Embassy protests American's death

JAKARTA (JP): The United States has filed a protest with the Indonesian government over the presumed death of an American who was in the custody of the immigration department.

U.S. Embassy Press Attache Karl Fritz would not identify the man on Thursday pending notification of next of kin.

"We would like to tell them first before they read about it in the newspaper," Fritz said, adding that attempts to contact the man's family had been unsuccessful.

Fritz said the man worked in the mining industry and had visited Indonesia several times. He reportedly fell overboard on March 12 from the ship carrying him from Kota Baru in South Kalimantan to the Central Java capital of Semarang for further questioning for lacking travel documents. His body has not been found.

U.S. Ambassador Robert S. Gelbard officially handed the protest letter to Minister of Foreign Affairs Alwi Shihab on Monday and demanded Jakarta investigate the case.

"We are giving Deplu (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) a very strong protest involving what appears to be the loss of life of an American citizen," Gelbard said after the meeting with Alwi on Monday.

"The U.S government is extremely upset ... because it appears that the man disappeared and he is presumed to have died, while he was in the custody of the immigration authority."

He said the immigration office informed him of the case only on March 29, 17 days after it took place.

The ambassador said he wondered whether the man fell overboard or was the victim of foul play.

"This (the case) has been handled poorly so far by the immigration authority and my government is extremely concerned."

Immigration spokesman Mursanuddin Gani confirmed the incident happened on March 12, but stated that the man committed suicide.

"The man jumped into the water according to the captain of the vessel belonging to the state passenger liner PT Pelni," Mursanuddin told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

He said the man was arrested in Kota Baru and was in the local immigration office's custody for a month. The man failed to show proper travel documents, Mursanuddin said.

In response to Gelbard's protest, Alwi said he would seek explanation from the Ministry of Law and Legislation, which oversees the immigration office.

"We will have to find out the truth and verify it first, but we do regret the absence of the notification and the reason for it," Alwi said. (dja)