Opinion ID: 3016948
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Lie’s Testimony

Text: The parties are in basic agreement concerning the factual underpinnings of Lie’s petition for relief. Lie is a citizen of Indonesia. Lie’s asylum hearing was held on March 25, 2002. She conceded removability but sought relief in the form of asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the CAT. Lie testified that she had been 2 subjected to generalized harassment by native Indonesians on account of her ethnicity (Chinese) and religion (Catholic) since early childhood. She also testified concerning a number of specific incidents in which she or her family members were threatened, robbed, and had their car vandalized. In connection with one of these incidents, she testified that the “native people” who stopped her car said “Chinese. Chinese. Let’s just ask her for some money.” In connection with another incident, she indicated that a group of spectators who had been viewing a soccer match shouted “Chinese, Chinese,” approached her car, hit it with sticks, and broke off the rearview mirror. The most significant individual incident about which Lie testified occurred during widespread rioting by Indonesians during 1998. According to Lie, her house was broken into by a mob, and she took shelter in a nearby Chinese funeral home. She indicates that she heard the individuals who had broken into the house chanting “Chinese. Chinese. Let’s burn - burn - burn.” Lie testified that when she went home the next day, the windows and doors in her home were broken, and her possessions, including her television, had been stolen. Lie stated that she reported this incident to the police, and the police took her statement, but “the police didn’t do any follow up.” Lie stated that she has kept in contact with her husband and children (who remain in Indonesia to this day), and that her children were increasingly afraid because they feared “mistreatment” by native Indonesians. Lie indicated that after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, the Muslims in Indonesia became “even more 3 brutal.” She testified that native Indonesians can recognize the Chinese because the skin color of the Chinese differs from that of the natives. She also testified that Indonesians of Chinese descent are presumed by the rest of the population to be Christians.