Self-exiled activist returns home<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Activist Yeni Rosa Damayanti, returning after a
\nthree-year self-exile in the Netherlands, pledged to continue her
\nstruggle for democracy and told her colleagues that Soeharto was
\njust one of many obstacles which had to be overcome.<\/p>\n
\"We must make sure that Indonesia never again falls under the
\nreign of another authoritarian government... That's our job
\nnow,\" the 29-year-old said before a boisterous crowd of 100
\nactivists gathered to welcome her here last night.<\/p>\n
\"We still have a lot of work to do. Soeharto was just the
\nfirst obstacle,\" she said before an approving crowd comprised
\nmostly of Center of Information and Action Network for Reform
\n(Pijar) members.<\/p>\n
Her audacity helped shoot her name from obscurity in 1994 when
\nshe was sentenced to jail for slandering then president Soeharto
\nduring a demonstration here.<\/p>\n
After serving a six-month prison sentence she went to Europe.<\/p>\n
In 1995 she was linked, along with politician Sri Bintang
\nPamungkas, to the organization of an anti-Soeharto rally in the
\nGerman city of Dresden.<\/p>\n
Bintang returned home and was sentenced to 34 months in prison
\nfor slandering Soeharto during a lecture in Germany.<\/p>\n
Yeni decided not to return and has rarely been heard of since.<\/p>\n
She arrived home for the first time yesterday morning and was
\nmet with warm hugs and the glow of television spotlights at the
\nairport.<\/p>\n
Later in the evening, her fellow activists held a welcoming
\nparty at the Perintis Kemerdekaan building in Central Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Present in the crowd were human rights campaigner HJC Princen
\nand scholar Daniel Dhakidae.<\/p>\n
Yeni expressed her dismay at returning to see \"the situation
\nworse than during Soeharto's rule\".<\/p>\n
She said she was saddened at the dour economic hardships being
\nfaced by the Indonesian people.<\/p>\n
While exclaiming that she was quite happy to see the end of
\nSoeharto's power, she sorrowful at the costs the nation has had
\nto endure.<\/p>\n
\"Hundreds of people have lost their land, thousands have been
\nimprisoned and died ... all in the name of development,\" she
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Regarding her experience abroad, she said it was like being
\nheld \"hostage\" because she had been denied an Indonesian passport
\nby the embassy in the Netherlands, rendering her unable to travel
\nout of the country.<\/p>\n
\"I tried many times to renew my passport but they kept
\nrefusing to do it for me until a day after Soeharto resigned,\"
\nshe said. (aan)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/self-exiled-activist-returns-home-1447893297",
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