The Sri Lankans who were stranded last week in Aceh waters are seeking asylum from other countries including Indonesia.
Sajahtan, one of the 55 stranded people, said they had fled their own country because they were being chased by the Sri Lankan military in their fight against the Tamil Tiger rebels.
"They are hunting and chasing people without caring who it is."
The Sri Lankan refugees had drifted onto the Aceh waters on May 14 while heading to Christmas Island to seek asylum from the Australian government.
Their boat was destroyed when strong waves hit and sank it, stranding all its passengers on a beach in Babah Lueng subdistrict, Nagan Raya, Aceh. One of them was declared missing while trying to swim to the shore.
The 55 people are currently sheltered in a village cooperative building in Alue Bilie subdistrict, Darul Makmur district, Nagan Raya regency, thanks to the help from the local community and administration.
Sajahtan, however, denied he was part of the Tamil Tiger movement. He said an intense military operation in his country, following a failure in the peace talks between the government and the movement, had victimized many innocent people.
"That was why we made up our mind to run away from Sri Lanka and do not intend to return. We are a murder target if we return there."
Separately, Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Teuku Faizahsyah said his office could not yet decide whether it would send the people back to their country or give them political asylum.
"They claim to be war victims, thus require a different settlement from trespassers."
He added if they were truly war victims then Indonesia must involve the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in dealing with the matter. Otherwise, it would put Indonesia in a difficult situation regarding the internal Sri Lankan conflict.
The foreign affairs ministry, he went on, needed to identify the Sri Lankans and investigate their true motivations in fleeing their country. It would send an identification and investigation team for this purpose in the near future.
He also said no contact with the Sri Lankan embassy in Jakarta had been made so far pending for the definitive information regarding their true citizenships.
"We have to make sure that they really are Sri Lankan according to the evidence they have."
The boat that carried the Sri Lankans was the third to drift onto Aceh waters this year. In January, a boat carrying 193 Myanmar people was stranded in Sabang after floating in the ocean for 28 days.
The following month, in February, another boat carrying 220 people who were believed to be Myanmar refugees was stranded in Idi Cut waters off East Aceh. Twenty two of them died, 58 others were rushed to hospitals for dehydration and severe hunger.
All the Myanmarese refugees are currently under quarantine, pending a decision from the Myanmarese and Indonesian governments.
The proximity between the international sea transportation route and Aceh has been seen as the main reason for the frequent incidents of boat people in the area whose waters are often passed by people seeking asylum from New Zealand and Australia.
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