The Jakarta Post, 2/3/2006 11:05:36 AM
Indonesian envoy warns Australia over Papua asylum seekers
SYDNEY (AFP): Indonesia's ambassador to Australia warned Friday that relations
between the two neighbors would be affected if Canberra grants political asylum to 43
boat-people from the troubled Indonesian province of Papua.
The Papuans, who included pro-independence activists and their families, arrived in
northern Australia last month after a five-day voyage in an outrigger canoe and were
later taken to an immigration detention camp on Christmas Island, a remote
Australian territory in the Indian Ocean.
A spokesman for the group has told Australian media they fear they will be killed if
returned to Papua, where a sporadic and low-level separatist insurgency has been
going on for decades.
Australian Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said on Thursday that the group's
asylum request would be considered.
But Indonesia's ambassador, Teuku Mohammad Hamzah Thayeb, said the group had
nothing to fear from Indonesian authorities.
Asked in an interview on Australian BroadcastingCorporation radio if granting asylum
to the group would strain Australia-Indonesia relations, Thayeb said: "I would hope it
will not, but it certainly would have an effect.
"That's why we have to manage this together and find a solution."
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has also guaranteed the group's safety should
they return, he said.
Papuans and human rights groups have accused Indonesian authorities of widespread
abuses in the province, a former Dutch colony that Indonesia took over in the 1960s.
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