Authority says 29 foreigners free to go
JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta Police had little to say as immigration officials declared on Monday that 29 of the 30 foreigners detained by police following Friday's raid on a labor seminar in Depok were free to go as of Monday evening.
The only remaining foreigner, a Pakistani, is scheduled to be deported to his country of origin for allegedly violating the conditions of his visa, according to Mursanudin Abdul Ghani, the head of the Immigration Office's general affairs department.
Ghani said on Monday that while the 29 freed foreigners held short-stay visas, which allowed them to attend conventions, seminars and take part in social and cultural activities, the Pakistani, identified later as the Farooq Tariq, the general secretary of the Pakistan Labor Party, held a tourist visa.
"A tourist visa does not allow him to take part in seminars. Deportation is the most practical solution in this case rather than bringing the case to court," Ghani told reporters at his office in South Jakarta.
"The courts are overwhelmed with similar cases, anyhow," he added.
Tariq told The Jakarta Post that he felt he was being discriminated against.
"This is just because I'm from a poor country... the people from rich countries have been released. What's terrible is that the Pakistani Embassy has not contacted me at all," Tariq said.
Police barged into Friday's seminar on labor issues, which was being held at an inn in Depok, and detained 32 foreigners and eight Indonesians.
A 4.5-year-old Australian child and her mother were the first to be released, and were flown safely back to Australia on Sunday with the assistance of the Australian Embassy.
Twenty-nine other foreigners were freed on Monday, comprising 18 Australians, two Belgians and one each from the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Japan, Thailand, France and Germany.
Of the released foreigners, an associate professor from the University of New South Wales, Helen Jarvis, castigated the raid as an attack on democratic rights.
"The police had no arrest warrant, no search warrant. They showed us nothing, told us nothing. They came barging in, with no letter of authorization," Helen told the Post.
"Why did we go with them? They were armed with automatic rifles, pistols and tear gas launchers. At least 50 of them burst in ... they had us surrounded. They were also ... pulling us by the arms in the direction of the waiting police trucks."
Maxwell Lane, also from Australia, added that the raid would create a very negative image of the Indonesian government apparatus among the Australian public at large.
"The idea of police breaking up a peaceful discussion will definitely shock the ordinary people of Australia ... and this will definitely create a negative impression among the people of Australia," Maxwell said.
Meanwhile, Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Anton Bachrul Alam maintained that the police had done the right thing by detaining the foreigners and were prepared to face any legal action the foreigners or any other party might take against the them.
"Whatever we did, we did it in accordance with Indonesian law. If the meeting's organizers or the foreigners decide to bring a lawsuit against us, they are welcome to do so. We were just doing our job. We're not afraid." (ylt)