Acehnese fishermen's 'Law of the Sea' (Hukom Adat Laot) stated that seaman who sees any boat in distress should offer help. As a loval fisherman explained to Al Jazeera news, "At sea you are all brothers and sisters, foreigners or Indonesians. So if someone is asking for help, we as fishermen have an obligation to help without looking at race, religion or anything."
I sense a similarity in principle with the UN Declaration of Human Rights. The strange thing is that these fishermen had never studied UN Conventions and might have never heard of the Declaration og Human Rights. On the other hand, countries who had ratified the UN Convention for Refugee and claimed to adhere to Human Rights principles are turning these human down!
The worrying thing is that the so called law enforcements are questioning fishermen who helped the immigrants. Indonesian Armed Forces reminded Acehnese fishermen that that taking in illegal immigrant is against the law.
I hope that the brave Acehnese fisherman will stand up for human rights and will not let authority in uniform stop them helping fellow human.
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