THEPHUKETNEWS.COM
FRIDAY, JULY 12, 2013
ASIA NEWS 11
Rohingya face limbo A
group of Rohingya asylum-seekers from Myan mar prayed peacefully alongside Indonesians at a mosque in Sumatra, a sign of the solidarity they have found in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation after fleeing sectarian bloodshed. The members of the persecuted Muslim minority were still shaken after a gruelling, 25-day journey at sea – but were grateful to find themselves in a country where they felt at least a little at home, despite there being no chance of a normal life for them there. “Indonesia, Muslim country, good,” said Muhammad Yunus, 25, in halting English, after praying at the immigration detention centre in the town of Lhokseumawe. But while the population at large is accepting of the increasing number of Rohingya washing up in Indonesia, authorities have not extended the same warm welcome. Although president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has publicly expressed backing for the stateless minority, Rohingya who make it to Indonesia can end up living in legal limbo
for years. Buddhist-majority Myanmar views its population of roughly 800,000 Rohingya as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, and as sectarian violence has escalated in the past year they have fled in increasing numbers. As other countries in Asia struggle to deal with them, the flow of Rohingya arrivals in Indonesia is increasing. After several incidents where Thailand was accused of pushing them back out to sea, 2,000 Rohingya landed earlier this year and have been detained in refugee camps. Bangkok has said it is unable to accept more, while Malaysia says it is reaching capacity. Most Rohingya do not initially view Indonesia as their final destination and hope to use it as a stopping point en route to Australia, where more than 220 have arrived on asylum seeker boats over the past year. Once in Indonesia, many Rohingya are held in prisonlike detention centres for long periods while their cases are processed. Those granted refugee status by the United Nations are
Around 205 Rohingya packed into a crowded boat arrived in Phuket waters near Racha Noi island on January 29 this year. considered the lucky ones but enjoy few rights as Indonesia has not signed a key UN convention on refugees. It will not accept them as permanent citizens and they cannot work or study as they wait to be resettled. At a refugee housing complex in Medan, on Sumatra, Rohana Fetikileh looks haunted as she contemplates the turmoil that has rocked the state of Rakhine, from where she fled in 2010. Rakhine was the site of two outbreaks of deadly sectarian
Man who battled Fukushima disaster dies from cancer THE FORMER BOSS OF Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant, who stayed at his post to try to tame runaway reactors after the 2011 tsunami, died of oesophagal cancer on Tuesday, the operator said. Masao Yoshida, 58, was at the power station on March 11, 2011, when towering waves swamped cooling systems and sparked meltdowns that released plumes of radiation. Yoshida led the subsequent effort to get the crippled complex under control, as workers
battled frequent aftershocks to try to prevent the disaster worsening. Government contingency plans revealed after the event showed how scientists feared a chain reaction if Fukushima spiralled out of control, a scenario that could have seen other nuclear plants engulfed and would have meant evacuating Tokyo. His selfless work is contrasted in the public mind with the attitude of his employers, who seemed willing
to abandon the complex and are popularly believed to have shirked their responsibility. Yoshida left the plant soon after being suddenly hospitalised in late November 2011. TEPCO has said his cancer was unlikely to be linked to radiation exposure in the months after the disaster. The company has said it would take at least five years and normally 10 years to develop this particular condition if radiation exposure were to blame. AFP
unrest between Rohingya and Buddhists in Myanmar last year. Since then, several further episodes of communal unrest across Myanmar have tempered international optimism about the country’s dramatic political reforms as it emerges from decades of military rule. “If Indonesia accepted us, then we’d stay,” Fetikileh said clutching her 11-month-old son in her arms as other refugee children played nearby. “As long as we can work and there is a future for our kids,” added the 28-year-old
mother of four. Those given “Refugee” status are given some help from the UN: basic housing, schooling for their children and a 1.25 million rupiah (B4,000) monthly allowance per person. But most refugees spend their days cooped up in basic community housing, with little to do. “We can’t do anything here,” said Zahid Husein, 26, who has been been waiting for resettlement more than 11 years, having passed through Cambodia, Thailand and Ma-
laysia. “We can’t study, if we want to go shopping we can’t...without being detained again,” he said. With only one per cent of refugees globally ever resettled, according to UN data, prospects for Rohingya are bleak. Australia had said it aimed to take around 600 refugees who are in Indonesia in the 12 months to June as part of the expansion of its humanitarian refugee programme, but that number does not include those who had come from Myanmar. Many make it to Australia by boarding rickety, wooden boats in Indonesia. Critics argue that Indonesia has failed to change its policies despite supportive rhetoric and the increasingly desperate state that the Rohingya are arriving in. Authorities have publicly backed the Rohingya on many occasions – Jakarta pledged $1 million (B30mn) to help those displaced in violence in Rakhine last year and president Yudhoyono raised the issue on a recent visit to Myanmar. There have also been growing signs of public anger about the Rohingya’s plight. AFP