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)