Govt rejects Pakpahan request for foreign cure

JAKARTA (JP): The government turned down yesterday jailed labor leader Muchtar Pakpahan's request to travel abroad for medical treatment, as recommended by a private hospital.

Attorney General Singgih said the government had sought a second opinion from a team of doctors from the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital who found that there was no need for Pakpahan to travel abroad.

"The doctors concluded that Pakpahan need not be treated abroad because his condition is not fatal and because he can be treated here," Singgih told reporters.

Pakpahan, chairman of the Indonesian Prosperous Labor Union, has been at the Cikini private hospital in Central Jakarta since March where he has had treatment for a lung tumor, a blood clot on the brain and appendicitis, according to the union's secretary-general, Sunarti.

Cikini doctors said Pakpahan needed a lung imagy fluorescence endoscopy (LIFE) which is unavailable in Indonesia. The treatment is available in Singapore, the United States and Canada.

Pakpahan, 43, this month formally requested, through the National Commission on Human Rights, the government to let him travel abroad for treatment.

Pakpahan, who was convicted over a labor riot in Medan in 1994, is being tried by the South Jakarta District Court on charges of subversion over a series of antigovernment speeches he gave last year. The hearing has been adjourned since March because of his deteriorating health.

Singgih said the government-appointed medical team, led by hospital director Achmad Djojosugito, concluded that there was no indication that Pakpahan needed LIFE treatment.

He said the Jakarta High Court had ruled that Pakpahan's trial could resume and that the defendant could be accompanied by a doctor at the hearings.

"Our conclusion is that we will continue Pakpahan's trial, so that the case can be finished soon," Singgih said.

In March, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State John Shattuck visited Pakpahan during a fact-finding mission on human rights.

Shattuck reportedly told Pakpahan to seek treatment in the United States. The proposal was rejected by Minister of Justice Oetojo Oesman, who said that Indonesian medical facilities were good enough.

On Thursday, a delegation of the Geneva-based International Metalworkers Foundation visited Pakpahan at the Cikini hospital as a show of solidarity for his campaign for workers.

Singgih reaffirmed his intention yesterday to take strong action against recalcitrant prosecutors, saying that improving discipline was his office's main priority.

He said 60 prosecutors and 57 clerks had been dismissed or reprimanded.

"Compared to the total number of prosecutors, however, there are not many recalcitrant ones," he said.

Singgih was quoted by the Kompas daily as disputing criticism that he only took action against lower echelon prosecutors while allowing higher-ranking ones to break the law.

"I don't need to name names, but as the leader of this office I have taken stern action against senior prosecutors who have committed violations," he said.

He was also quoted as saying that his office had saved the state about Rp 160 billion (US$66.6 million). Some of this came from the confiscation of property in corruption cases. (05)