ASIET/Greenleft Weekly: 9 June 2001
INDONESIA: POLICE SEIZE 32 FOREIGN ACADEMICS, ACTIVISTS AT GLOBALISATION CONFERENCE
New Zealand human rights activist Maire Leadbeater is questioned by Indonesian police along with some 31 other foreign academics, activists and non-government organisation officials after a raid on an Asia-Pacific conference in Jakarta focusing on globalisation issues.
Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET) media release
Thirty-two academics, Non Government Organisation representatives and
activists are back in police custody at the Jakarta Regional Police
Headquarters Intelligence Section, detained against their will because
of
their attendance at a conference.
The conference participants were detained when 100 armed-police forcibly
broke up the conference organised by the Indonesian Centre for Reform
and
Social Emancipation (INCREASE).
Although several participants were released at 2am this morning (Jakarta
time), they were re-imprisoned eight hours later when they reported to
the
police as they had been asked. This included the National Coordinator of
Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET), Pip Hinman
and
her four-year-old daughter, Zoe.
The thirty-two activists include all the Australians detained yesterday,
as
well as Auckland City Councillor Marie Leadbetter, INCREASE director and
conference organiser Kelik Ismunanto, French representative to the
European
parliament Pierre Rousset and others.
ASIET spoke to the detainees at 1.45pm Jakarta time by mobile phone. It
is
now nearly 24 hours since they were removed at gunpoint from the
conference
venue. They were held for seven hours overnight with no food and little
water.
Despite the government's claim that they are being held for visa
irregularities, none of the detainees have spoken with anyone from the
Indonesian immigration department. They have no information on what the
government intends to do with them. A few of the detainees are suffering
medical problems that they have not been able to get medical treatment
for.
ASIET is demanding that the Indonesian government immediately release
all
those detained, and restore their passports.
There will be vigils and demonstrations in cities around Australia at
noon
tomorrow, Sunday June 10, outside Indonesian consulates and Garuda
Airlines
offices to demand the immediate release of the conference attendees and
to
condemn the Indonesian government and military's crushing of democratic
discussion.