SPI
Bitter Tale of the Galang Camp
Hunger strike
in Galang
by Agence France Presse,
04/25/1994
Some 500 Vietnamese refugees in the Indonesian refugee island centre of Galang are on hunger strike with 79 hospitalized since the protest started against repatriation, a news report said Monday.
"They are still under treatment," an official in Pekanbaru, central Sumatra, was quoted by the evening daily Suara Pembaruan as saying, adding that 12 of those in hospital were women or children.
The official gave no further details but the newspaper quoted a source as saying the refugees began the strike Saturday to back up their refusal to be repatriated to Vietnam.
Foreign Minister Ali Alatas said Monday that the Vietnamese refugee issue would be brought up in talks between President Suharto and Vietnamese President Le Duc Anh who is scheduled to arrive here Tuesday for a four-day visit.
Alatas said Indonesia intends to clear the, which holds some 10,000 refugees, mostly Vietnamese but also from Cambodia, and turn it into an industrial zone.
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