LHOKSEUMAWE, Indonesia: Almost 1,000 Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar have arrived by boat in Indonesia’s northernmost province of Aceh in the last six days, officials said Monday.
They included five groups with women and children who were afloat for days. One batch of more than 240 people was twice denied landing by residents in Aceh Utara district, sparking concerns from human rights organizations. The group finally disembarked in Bireuen district on Sunday morning.
“We thank the authorities and local communities who have received and granted landing permits for them and in the future we hope that this spirit of solidarity and humanity will continue to be extended to refugees who need assistance and protection,” the the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said in a statement.
The refugees arriving in Aceh had endured a difficult sea journey. Most of them left refugee camps in Bangladesh, where more than 700,000 had fled following a crackdown by Myanmar’s army in August 2017. Myanmar security forces have been accused of mass rape, killings and the burning of thousands of Rohingya homes.
Most of the refugees have attempted to reach Malaysia, but many have ended up in Indonesia along the way.
“The thwarted landing of hundreds of Rohingya refugees is a big step back for Indonesia, where communities have previously shown generosity and humanity toward those seeking safety after perilous boat journeys,” said Usman Hamid, executive director for Amnesty International Indonesia.
Indonesia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention, and does not have the obligation or capacity to accommodate refugees.
“Accommodation has been provided solely for humanitarian reasons. Ironically, many countries party to the convention actually closed their doors and even implemented a pushback policy toward the refugees,” Lalu Muhamad Iqbal, the ministry’s spokesperson, said in a statement.
He said that Indonesia’s kindness in providing a temporary shelter has been widely exploited by people-smugglers who seek financial gain without caring about the risks faced by refugees, especially vulnerable groups such as women and children.
Nearly 1,000 Rohingya refugees arrive by boat in Indonesia’s Aceh region in one week
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Nearly 1,000 Rohingya refugees arrive by boat in Indonesia’s Aceh region in one week
- Most of the refugees have attempted to reach Malaysia, but many have ended up in Indonesia along the way
Russia says foreign forces in Ukraine would be ‘legitimate targets’
- Moscow has repeatedly said it will not tolerate the presence in Ukraine of troops from Western countries
MOSCOW: Russia would regard the deployment of any foreign military forces or infrastructure in Ukraine as foreign intervention and treat those forces as legitimate targets, the Foreign Ministry said on Monday, citing Minister Sergei Lavrov.
The ministry’s comment, one of many it said were in response to questions put to Lavrov, also praised US President Donald Trump’s efforts at working for a resolution of the war and said he understood the fundamental reasons behind the conflict.
“The deployment of military units, facilities, warehouses, and other infrastructure of Western countries in Ukraine is unacceptable to us and will be regarded as foreign intervention posing a direct threat to Russia’s security,” the ministry said on its website.
It said Western countries — which have discussed a possible deployment to Ukraine to help secure any peace deal — had to understand “that all foreign military contingents, including German ones, if deployed in Ukraine, will become legitimate targets for the Russian Armed Forces.”
The United States has spearheaded efforts to hold talks aimed at ending the conflict in Ukraine and a second three-sided meeting with Russian and Ukrainian representatives is to take place this week in the United Arab Emirates.
The issue of ceding internationally recognized Ukrainian territory to Russia remains a major stumbling block. Kyiv rejects Russian calls for it to give up all of its Donbas region, including territory Moscow’s forces have not captured.
Moscow has repeatedly said it will not tolerate the presence in Ukraine of troops from Western countries.
The ministry said Moscow valued the “purposeful efforts” of the Trump administration in working toward a resolution and understanding Russia’s long-running concerns about NATO’s eastward expansion and its overtures to Ukraine.
It described Trump as “one of the few Western politicians who not only immediately refused to advance meaningless and destructive preconditions for starting a substantive dialogue with Moscow on the Ukrainian crisis, but also publicly spoke about its root causes.”
