RI ASSURES BOAT PEOPLE TREATED WELL

Jakarta, Feb 2 (ANTARA) - Foreign minister Hassan Wirajuda assured here on Monday that the government would treat well 193 people believed to come from Bangladesh and Myanmar found floating on a non-motorized boat in the waters off Aceh early last month.
"We have given them good facilities including living quarters, food and medication. In other words do not compare our treatment to the experience of those stranded or landed in other places. It's very different, at least based upon what we knew from media reports about the treatment such people used to receive in Thailand," he said.
The minister said the Indonesian government treated these boat people well for humanitarian considerations without intervention from outsiders.
He said the government was now just conducting a second verification on their motive for leaving their home towns for Indonesia or elsewhere.
"From the first interview that we have had with them involving Myanmarese and Bangladeshi embassy staff members it was clear that their intention to leave their country was for seeking a better life, while some were were economic migrants," he said.
He said so far the government believed that they had no political motive or seeking an asylum. In view of that the government was considering deporting them, he said.
However "we are now just finishing the second round of verification and detailed interviews the result of which would be used as a basis for making a decision later," he said.
The minister said he predicted the second round of verification would be completed this week as each of them was given 30 minutes for the interview.
"We will also seek a solution based upon where they first came from Myanmar or Bangladesh with regard to their deportation. I know there is some sensitivity with regard to Myanmar and that is also part of our consideration with regard to whether they should be sent to Myanmar or Bangladesh from where they first left," he said.
The minister said some of the boat people were Rohingya which is a Moslem ethnic group living on the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar, who because of the problems they were facing in the last ten years, had entered Bangladesh and therefore consideration on where they should be sent to had to be made.
These people were found floating in a boat on the in Indonesian waters at around 9am on January 7, 2009 without legal papers on their identity.
They were weak and emaciated when found and therefore they received immediate treatment. Right now they are given shelter at a naval base in Sabang on Weh Island, Aceh.
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