Embassy protests American's death

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)