Authorities in Medan stop workshop on trauma healing

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.