BY IGGY KIM
SYDNEY — A campaign has begun to pressure the Indonesian government to release detained British-born Australian academic Lesley McCulloch and US nurse Joy-Lee Sadler. The women's interpreter, Fitra bin Amin, has already been released.
McCulloch and Sadler were detained by Indonesian troops in Aceh on September 11, and were charged on September 18 with violating their visa conditions. The charge carries a maximum prison sentence of five years.
Being held without charge for more than 24 hours is illegal under Indonesian law. Western visitors are also granted short visit passes that allow for a wide range of activities.
McCulloch may also be charged with espionage. She allegedly had information about the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), an organisation leading the campaign for Acehnese independence.
But in a secret phone interview with ABC radio on September 19, McCulloch said the authorities only found dated photographs and interviews with Acehnese villagers on her laptop.
McCulloch is a respected Aceh specialist who had been researching her next book on Aceh at the time of her arrest.
Speaking from the jail toilet on her lawyer's mobile phone, McCulloch revealed how both women had been beaten and sexually harassed. McCulloch said she had also had a knife held to her throat.
Indonesian human rights lawyers are negotiating on their behalf. US and British consular officials have also met with the women. British officials are protesting McCulloch's mistreatment, but they say her detention and charge are matters for the Indonesian authorities.
The British-based organisation Tapol has begun campaigning for McCulloch's release. Relatives and friends of Sadler are campaigning in the US.
In Australia, Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific (ASAP) is organising protests and circulating a sign-on statement to demand that the Australian government intervene on behalf of McCulloch, who is a permanent resident of Australia.
On September 16, ASAP held an emergency picket at Garuda Airlines in Sydney and at the Indonesian consulate in Darwin. On September 26, ASAP is holding a vigil protest at Sydney Town Hall, 4.30-6pm.
On September 23, the Senate will discuss a motion moved by Greens Senator Bob Brown to call on "the government of Indonesia to ensure the swift release and, if necessary, repatriation of Lesley McCulloch and her party".
ASAP's sign-on statement, issued on September 20, has been signed by Bishop Pat Power, Damian Kingsbury (Deakin University), Alex Leonard (Australian National University), Pip Hinman (ASAP national convenor), Igor O'Neill (Mineral Policy Institute), Robert Jereski (International Forum for Aceh, US), Muhammad Taufik Abda (Centre for Study and Advocacy of the Region, Aceh), Marie Leadbeater (Indonesian Human Rights Committee, New Zealand) and Max Lane (ASAP chairperson).
Anyone wishing to sign the statement and/or obtain a copy to circulate should email < asap@asia-pacific-A href="mailto:action.org"><action.org>, visit or phone (02) 9690 1230 or 0412 139 968.
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, September 25, 2002.
Visit the