Australian banned by Jakarta claims no rebel links
Australian banned by Jakarta claims no rebel links
Paul Tait, Reuters, Sydney, Australia
An Australian academic banned from Indonesia said on Saturday
incorrect reports that he had links to separatist rebels in
tsunami-hit Aceh province could have been the reason he was
refused entry this week.
Edward Aspinall was turned away in Jakarta on Tuesday on his
way to work for an Australian aid agency in Aceh -- where more
than 220,000 people are dead or missing after the Dec. 26 tsunami
-- threatening to test ties between the uneasy neighbors.
It was the first time an Australian academic had been refused
entry since the election of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono last October.
Indonesia has long been sensitive about foreign academics who
comment on issues such as separatism and terrorism, but
Australian media described Aspinall's treatment as reminiscent of
restrictions imposed by former president Soeharto.
Aspinall said he had a business visa allowing him entry, but
was told in Jakarta his name had been placed on a blacklist on
Feb. 25. He said he was given no further explanation and put back
on the same plane and sent home.
Aspinall rejected Indonesian media reports that he was closely
linked with Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels, who held last month
another round of peace talks in Helsinki with the Indonesian
government aimed at ending three decades of violence.
"There was an article in The Jakarta Post saying I'd become an
adviser to a GAM member, which is entirely false," Aspinall told
Reuters.
"Presumably, there might be some confusion about what my
relationship is with GAM," he said.
During the latest round of Finnish-mediated talks, Australian
academic Damien Kingsbury acted as an adviser for the GAM
separatists, who are studying Indonesia's latest offer of "self
rule" for the gas-rich province on the north of Sumatra island.
"I would hope they wouldn't be confusing me with somebody
else," Aspinall said.
Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa said he
did not know why Aspinall had been refused entry, but did not
believe his case should be treated as "a barometer" of academic
freedom in Indonesia.
"I don't think we are hinging the degree of academic freedom
in Indonesia on the travel plans of Mr. Aspinall," Marty told
reporters in Jakarta on Friday.
A frequent visitor to Indonesia and one of Australia's leading
experts on the country, Aspinall said he had no difficulty with
authorities while he worked as a translator for Australian
doctors treating tsunami victims in Aceh in January.
He said he had written to Indonesia's ambassador to Australia
seeking more information but had not received a reply.
"I can only guess it was something I said," Aspinall said.
Australia has had an often uneasy relationship with its
northern neighbor, the world's most populous Muslim nation.
That relationship hit a low when Australia led a multinational
intervention force into East Timor in 1999 when militias backed
by elements of the Indonesian Military went on the rampage after
Timorese voted for independence from Jakarta.
The relationship began to improve dramatically after
Yudhoyono's election and after Australia pledged almost US$800
million in tsunami aid to Indonesia.
But it took a backward step this week when Australia voiced
its displeasure over the relatively light sentence handed to
Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, prompting Indonesia to say that
foreign countries should respect its judicial system.
Ba'asyir was sentenced to 30 months in jail for involvement in
the October 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people,
88 of them Australians.