the Muslim refugees from Myanmar, Minister Wirajuda in a press briefing here recently said that Indonesia looked at the refugee issue as an international issue and would take diplomatic actions to settle it.
He said the country would intensify coordination with international organizations such as IOM (International Organization for Migration), UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) and ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross), and involve the country of origin, country of transit as well as country of destination for the settlement of Rohingya boat people. (mkf)
