2006年VOA标准英语-Australian Visas to Indonesian Asylum Seek

By Nancy-Amelia Collins
Jakarta
23 March 2006

The Australian government has granted temporary visas to 42 Indonesian asylum¹ seekers, in a move Jakarta called "disappointing," and despite the urging of the Indonesian president to send them home instead. 

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Australian Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said the 42 asylum seekers from Indonesia's far eastern province of Papua have been granted temporary protection visas, allowing them to stay in Australia for three years.

Vanstone says no decision has been made on the 43rd member of the group.

The 43 landed on a remote beach in Northeastern Australia last year after spending five days at sea in a traditional outrigger canoe.

They accuse the Indonesian military of committing genocide in Papua Province, and say it will be dangerous for them to return home.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had personally called Australian Prime Minister John Howard over the affair.  He told Mr. Howard the group faced no danger, and should be returned to Indonesia.

Indonesian presidential spokesman Dino Djalil says the government is disappointed by Australia's decision to let the Papuans stay.

"The Indonesian government is surprised and disappointed with the decision by the Australian department of immigration ...  We have told the Australian government that they are not being prosecuted², they are not on our list of criminals, they are not being sought by our authority, and ... we feel that the granting of the temporary visas is lacking in legal merit," Dino says.

Jakarta has been fighting a low-level insurgency³ in Papua for three decades, and has effectively denied journalists, rights workers, and other independent monitors access to the region.

Human-rights groups and some foreign governments accuse the Indonesian military of committing grave abuses against the Papuan civilian⁴ population.

Secretary of the Australia West Papuans Association in Sydney, Joe Collins, says that despite Jakarta's assurances the Papuans had cause for worry:

"That they may have been sent back to West Papua, where of course they would not be received very well, no matter what Indonesia might say," Collins says.

Indonesian lawmakers joined their government in condemning⁵ Canberra's decision on Thursday.  

1 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

2 prosecuted   

a.被起诉的

参考例句：

• The editors are being prosecuted for obscenity. 编辑因刊载污秽文字而被起诉。
• The company was prosecuted for breaching the Health and Safety Act. 这家公司被控违反《卫生安全条例》。

3 insurgency   

n.起义；暴动；叛变

参考例句：

• And as in China, unrest and even insurgency are widespread. 而在中国，动乱甚至暴乱都普遍存在。 来自互联网
• Dr Zyphur is part an insurgency against this idea. 塞弗博士是这一观点逆流的一部分。 来自互联网

4 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

5 condemning   

v.（通常因道义上的原因而）谴责( condemn的现在分词 )；宣判；宣布…不能使用；迫使…陷于不幸的境地

参考例句：

• The government issued a statement condemning the killings. 政府发表声明谴责这些凶杀事件。
• I concur with the speaker in condemning what has been done. 我同意发言者对所做的事加以谴责。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》