Saturday was a lazy day compared to Friday. Breakfast was Ijagwe and coffee again, with both Uncle and Belle*, who may possibly be the saddest girl in the world. I've spent enough time listening to Uncle tell me how great his god is and that he's praying for me to become Christian, and I know she feels the same way. I often notice her looking at me with an expression that strikes me as being a mixture of pity and regret, and I feel like she's imagining my poor heathen soul burning in hell. I could be wrong though, and it's just as likely that she looks at everyone like that.

I spent the afternoon wandering around with Zaw at the mall, looking for a plug adaptor for my laptop. They have Christmas decorations up in all the malls, and the shopping crowds to match. The crowds, however, are par for the course in a country where shopping seems to be a national past-time.

After finally finding my adaptor, Zaw and I sat and chatted over coffee at an expensive mall coffee shop. We talked about mothers, living in North America (he's waiting on his resettlement date for Canada), and the recent reports that the Malaysian Immigration Department is trafficking in "illegal" immigrants.

Typically, when a person is arrested and booked for not having travel documents, they'll plead guilty and hope their sentence is short. I'm not entirely sure what happens if a person pleads not guilty, but I'm guessing it results in more time spent in detention while waiting for the case to progress through the courts and then through appeals. So basically a person is presented with the choice of a known sentence and then deportation or an unknown length of detention with an unknown sentence and deportation in the future. The UNHCR counsels people to plead guilty, because they have little recourse to get unregistered refugees freed from detention while waiting for their cases. So most people plead guilty, wait for deportation to the Thai border, and then make their way back into Malaysia. Although there are obvious risks involved, once someone is charged, there aren't many options. Those with UNHCR cards are sometimes able to gain release without charges, but there have been cases of registered refugees being deported. There have also been cases of people being forcibly deported before they are ever presented in court.

In the past, the cost of being re-smuggled into Malaysia was only a couple hundred Ringgit - paid to traffickers who wait on the Thai side of the border to pick people up. Now, though, the price is reported to have risen to 1,500 to 2,000 RM, about 430 - 570 US dollars. It's also being reported that when immigration agents deport an individual, they sell them to the traffickers for about 80 RM. The 2,000 RM is then the cost that they must pay to buy their own freedom back. This is obviously an exorbitant price for a refugee. I guess those who are lucky find themselves back in Malaysia and working off the debt. The unlucky ones are sold to work on fishing boats or elsewhere, or possibly even killed. Zaw said that the trafficking agents may give the person a phone to call a friend, and then proceed to beat him so the person on the line can hear.

These reports obviously mean little to the government without hard evidence, but thanks to Suaram and the memo they submitted to the Malaysian government about the forced deportation of pregnant women, Human Rights Watch has expressed interest in coming to investigate these reports of trafficking.

Later that evening a group of us had dinner at Vietnamese restaurant, where much wine and beer was drunk. I got to chat with my friend Boris again, who is always enjoyable. He's been in Malaysia 14 years already, but used to be a famous tailor in Chin State. He made uniforms for the Chin rebels there, so was forced to flee the country. He tells me his dream is to join the U.S. military and fight terrorists in Iraq. Later, he joins in a conversation Ling Ling and I are having about American politics and asks who I want for the next president, Hillary Clinton or George Bush. He's quite happy when I choose Clinton, saying he hopes she becomes the next president, as she has popular support and her policies will be much better for the American economy. Everyone else at the table agrees.

Earlier, we'd received word that there would be a raid by relah in the neighborhood that night. No one seemed too concerned that the CRC would get raided, though there doesn't seem to be much they could do in any event. At the raid two months ago, two teachers and a CRC office staff member were arrested. Victor tells me more about the relah - a citizen militia that was created by an emergency rule act. He jokes that the relah are V.I.P, or very ignorant people. He was here for the last raid, and told one relah 'officer' that he had Canadian documents and couldn't be arrested. The officer asked him what Canada was.

The relah have been given the power to carry guns, and their official duty is to arrest "undesireable" peoples for the immigration ministry. They receive only about two weeks of training, and the vague wording of their mandate has even left police frustrated at the amount of power they are given. Victor tells me that one visitor from a Canadian NGO remarked that this is the sort of thing that occurs in failed states, but I'm not sure about that, the concepts of accountability and compassion seem to be lost on many in well-developed states.