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Malaysia’s Response to the War in Aceh: Arrests and Deportation of Acehnese

We will treat them [Acehnese] as we do other refugees. We will detain them and send them back.

—Khalil Yaacob, Malaysia’s Minister of Information, June 2003²⁶

After fighting resumed in Aceh, the Malaysian government quickly reiterated its position of refusing to recognize asylum seekers in Malaysia, including the new flows of Acehnese refugees to the country. Information Minister Khalil Yaacob added that Malaysia would deport all people from Aceh caught entering the country illegally, regardless of whether they claimed to be refugees fleeing fighting in the Indonesian province.²⁷

The resumption by the Indonesian armed forces of military operations in Aceh sparked a dramatic increase in the flow of Acehnese to Malaysia seeking safety. According to UNHCR, 3,757 new cases of Acehnese asylum seekers were registered with the agency by the end of October 2003, compared with 633 new cases for the whole of 2002. Registered arrivals surged in the period around the declaration of martial law, with May 2003 having the highest one-month total of the year. The vast majority of the new arrivals were men between the ages of eighteen and fifty-nine, who made up 93 percent of newly registered Acehnese asylum seekers between June and October 2003.²⁸ UNHCR in Kuala Lumpur reported a sharp increase in Acehnese seeking protection, though this number included both new arrivals and longer-term residents afraid to be sent back.

While these figures demonstrate a marked increase in the number of Acehnese asylum seekers since the start of martial law in Aceh province, they tell only part of the story. Many more Acehnese have arrived in Malaysia but have not registered with UNHCR, in part due to the fear and difficulty associated with approaching the agency (see below). In September 2003 UNHCR officials acknowledged that they believed there were 8,000-9,000 people from Aceh in Malaysia who may be of concern to UNHCR.²⁹ That number has undoubtedly risen since then.

The August Arrests at UNHCR

UNHCR? I don’t understand about UNHCR. I don’t fully understand who they are or who they are working for. I know some people went there and were arrested. I don’t know what will happen if I go there, maybe I will end up dead.

—Twenty-two-year-old Acehnese man, October 2003³⁰

In August 2003 Malaysian police arrested and detained at least 250 Acehnese asylum seekers outside the UNHCR office in Kuala Lumpur. The arrests outside UNHCR are widely known among the Acehnese in Malaysia, and are frequently cited as the primary reason why Acehnese refugees are now unwilling to go to the UNHCR office to register or obtain a protection letter.

The crackdown clearly targeted Acehnese asylum seekers, as the arrests occurred on two consecutive Tuesdays, the day of the week allocated by UNHCR to hear claims from Acehnese.³¹ (UNHCR has subsequently stopped this practice and allows Acehnese to make claims any day the office is open).

One twenty-five-year-old man described the August 19 arrests to Human Rights Watch:

My brother-in-law brought me to the U.N. One thousand people came, but some were sent home, so some 200 people were waiting outside the office. All 200 were arrested. This was at four in the afternoon. We were told by UNHCR to wait by a middle-aged foreign man who worked there. One Acehnese was asked to come up to discuss things with a supervisor. The police were already there, three trucks worth. They told us we would be brought to another place, which turned out to be the police station. There they told us to temporarily wait in the cells. They never said we were being arrested or would be sent home. . . After ten days, about fifteen to a cell, we were brought to a detention center in vans, all 200 of us. They told us to wait while our case was discussed and a decision was made. We asked for protection from the U.N., but in the end we were told that all Acehnese migrants would be returned home. We spent a month at the detention center, again about fifteen to a cell. Then we were put on a ferry to Medan [the largest city in Sumatra], together with other Indonesian migrants, more than 300 people. . . I got help, borrowed money from friends, and came right back here. That was two months ago. How can I go back to the UNHCR office without a guarantee of my safety?³²

A thirty-two year old man was arrested the following Tuesday:

I was arrested in August in front of UNHCR, the second time arrests were made there. Sixteen people were detained, all Acehnese. We were taken to Langkap, a temporary detention center. They also detained some Burmese; there were two trucks. We were there until October 7. Of the sixteen, all went back to Indonesia except for four or five. . . They threatened us. Tuan Basri from immigration at Langkap told us we would all be sent home. I flew from Ipoh [Malaysia] to Polonia airport [Medan, Indonesia], hoping it would be safer. I’d heard of people being arrested and killed after taking the ferry. When I arrived in Polonia they saw my papers and asked if was one of the ones arrested at UNHCR. I told him, “No, I was arrested near Kuala Lumpur.” He asked for 50,000 Rupiah (U.S.$6) but I only had 50 Ringgit (U.S.$13). I gave him the Ringgit and he gave me 50,000 Rupiah change. My brother picked me up at the airport. I got a passport and flew back. When I was arrested I had a UNHCR letter [decision pending], with one year of extensions. . . I think UNHCR didn’t even know I was sent home. I haven’t been to UNHCR since being back.³³

The August arrests have deterred many Acehnese from traveling to Kuala Lumpur and registering with UNHCR. One Acehnese man told Human Rights Watch:

I heard about UNHCR but I am afraid, because I heard some news that more than 200 Acehnese were arrested in front of UNHCR. That makes me not dare to go there. If I am arrested I will be discarded back to Aceh. If that is the case, I will not be able to live anymore.³⁴

Another man explained:

I heard about UNHCR a long time ago but have not yet gone there, because in Malaysia they do not recognize UNHCR. So, I think if I am arrested I will be taken back there [Aceh]. I heard people with the [UNHCR] letter were sent back and then were disappeared when they arrived.³⁵

At least seventy of those arrested outside the UNHCR offices in Kuala Lumpur have already been deported back to Indonesia. Whether more such detainees are deported depends on negotiations between UNHCR and the Malaysian government. Some of those arrested outside the UNHCR office remain in immigration detention centers in Malaysia. There have been no further arrests outside of the U.N. agency’s office.

Malaysian authorities say that the seventy who were deported had “voluntarily” returned to Indonesia.³⁶ Harsh conditions in the detention center and the prospect of long-term detention with no release undoubtedly were factors in the Acehnese agreeing to be deported. One former detainee, who managed to make his way back to Malaysia after deportation, explained to Human Rights Watch that he agreed to return to Indonesia because, while in detention, he was unable to provide for his family. He told Human Rights Watch:

In detention it was never certain there’d be enough to eat. There were no vegetables, just sardines and rice.³⁷

In addition to strong evidence provided in refugee interviews to Human Rights Watch, statistics show a sharp decline in new registration of Acehnese after August 2003. In July UNHCR reported 1,478 new Acehnese registrants. In August, the month of the arrests, they fell to 791, and by September they were at just 282.³⁸ This decline cannot be solely attributed to a decrease of new arrivals. Human Rights Watch was consistently told that new refugees were arriving from Aceh every day, and in fact interviewed many who had arrived in October and November 2003.

Other arrests and deportations

In mid-November 2003 Malaysia prepared to forcibly return eight Acehnese refugees, including a mother and her young child to Indonesia. All were holding temporary protection letters issued by UNHCR. Strong pressure from Malaysian and international NGOs helped bring attention to the case, and to reports of violence against the refugees, resulting in the Malaysian government agreeing to put the deportations on hold.³⁹

This example, however, is not representative of the fate of other Acehnese refugees in Malaysia. For example, UNHCR reported that seven asylum seekers were sent home across the Straits of Malacca on September 5, 2003. Malaysia denied UNHCR access to the seven Acehnese asylum seekers in detention, all of whom had been interviewed by the agency in the previous two weeks.

The deportations occurred despite appeals from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, for a moratorium on deportations of Acehnese, and just days before a high-level mission from the agency to Malaysia to discuss the subject.⁴⁰ Lubbers said that the plans outlined in “persistent reports” ran counter to assurances provided by the Malaysian authorities, according to which the asylum seekers “would not be returned to a situation which could endanger their lives and well-being.”⁴¹ In a press statement issued from Geneva, UNHCR stated that it was “extremely concerned after learning that Malaysian authorities this morning deported seven asylum seekers who originated from the Indonesian province of Aceh, despite a request from the High Commissioner this week for a moratorium.”⁴²

In mid-September 2003 a high level UNHCR delegation, including Jean-Marie Fakhouri, the director of UNHCR’s Asia-Pacific bureau, visited Malaysia to meet with the government about the August arrests and deportations. UNHCR publicly called for a moratorium on all deportations of the asylum seekers who had been arrested outside of the UNHCR office in August. Deportations of those arrested did cease, but the refugees remained in detention and to date have an uncertain status pending continued negotiations between UNHCR and the Malaysian government.

A U.S. Congressional letter to the Malaysian government signed by eight members of Congress also raised concern at this “apparent violation of the principle of non-refoulement.” The letter added:

Return of these asylum seekers to Aceh, when military operations are underway and where there are reports of widespread human rights violations, would be unacceptable. We urge that your Government’s authorities abide by international law and not forcibly return any additional Acehnese to Aceh.⁴³

Despite international criticism and pressure, police raids on Indonesian settlement areas continue. No distinction is made between Indonesian undocumented persons, asylum seekers, and refugees. For example, Malaysian police raided an Indonesian settlement in Limau Manis near Kuala Lumpur on September 16, 2003, and bulldozed many homes. The police told the Associated Press that 167 migrant workers without valid work permits had been detained and would be deported. Eyewitnesses reported that there were many Acehnese among those taken away.⁴⁴

In October 2003 Malaysian police raided an undocumented workers camp in Penang and again arrested a number of Indonesians, including thirty-three Acehnese. A Malaysian human rights organization, SUARAM (Suara Rakyat Malaysia, Voice of the Malaysian People), reported that four of them were believed to have been holding UNHCR-issued temporary protection letters. All those arrested are believed to have been taken to immigration detention centers for deportation.⁴⁵

In January 2004, a Malaysian organization, Solidarity for Aceh, and the Organisation Mondiale Contre la Torture (World Organization Against Torture), reported that at least forty Acehnese asylum seekers were arrested after Malaysian police raided a migrant community settlement in Kampung Sungai Nibong, Penang, on January 25, 2004. The groups reported that those arrested were at grave risk of deportation.⁴⁶

On February 21, 2004, the Penang Support Group for Aceh reported ten Acehnese asylum seekers were arrested in a police raid at Bukit Jambul. The Acehnese were detained at the Penang Southwest Police District Office with the expectation that they would be later transferred to the Juru detention centre in preparation for deportation.⁴⁷

The above evidence suggests that, although largely unreported, deportations of Acehnese are regularly taking place as part of broader deportations of all undocumented Indonesians in Malaysia.

After the August arrests outside of the UNHCR office in Kuala Lumpur, UNHCR was unable to visit those arrested in August detained in Malaysia’s immigration detention centers. Of the 289 persons known to have been detained, it identified 182 persons, mostly Acehnese, who asked for UNHCR intervention, and UNHCR provided temporary protection letters to those who did not already have them. According to the U.S. Committee for Refugees, the other 107 persons at the centers either declined UNHCR assistance or had already been deported.⁴⁸

Problems faced by Acehnese returned to Indonesia

Human Rights Watch interviewed three Acehnese men who had returned to Malaysia from Indonesia after at least once previously having been arrested and repatriated from Malaysia. Two who had returned to Indonesia by boat told Human Rights Watch that Acehnese were separated from other Indonesians by authorities at the port of arrival, either Medan, North Sumatra (the main disembarkation point from Malaysia), or Dumai. One man was released due to the intervention of a relative in the police (as already recounted above), and the other claimed to be from another province. Neither knew the fates of those who were detained on arrival.

Acehnese in Malaysia also reported rumors that some of those who had been deported had either “disappeared” or been killed before making it back to their families. The rumor of fifty decapitated heads of deported Acehnese asylum seekers in Lhokseumawe hospital was recounted by several refugees in Malaysia. Human Rights Watch was unable to confirm any of these reports. However, the rumors do demonstrate the level of fear felt by Acehnese in Malaysia, and their concerns over what will happen to them if they are returned to Indonesia. One man who was deported to Indonesia, and then made his way back to Malaysia, told Human Rights Watch:

When we got to Medan we were processed at the port. They asked, “What were you doing in Malaysia?” If you say construction they don’t believe you. But I said I came to make money, to help my village. The Acehnese were separated and taken away, I don’t know where. There is not yet any word of other people from the boat returning to their home villages. I said I was not Acehnese but Minangkabau [from West Sumatra], and they let me go.⁴⁹