JP\/5\/DEPORT<\/p>\n
Workshop participants to be deported for visa violation<\/p>\n
Apriadi Gunawan
\nThe Jakarta Post\/Medan<\/p>\n
After seven hours of questioning, four foreigners participating
\nin a trauma counseling workshop in Medan will soon be deported
\nfor visa violations. Syarief O. Ahimsa, the chief of Medan
\nPolonia Immigration Office, said on Friday that they would be
\ndeported on Saturday through Polonia Airport.<\/p>\n
The four ill-fated foreigners are Dabhidiwala Meryam,
\nMitraraja Kanti, both Indian nationals, Setungga Mudalige Philip,
\na Sri Lankan national and Dauncey Rebecca Fay, a British
\nnational.<\/p>\n
Dabhidiwala and Setungga attended the workshop in their
\ncapacity as representatives of the Asian Human Rights Commission,
\nMitraraja is a trauma expert invited by the workshop's organizer
\nthe North Sumatra Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of
\nViolence (Kontras) and Dauncey is a relief worker who has been
\nliving in Aceh for a long time. Dauncey was a workshop
\nparticipant.<\/p>\n
According to Syarief, the four had violated an immigration law
\nas they only held a tourist visa.<\/p>\n
As holders of a tourist visa, the four should not have
\nattended a workshop on trauma counseling for tsunami victims, but
\nthey had violated the visa use, said Syarief.<\/p>\n
\"If they had wished to attend a seminar, they should have used
\na seminar visa that would allow them to attend the seminar,\" said
\nSyarief. \"They have to leave the country by Saturday, and if they
\ndo not, then they will be forcibly deported,\" said Syarief.<\/p>\n
According to Syarief, besides the visa violation, the four
\nwere to be deported on suspicions that they were involved or had
\ncontact with members of the rebel Free Aceh Movement (GAM).<\/p>\n
\"We received information that they had connection with GAM
\nfrom the Indonesian Military intelligence,\" said Syarief.<\/p>\n
The intelligence information was also the basis for the police
\nto raid the workshop on Thursday and for calling it off. The
\nworkshop, held in Sumatra Village, Medan, was actually set to
\nwind down on Saturday.<\/p>\n
North Sumatra Kontras' Chief of Internal Affairs, Wina
\nKhairina, expressed concern over the deportation. Earlier,
\nsimilar thoughts were aired by another activist Otto Syamsuddin
\nIshak, who said that the action reminded him of the time of
\nSoeharto's New Order dictatorship when people were not free to
\ngather and express their views.<\/p>\n
During an interview on Friday, Wina also refuted charges that
\nsome participants had links with GAM. She asserted that all
\nparticipants were concerned with trauma rehabilitation in the
\npost-tsunami disaster in Aceh.<\/p>\n
She confirmed that some of the 24 participants were Acehnese
\nbut none of them had links with GAM.<\/p>\n
The incident began on Thursday when police personnel raided
\nthe workshop and later held the four foreigners. A senior police
\nofficer earlier argued that the raid was held because the
\nworkshop committee had not reported the planned workshop to the
\npolice.<\/p>\n
Similar raids were common during iron-fist regime of Soeharto,
\nbut have rarely happened after the reform movement that took
\nplace in 1998. The reform movement was marked by several laws
\nthat assured freedom of expression. The law says, among other
\nthings, that people are free to gather as long as they report the
\ngathering to the police.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/jp5deport-1447899208",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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