Authorities in Medan stop workshop on trauma healing

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

A joint team from the police, immigration and Indonesian military raided a workshop on trauma counseling for tsunami victims on Thursday, a day after the event was opened at Sumatra Village in North Sumatra town of Medan.

The workshop, jointly organized by North Sumatra's Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) and the Asian Human Rights Commission, was earlier scheduled to last until Saturday and was attended by 24 participants from Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, Jakarta, Surakarta and Medan.

Kontras' working body coordinator in North Sumatra, Oslan Purba, expressed his regret at the authoritarian action, saying it was over the top. The meeting was part of a regular program to train volunteers to help counsel tsunami victims in Aceh. He said the event was purely for training, with no political agenda.

"This action makes us sad because what we're doing is for humanity, with no political matters whatsoever," Oslan told The Jakarta Post.

Imparsial's program director Otto Syamsudin Ishak, who is one of the workshop's participants, said the action reminded him of the time of Soeharto's New Order dictatorship when people were not free to gather.

"This action prevents us from learning about trauma counseling, which might affect the healing process of tsunami victims who have experienced trauma after the disaster, because after this workshop we're going to go to Aceh to counsel them," Otto said.

Oslan said that they had invited an expert on trauma counseling from India. The event was also attended by representatives from the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission, as well as a British participant.

The presence of the four foreigners was questioned by officials from the Medan immigration office, who demanded their passports.

"It's embarrassing for us that their passports were seized because we had asked them to come to this event because of their significant expertise in counseling," Oslan said, adding that Kontras and their guests would go to the immigration office on Friday to get the passports back.

In the meantime, Oslan said the workshop would be halted, but might start up again in a couple of days.

Head of North Sumatra police information section, Sr. Comr. Bambang Prihady, told the Post that the workshop was a noble activity to help traumatized tsunami victims, however because the event involved foreigners, the police wanted to be informed beforehand, he said.

"The committee should have informed the police of the activity beforehand. We're fine with the activity, they can go ahead, as long as they inform us beforehand," Bambang said.