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| Southeast Asia |
| Thai refugees want to go home |
| 2006-04-24 |
| Malaysia has been informed that 99 of the 130 Thai Muslim refugees currently seeking asylum in the country have expressed willingness to return home, reports said Monday. Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said Sunday that his Thai counterpart, Kantathi Suphamongkhon, had recently conveyed the news to Kuala Lumpur. "I was informed by my Thai counterpart that 99 are willing to return after having been guaranteed safe passage and security by their government. "However, we have yet to receive confirmation at our end," Syed Hamid was quoted as saying by the Star daily. The refugees were part of a group of 131 Thai men, women and children who fled across the border in August last year to seek asylum, claiming that their safety was in jeopardy in the troubled southern Thai region. They were given temporary shelter at a holding centre in the north-eastern Terengganu state, and were interviewed by officers from the UN refugee agency in Kuala Lumpur, a move which Bangkok slammed as seen to be interfering with its internal affairs. In December, Malaysia handed over one of the refugees to Thailand after a request by authorities to question the man on his alleged involvement in the January 4, 2004 robbery of 300 weapons from an army depot. Syed Hamid on Sunday reiterated Malaysia's stance on the remaining 130 refugees. "We treat them as people seeking temporary refuge owing to problems there. If they want to return, we shall help in the process," he said. The three southernmost provinces comprise the only majority Muslim area in predominantly Buddhist Thailand. The region, which was first conquered by Bangkok in 1786, has strong historical and cultural links with mainly Muslim Malaysia. |
| Posted by:ryuge |