Human rights violation

I am Onno W. Purbo, the husband of Nurlina N. Purbo. Hereby I wish to report an abuse of human rights involving my wife Nurlina by the Natural Resources Management (NRM) Program, funded by USAID.

My wife was dismissed before her contract ended on Sept. 30, 2001, and was unfairly treated. The following are some supporting facts:

* During her pregnancy leave, my wife received a letter (dated May 16, 2000) from the project manager demanding she resign. This is blatantly a violation of human rights.

* After her pregnancy leave ended (May 25, 2000), NRM did not let my wife continue her work as before. This clearly violates Ministry of Manpower regulation No. Per-03/Men/1989 Article 2, and No. Per-03/Men/1996 Article 2, Paragraph 4(c).

* In a letter dated June 28, 2000, NRM canceled the letter dated May 16, 2000, and demanded that Nurlina came back to work as soon as possible.

* However, a severance letter (which had no legitimacy) was delivered on June 30, 2000. Among the defects of the letter were the following:

1) The dismissal was without the written approval of the Ministry of Manpower.

2) The letter included a copy of an application of permission from the Ministry of Manpower.

3) The application only had a Rp 2,000 postal tax; hence it was not legitimate and not valid.

4) The letter also included a document listing chronological working violations allegedly committed by Nurlina. This was only a fabricated document, without evidence and unsigned.

This is certainly a very shameful act by a U.S.-sponsored project, violating human rights in Indonesia.

I hope that NRM and USAID, along with the American Embassy in Jakarta, can settle the matter amicably and compensate both the material and nonmaterial losses born by my wife Nurlina.

ONNO W. PURBO

Jakarta