KUALA LUMPUR Aug. 19 Kyodo Malays...

KUALA LUMPUR Aug. 19 Kyodo

Malaysian police arrested centurys of Acehnese asylum seekers when they tried to set in the Kuala Lumpur office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR) in succession Tuesday.

The asylum inquirers had come early Tuesday morning in taxis and private vehicles. UNHCR staff were about to unclose the gates to let them in when the police cordoned of all roads leading to the UNHCR building and detained all of them.

The UNHCR said a 400 were arrested. But a senior police official said alone 240 were picked up and would be sent to a detention camp to await deportation.

''We are alarmed from this unprecedented action. The conduct of Malaysia has a prolonged history of engagement with the UNHCR and has always tried to defer to the protection needs of those fleeing war situations,'' the UNHCR office said in a statement.

It called in succession the police to release all the Acehnese and urg the Malaysian restraint to ''grant temporary protection to those fleeing the conflict in Aceh and to make secure they are treated in accordance with international standards.''

Malaysia rarely grants political asylum to Acehnese, who are ofttimes treated as illegal immigrants and deported to Indonesia's Sumatra Island despite their claims they might be tortured by dint of the Indonesian army for their ties to the separatist delivered Aceh Movement.

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