Aid offices protest foreigners' handling

Aid offices protest foreigners' handling

YOGYAKARTA: Two legal aid offices have criticized police and
the immigration department in their handling of 19 foreigners who
swam to Glagah Beach in Temon, Kulon Progo, last week.

They said that despite the immigration's suspicion that the
foreigners may have broken the law, the authorities had not acted
thoroughly.

The foreigners -- one of whom disappeared from Bethesda
Hospital after receiving treatment for an as yet unidentified
illness -- should have been detained and questioned, according to
A. Budi Hartono of Yogyakarta Legal Aid.

Budi said the police and immigration department had, instead,
blamed each other for the incident.

Busro Muqqodas from the Legal Aid Office of the Indonesian
Islamic University concurred, saying the police should have
checked the foreigners' documents before releasing them to their
respective embassies.

The foreigners swam to Glagah Beach, some 45 kilometers west
of Yogyakarta last Saturday after jumping off their ship, which
had been abandoned by its crew. Reports said they consisted of 11
French nationals, three Italians, two Afghans, a Belgian, an
Algerian and a Swiss citizen.

Eighteen were transported to Jakarta on Tuesday for further
questioning, while the remaining foreigner was left behind for
medical treatment at the hospital.

Identified as Dora Peter of France, 35, the man asked
permission from the nurses on duty to make a call from a nearby
pay phone. He never returned and the police and immigration
officials have started to trade blame. (23)