« Australia: Mufti Miffed With Muslim Charity Group Al-Ahbash |
| The Great Theft by Khaled Abou El Fadl »
November 25, 2005
Indonesia: American Expert on Islamist Terror Expelled
A report just out from Associated Press, in CNN News states that Sidney Jones, an American expert on terror, has been refused re-entry into Indonesia.
She is the Southeast Asia director for the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, which has given detailed accounts of Jemaah Islamiyah and the separatist movements in the provinces of Aceh and West Papua (formerly Irian Jaya).
Jones was expelled from Indonesia before, in 2004, and only returned this year. Her expulsion was confirmed by a spokesman from the Indonesian Foreign Ministry, who said immigration officials had barred her re-entry to the country following a trip to Taiwan. He said he was not informed of the reason.
This is suspicious. The Indonesian government may be making some headway in its pursuit and capture of terrorists, but the country has a history of turning a blind eye to atrocities inflicted against natives who are non-Muslim, as on West Papua, and also it appears to ignore abuses going on against Christians and other minorities.
According to a report from CNS News, the US will be resuming aid to the country, calling it a "voice of moderation in the Islamic world." The announcement by the State Department came on Tuesday this week.
Activists, who probably include the International Crisis Group, have said that the move is coming too soon, with human rights abuses still being carried out by the Indonesian military, the Tentara Nasional Indonesia (TNI). These abuses flourish on West Papua, and other regions.
The New York-based East Timor and Indonesia Action Network criticized Tuesday's decision, calling it a betrayal of the victims of the TNI, "an unreformed military which remains above the law."The aid had been suspended by the US originally beginning in 1991, following abuses in East Timor, and was fully implemented in 1999 after these abuses intensified. The US has been trying to ease restrictions, but had a setback in 2002 when a US teaching couple were killed in West Papua.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the decision to restore aid was "in the national security interests".
The removal of Sidney Jones only indicates that the Indonesian government is only too happy to exploit the situation, and does not want the US nor the world to be reminded of its appalling treatment of minorities.
UPDATE: A report from Netscape news states that Jones is demanding an explanation. She has been barred from entering Indonesia for one year. Ironically, when she was banned before last year, under the government of Megawati Sukarnoputri, one of those who demanded an explanation was Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is now President. He has said he will boost press freedom in Indonesia, but it seems that he is just a liar.
Komaruddin Hidayat, a professor on Islamic philosophy at the state Jakarta Islamic University, said Jones may have known too much about JI, which Indonesia does not acknowledge officially as existing.A 2003 interview with Jones can be found here, and an account of the background to the 2000 Muslim/Christian conflicts in Sulawesi and the Moluccas can be found here, and a report of Aceh conflict in the US-Indonesia Society.
The Indonesian newspaper, the Jakarta Post, has an article which I willl reproduce in full - not because I wish to infringe their copyright deliberately - far from it. The problem is that the articles on Jakarta Post so not stay on the same page for more than 24 hours, making links obsolete and unworkable.
Saturday, November 26, 2005It appears that the immigration service thinks that Jones' reports are "bad for Indonesia". Denying the truth and silencing those who would report on the truth is a sign of severe problems in the political structure of the country, particularly one which does little to prevent either Islamic terrorism or the roots of Islamic extremism which lead to acts of terror and acts of atrocity against non-Muslim minorities.
Jones shown the door ... again!
Muninggar Sri Saraswati and Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
The immigration office has denied American terrorism expert Sidney Jones entry to the country without explanation despite the fact that she is in possession of a temporary stay permit and work visa.
Jones, who heads the Jakarta office of the International Crisis Group (ICG), was forced to board another flight out of Indonesia as soon as she arrived at Soekarno-Hatta Airport after a brief trip to Taiwan on Thursday.
"I don't understand. If there was a problem you would have thought they would have called me in or raised the question while I was in Jakarta, giving me some chance to respond," Jones told Agence France-Presse news agency on Friday.
Immigration office spokesman Supriatna Anwar refused to explain why Jones had been refused entry.
"According to the law, there are immigration considerations that can be used to deny a foreign national entry, such as whether his or her entry benefits the country or not, or whether he or she could damage the interests of the state," Supriatna said.
He refused to reveal which institution had requested that Jones be denied entry.
The immigration office issued the ban on Wednesday, and it is effective for one year.
Supriatna said he was unaware that Jones had secured a stay permit and work visa in July, soon after her one-year ban expired.
The government of former president Megawati Soekarnoputri refused to extend Jones' stay permit and work visa in May last year at the request of the intelligence authorities following her revealing reports on Indonesia's poor human rights record and communal conflicts around the country.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Yuri Thamrin confirmed on Friday that a ban had been imposed on Jones.
"I've received information from our clearing house that the restriction is being applied to Ibu Jones. However, there is a possibility that it will be reviewed in due course," Yuri said.
The clearing house is a special government committee consisting of officials from the foreign ministry, intelligence agency, Indonesian military, the police and the immigration office that has the final say on whether to allow foreign researchers and journalists to visit Indonesia or conflict-prone areas across the country.
Yuri said the government did not necessarily have to disclose the reasons for the ban as the decision was in line with international law.
Meanwhile, Jones' lawyer, Todung Mulya Lubis, condemned the entry ban, saying it was a set-back for Indonesian democracy.
"I've called (justice) Minister Hamid Awaluddin, but he said he was not aware of it. So, who did this? This will be a real set-back for our democracy if we ban people simply because they are critical.
"If the government feels she is too critical, why don't they respond to her criticisms?" he told The Jakarta Post.
Funded by foreign governments and private foundations, the Brussels-based ICG provides reports on conflict areas, such as Aceh, Papua and Ambon, but Jones is mostly known for her in-depth reports on Jamaah Islamiyah, the al-Qaeda-linked terror network now blamed for major attacks in the country since 2002.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at November 25, 2005 1:08 AM
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)