JAKARTA, Feb 3: Indonesian authorities rescued more boat people from Myanmar on Tuesday after finding them floating in a wooden boat off the coast of Aceh after 21 days at sea. Some were in critical condition, officials said.

The all-male group of 198, who had not eaten for a week and who included a 13-year-old, was found by local fishermen, vice head of East Aceh district Nasrudin Abubakar said by telephone.

Based on sign language and conversations the men had with fishermen, Mr Abubakar said 22 had died at sea and the men were fleeing because of fear of being killed in their army-run homeland, which used to be called Burma.

“They have been sailing for 21 days, using eight to nine wooden boats, but only one wooden boat was saved,” Mr Abubakar said. Twenty had been hospitalised and the remainder were being looked after in the district office in Idie Rayeuk, he added.

Abdul Munir, another local official, said some of the men were in critical condition when found. “They used boats with no engines and their condition was pitiful,” he said, adding the men said they had thrown overboard the corpses of their comrades.

On Jan 7, a group of 193 Rohingya, a stateless Muslim ethnic minority from northwest Myanmar, were found at sea in a wooden boat and taken to a naval base in Sabang in Aceh.

Indonesia is investigating their case but despite pleas from some of the men that they faced death if sent back to Myanmar, Jakarta has said so far it considers them economic migrants, who would be deported under Indonesian law.

The plight of Myanmar’s estimated 800,000 Rohingya has been in the headlines since reports of serial abuse by the Thai military against the boat people, who flee in rickety wooden vessels every year in search of better lives.

The Thai army has admitted towing hundreds far out to sea before abandoning them, but has insisted they had food and water and denied reports the boats’ engines were sabotaged.—Reuters