Burmese Asylum Seekers Find Safe Haven in Palau

KOROR, Palau — The newcomers on this tiny Pacific nation are young and in limbo, scared that they'll be arrested if they're sent back to their native land. Most speak no English, but they say they're astounded by the generosity of Palau and its people.

They are not the Chinese Muslims from Guantanamo who made world news last week when Palau's president said the country would take them. Instead, they are 11 asylum seekers from Burma— and they may offer the best idea what the freed detainees' new lives might be.

Roman Catholic priest Rusk Saburo, center, speaks as Burmese Buddhist monks Agganana, left, and Pyinna Nanda listen during a meeting with The Associated Press in Koror, Palau, on Sunday. (Photo: AP)

"They didn't know us," Aye Aye Thant, 34, the group's sole fluent English speaker and de facto spokeswoman, said Sunday. "We are not workers, and we don't serve their country. But we are treated as their own siblings."

Fearing arrest for their political activities, the 10 men and one woman fled military-run Burma to Malaysia and then to the Philippines, always moving on because they thought the countries might deport them. They had never heard of Palau, but friends suggested it. It also offered an attractive feature—visa-free entry.

They arrived in late February, and Palau has mobilized to protect them.

Once their money ran out, the local Roman Catholic church offered to house and feed them. On Monday, a senator—the president's younger brother—will take over, letting them stay at his farmhouse as they await word on their application for asylum.

"It's our age-old tradition to receive those in need whenever they somehow arrive on our shores," President Johnson Toribiong said in an interview with The Associated Press on Saturday. He said that idea is behind the decision to accept the Chinese Muslims, known as Uighurs, and rejected criticism that the move is somehow tied to US aid.

The Burmese asylum seekers say in tropical Palau, one of the world's smallest countries, they finally feel free.

"We were going to be arrested by the military government (in Burma)," said Aye Aye Thant, a former English teacher who openly opposes Burma's ruling junta.

Aye Aye Thant, foreground, defacto spokeswoman of a group of 11 Burmese asylum seekers, speaks during a meeting with The Associated Press in Koror, Palau, on Sunday. (Photo: AP)

She decided to leave after a family friend and police officer warned her father that she appeared on a government arrest list. She had made unauthorized trips to the Irrawaddy Delta region, hit hard by last year's Cyclone Nargis, to pass out donated supplies and money.

Her cousin Agganana, another asylum seeker who goes by one name, said he led various anti-government demonstrations at home.

All but one in the group, which includes two Buddhist monks, are members of the overseas offshoot of the National League for Democracy led by pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

In Palau, a tropical island nation of 20,000 people, local residents approach them from time to time, offering what they can to help.

Their main benefactor from the Catholic church, Father Rusk Saburo, stopped by Sunday afternoon to check on them before their move.

(Graphic: BBC)

Saburo, one of Palau's three Roman Catholic priests, said the church has been paying $500 a month for the apartment. It also has provided groceries and medical care.

"The goal of life for us is you help a stranger," he said, sitting between the two Buddhist monks.