Englishman faces deportation
PALU, Central Sulawesi: The provincial immigration office here will deport an English national for exceeding his permitted stay in the country, Antara reported.
The office director, Darmawan Daud, told the news agency on Wednesday that the Englishman, identified as Crispin Lancelot Gibbs, 36, had been detained pending approval from the immigration head office in Jakarta of his deportation.
Darmawan said Gibbs was held after immigration officers found his temporary stay permit had expired when he was returning immigration documents last Friday.
The permit had been issued after he was hired by an ecotourism firm, PT Sarana Wisata Wakai. His contract ended on May 30, 2002.
Gibbs has protested his arrest, claiming that he holds a visa issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Darmawan said Gibbs had found a new job as a voluntary diving instructor with the Gorontalo administration, with the approval of the province's governor, Fadel Muhammad. -- Antara
;JP;AMD; ANPAa..r.. Across-Merauke-ship Merauke to buy PT PAL ships JP/5/ACROSS
Merauke purchases PT PAL ships
SURABAYA: Merauke regency administration has set aside Rp 62 billion (US$6.9 million) out of the money it has received from the central government's General Allocation Fund to purchase three vessels from state shipbuilder PT PAL.
Regent Johanes Globe Gebze told reporters here on Wednesday that the tug boat, passenger vessel and freighter that had been ordered were needed due to the regency's geographic situation. Bigger than Java island in terms of area, Merauke people rely on river and sea transportation.
Except for the freighter, the ships were handed over to the regency administration when President Megawati Soekarnoputri visited the shipyard on Wednesday.
"The quality of PT PAL products is no worse than that of foreign companies. Why should we import ships?" Johanes said. -- Antara
;JP;bkm; ANPAa..r.. Across-drugs-NTT Drug dealers look East for new markets JP/5/Across
Drug dealers look to NTT
KUPANG, East Nusa Tenggara: Drug dealers are eyeing East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) province as their new market, police have said, pointing to the increased incidence of drug arrests there lately.
"Given the recent drug cases involving students, we see this region has become a target market for drug dealers," said the spokesman for the provincial police Comr. I Wayan Dana on Wednesday.
He said the province was turning into a target market thanks to the flow of sea traffic from the western part of Indonesia.
So far tracing the drugs back to the dealers stopped with the arrest of the buyers. Wayan said buyers were unable to identify the drug sellers. -- Antara
;JP;AMD; ANPAa..r.. Across-riot-trial Jakarta tipped to host Sampit trial JP/5/ACROSS
Jakarta may host Sampit trials
SAMPIT, Central Kalimantan: Local councillors in Sampit have urged the government to try those allegedly involved in ethnic riots in the Central Kalimantan town two years ago in "neutral" places like Jakarta and Medan.
The proposal was raised after the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights disqualified Banjarmasin, the capital of neighboring province South Kalimantan, as the host of the trial.
One of the councillors said that bringing suspects to justice outside Kalimantan would prevent local politicians from meddling in the legal process.
"Trying the suspects in Sampit will not trigger security problems, but it is feared that the trial will be susceptible to intervention from the conflicting parties," chief of Reform faction Sugianto said.
Clashes between migrant Madurese and indigenous Dayaks erupted here early last year over who controlled businesses, leaving hundreds dead. -- Antara