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Myanmar boat people take up refuge in Sabang

Jakarta Post - January 10, 2009

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Imam Husein, 30, sobbed while a nurse at Sabang Hospital attended to him in a ward. Tears rolled down his face and drenched the shirt he had received from the local community moments after he landed at Sabang Naval Base on Jan. 7. "Praise be to God, praise be to God," he exclaimed in tears.

Imam was one of 193 Myanmar refugees stranded off Sabang Island, Aceh, after a 28-day sea journey in the small boat.

Imam is from the Rohingya tribe in Arakan state in the western part of Myanmar, which lies along the eastern coast of the Bengal Bay bordering Bangladesh. Members of the tribe are generally Sunni Muslims – a minority in the mainly Buddhist country.

Imam fled his country – now under the control of a military junta – to seek asylum overseas. "No Muslim in Myanmar, no Muslim," he wept. He said the group of refugees he was with had left Myanmar on Dec. 23, heading for Thailand.

They left Myanmar because they could no longer stand to live under the junta that did not recognize their existence, he said.

Imam added around 580 people fled at the time in four small boats, with almost 200 people in some of the boats. The were heading for Muslim countries, including Malaysia, Indonesia and Afghanistan.

However, after landing in Thailand, the boat people from Myanmar met with harsh treatment from Thai Marines, Imam said. "We were in Thailand for two days, but they abused us and expelled us with gunshots," Imam said in broken English.

He added the Marines put them back in their boats and towed them out to sea beyond Thai waters. "After our boats were taken outside the border, the marines destroyed our engines and dumped all our food supplies into the sea," he said.

Left adrift in the middle of the ocean, Imam went on, the refugees, including women and children, were buffeted about by the currents and wind. They tried to fashion sails out of tarpaulins. "We don't know where the rest of the refugees are right now," Imam said.

After 10 days out at sea without food or a destination, one of the three boats, carrying about 280 people, ended up in Sabang waters. They were spotted by two Aceh fishermen out on the open sea.

"I was very shocked to see a small boat packed to the brim with hundreds of people in distress," said Rudiyanto, one of the fishermen.

The boat was towed to land, where the refugees received help and medical treatment. Eighty-one had to be taken to hospital because of severe dehydration. Some also had to be treated for injuries they said they sustain from the physical abuse by the Thai Marines.

"They had to receive inpatient treatment because they were weak, severely dehydrated and had been beaten," said Togu, a doctor attending to the boat people.

The asylum seekers are now being accommodated at a warehouse at Sabang Naval Base, pending a decision by the Indonesian Foreign Ministry over their asylum bid.

"We are still waiting and coordinating with immigration headquarters about the Myanmar citizens," said Sabang Immigration Office head Marsudi. He added his office had not yet received information about whether to deport the refugees.

This is the second such incident involving Myanmar boat people adrift off Sabang. In April 2006, 77 boat people who fled their country were also found in a boat in Sabang waters.

They were eventually deported by the local immigration office without a clear destination, after staying several days in Sabang.

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