BY SUE BOLAND
The 21 adult Australian residents detained by the Indonesian police June 8-9 have sent an open letter to foreign minister Alexander Downer, demanding that the Australian government issue a statement condemning the Indonesian police for their unlawful detention of 22 Australians by Indonesia's secret police.
The detainees want the Australian government to publicly admit what has been legally demonstrated and widely reported in the Indonesian and international media — that the conference participants were unlawfully detained on trumped-up visa charges.
They also want the Australian government to adopt a foreign policy which will assist those fighting for freedom of speech and assembly in Indonesia.
If you would like to add your name to the list of people endorsing the open letter to Downer, please reply by email to <asiet@asiet.org.au> or visit <>. The letter will be presented to Alexander Downer, or his representative, at a demonstration outside Downer's Adelaide office (Commonwealth Bank building, 100 King William Street) on Friday June 22 at 12 noon.
A copy of the letter has also been forwarded to ALP shadow foreign minister Laurie Brereton for his comments.
Open letter to Alexander Downer, federal minister for foreign affairs and trade
June 14, 2001
On the afternoon of June 8 the Asia Pacific Peoples Solidarity Conference on Neoliberalism and Militarism in Sawangan, south of Jakarta, organised by the Indonesian NGO INCREASE (Indonesian Centre for Reform and Social Emancipation), was violently broken up by Indonesian secret police and their right-wing militia thugs.
Courageous attempts by the conference organisers failed to prevent the police from herding 32 foreign participants onto police trucks and cars to be driven to the central Jakarta police station. There they were detained without charge by police intelligence and their passports removed.
The police left the conference site mindful that the machete- and sickle-wielding militia thugs had stayed behind. At approximately 7pm they launched an attack on the remaining Indonesian participants, who had to run for their lives. A number were injured and two people were hospitalised, one requiring emergency surgery for a slashed artery.
This vicious attack on democratic rights is of serious concern: it signifies the beginning of an attempt by the right wing to return to the worst of the New Order repression experienced under the former Suharto regime. It is also reminiscent of the actions carried out by the Indonesian armed forces in collaboration with militia thugs in East Timor in 1999 and by similar groups in Indonesia against the democratic forces.
It is now clear that the "visa violations" were really an excuse used by the police intelligence to close down the conference. The Indonesian immigration authorities have stated that the foreign participants using a short stay pass were entitled to attend seminars and did not breach any laws.
According to a senior official at the Directorate-General for Immigration, Mursanuddin Gani, who was quoted in the June 11 Jakarta Post, the police acted on their own. "The police could have contacted our office prior to raid, but as far as I know there was no notification. If they [the foreigners] really violated immigration laws, why were they released? The police can only summons the organisers of the seminar for questioning, not necessarily question the foreigners."
Gani pointed out in the same interview that foreigners visiting Indonesia for special events like conferences and business meetings were eligible for the visa-on-arrival facility, the same visa obtained by the Australian participants at the INCREASE conference. Despite this, the Australian government was quick to echo the Indonesian secret police and insist that the detainee's plight was the result of a "visa misunderstanding".
We, the undersigned supporters of democracy and labour rights, condemn this brutal repression of democratic rights and free speech. The Australian government's silence on this incident shows just how out of step it is with the democratic aspirations of both the Australian and Indonesian people.
The vicious attack on the Sawangan conference should also make it clear that any renewal of military ties with Indonesia will give political support to the sorts of anti-democratic actions carried out by the police and right-wing militia thugs.
We demand that you as Minister for Foreign Affairs condemn this blatant attack on free speech and democratic rights and that you speak out against acts of repression. Australia's foreign policy must be geared towards assisting the growth and extension of democracy in Indonesia. It should not allow the former "special relationship" — cultivated for 32 years by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Suharto regime — to take precedence over democratic and human rights. Australians should not be "advised" against attending political meetings in Indonesia — the latest excuse used by DFAT — just as Indonesians should be able to enjoy freedom of association and speech in their own country.
Signed by the detainees: Peter Boyle, Gillian Davies, Nick Everett, Pip Hinman, Helen Jarvis, Sibylle Kaczorek, Max Lane, Jon Lamb, Doug Lorimer, Graham Matthews, Jim McIlroy, Rebecca Meckelburg, Allen Myers, Dave Murphy, Tom O'Lincoln, John Percy, Julia Perkins, Ian Rintoul, Jonathan Strauss, Eva To, Kerryn Williams