Dear Friends,

I am writting this letter from Singapur. I arrived here late last night after being asked by the Indonasian government to leave the country within four days. They have also put a stamp of deportatioon on my passport. I was singeled out of 32 delegates of the Asia pecific Peoples Solidarity Conference Jakarta who were detained on 8th June by Jakarta Police for the socalled violation of visa.

I told the reporters at a press conference after my release that the decision to deport me shows the colonial mantality of the Indonasian beaurucracy. The discriminatory decision aganist me has put my life more in danger. The military authorities can use the occasion to take on us.

The decison was condemned by the advocates and the conference oerganisers and they have decided to contest the decion in the courts.

Most of the foreign delegates have now returned to their countries. The news was aired all over the world and on our release, almost all the international media was present.

Why we were arrested? It seems that the police which is out of control of the government has taken this decision against the "supporters" of the president Wahid. The PRD chairman Budiman is considered very close to president camp and is opposing the move against Wahid. But eh immigration is directly under the control of the President camp. So they decided to release us without being charged. Police authorities has put a lot of pressure on the immigration authorities to do something to save their nose. After a lengthy meeting between the police and immigration authorities in front of us resulted my deportation as to give police some credibility o the action.

Please find enclosed a report of Jakarta Post today. headline News June 12, 2001

Authority says 29 foreigners free to go

JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta Police had little to say as immigration officials declared on Monday that 29 of the 30 foreigners detained by police following Friday's raid on a labor seminar in Depok were free to go as of Monday evening.

The only remaining foreigner, a Pakistani, is scheduled to be deported to his country of origin for allegedly violating the conditions of his visa, according to Mursanudin Abdul Ghani, the head of the Immigration Office's general affairs department.

Ghani said on Monday that while the 29 freed foreigners held short-stay visas, which allowed them to attend conventions, seminars and take part in social and cultural activities, the Pakistani, identified later as the Farooq Tariq, the general secretary of the Pakistan Labor Party, held a tourist visa.

"A tourist visa does not allow him to take part in seminars. Deportation is the most practical solution in this case rather than bringing the case to court," Ghani told reporters at his office in South Jakarta. "The courts are overwhelmed with similar cases, anyhow," he added. Tariq told The Jakarta Post that he felt he was being discriminated against. "This is just because I'm from a poor country... the people from rich countries have been released. What's terrible is that the Pakistani Embassy has not contacted me at all," Tariq said.

Police barged into Friday's seminar on labor issues, which was being held at an inn in Depok, and detained 32 foreigners and eight Indonesians. A 4.5-year-old Australian child and her mother were the first to be released, and were flown safely back to Australia on Sunday with the assistance of the Australian Embassy.

Twenty-nine other foreigners were freed on Monday, comprising 18 Australians, two Belgians and one each from the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Japan, Thailand, France and Germany.

Of the released foreigners, an associate professor from the University of New South Wales, Helen Jarvis, castigated the raid as an attack on democratic rights.

"The police had no arrest warrant, no search warrant. They showed us nothing, told us nothing. They came barging in, with no letter of authorization," Helen told the Post.

"Why did we go with them? They were armed with automatic rifles, pistols and tear gas launchers. At least 50 of them burst in ... they had us surrounded. They were also ... pulling us by the arms in the direction of the waiting police trucks."

Maxwell Lane, also from Australia, added that the raid would create a very negative image of the Indonesian government apparatus among the Australian public at large.

"The idea of police breaking up a peaceful discussion will definitely shock the ordinary people of Australia ... and this will definitely create a negative impression among the people of Australia," Maxwell said. Meanwhile, Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Anton Bachrul Alam maintained that the police had done the right thing by detaining the foreigners and were prepared to face any legal action the foreigners or any other party might take against the them.

"Whatever we did, we did it in accordance with Indonesian law. If the meeting's organizers or the foreigners decide to bring a lawsuit against us, they are welcome to do so. We were just doing our job. We're not afraid."

(ylt)

Fraternally,
Farooq Tariq

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