[nasional_list] [ppiindia] Prominent Indonesia terror expert barred again
- From: "Ambon" <sea@xxxxxxxxxx>
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- Date: Fri, 25 Nov 2005 23:26:19 +0100
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Prominent Indonesia terror expert barred again
By Shawn Donnan in Jakarta
Published: November 25 2005 04:27 | Last updated: November 25 2005 08:00
Indonesia has imposed a one-year ban on a prominent American terrorism
expert just days after the US lifted a six-year-old arms embargo in part
because of Jakarta's progress in its fight against terrorism.
Sidney Jones, the Jakarta-based Southeast Asia project director for the
International Crisis Group, was turned away at the Indonesian capital's airport
Thursday after being told she had been barred from entering the country. No
reason was given.
Cecep Supriatna, a spokesman for the Indonesian immigration authority,
said the ban was in accordance with Indonesia's rights and authorities had
decided to forbid her entry into the country for reasons they did not need to
explain.
"She will be banned for one year," he told the Financial Times.
Diplomats said a ban on Ms Jones would be a slap in the face of the US,
which earlier this week restored full military ties with Jakarta despite the
concerns of rights groups about Indonesia's failure to punish military officers
linked to the 1999 violence in East Timor.
Ms Jones is widely considered to be the world's leading expert on Jemaah
Islamiyah. The al-Qaeda affiliate has been blamed for the Bali bombings both in
2002 and last month and other major attacks in Indonesia in the past three
years.
The American's unvarnished reporting has angered some in Indonesian
officialdom in the past. She was expelled from Indonesia last year by the
government of President Megawati Sukarnoputri after some of her reports upset
senior intelligence officials.
But as a long-term watcher of the archipelago who speaks fluent
Indonesian she also has unmatched connections across a broad range of
Indonesian society from the very top levels of government down into the
membership of shadowy extremist groups.
Partly because of that - and lobbying by the US and other western
governments on her behalf - she was allowed to return quietly to Jakarta this
past July by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's government and granted both
work and residence permits.
Ms Jones told the Financial Times on Friday that she had been barred from
entering the country on Thursday as she returned from a Time magazine awards
dinner in Taipei, where the ICG was honored for its work in Asia. The reason
for the ban, she said, was unclear.
"I have no clue. I am totally mystified. I thought all the problems [from
last year] were solved," she said. "There haven't been any indications [from
the government] that anything I'd done was out of line."
Todung Mulya Lubis, a prominent Jakarta lawyer who is the chairman of ICG
in Indonesia, said the ban on Ms Jones was also a stain on the democratic
credentials of the world's largest Muslim nation.
"This will have a bad impact on Indonesia's democratization process," Mr
Lubis said. "She has made a major contribution to the efforts to uncover the
terrorist networks [in Indonesia.] Without her we will be missing an important
and credible source."
A spokesman for the Indonesian foreign ministry, Yuri Thamrin, said an
inter-departmental "clearinghouse" that oversees the granting of visas to
foreign journalists and researchers had decided to restrict Ms Jones' access to
Indonesia.
"There is some sort of restriction for Ibu Sidney Jones," he said.
Mr Thamrin refused to explain what that restriction was, or when or why
it had been imposed. But he added that "there will be a possibility that this
would be reviewed in good course."
One Indonesian official, who asked not to be identified, said the
government believed some of Ms Jones' past writings about Indonesia were
"biased", although the official added that "the trend is towards her writings
becoming more objective.'
Ms Jones said immigration officials at Jakarta's airport showed her a
document dated October 7 announcing the ban and revoked her residence permit.
The dating of the letter six days after the October 1 suicide bombings in
Bali, following which she was widely quoted, raises the possibility that
officials in Jakarta may have been offended by something she said then. But Ms
Jones' comments at the time were broadly supportive of Jakarta's efforts to
combat terrorism and she said on Friday that she did not think that was the
reason.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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