If at first you don't succeed ...

If at first you don't succeed ...

American journalist William Arthur Nessen (see photo) shows his
Indonesian entry visa during questioning by immigration officials
at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights in Jakarta after
defying a government exclusion order.

Immigration officials said on Monday that Nessen would be
deported later in the day for entering the country illegally,
despite the fact that he was granted a visa when he arrived three
weeks ago.

The freelance journalist was to leave Jakarta for Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia, on Monday evening, the officials added.

Nessen was detained on Sunday after visiting the tsunami-
ravaged province of Aceh, where he arrived on Jan. 3, 2005,
although the exclusion order on him will not end until Aug. 12.
He was taken to Jakarta on a plane chartered by the immigration
office.

The journalist told The Associated Press that he was not aware
that he had been barred from visiting the country.

Immigration spokesman Muhammad Indra was quoted as saying that
airport officials had issued a visa as they were not aware that
the ban on Nessen had been extended from August 2004 until August
2005.

In 2003, the journalist was imprisoned in Indonesia after he
spent three weeks on the run with separatist rebels of the Free
Aceh Movement (GAM) in the province.

During his time on the run, he contacted international media
and accused the military of wanting to kill him. Nessen has
written articles on Aceh published in the San Francisco Chronicle
and the Sydney Morning Herald.

The government had banned foreigners from entering insurgency-
torn Aceh for two years up until the Dec. 26 tsunami, when
Jakarta was forced to open the province up to international
troops, aid workers and journalists.

Rebels have been fighting since 1976 for an independent
homeland in the resource-rich province. The government and GAM
leaders are scheduled to resume peace talks this week in
Helsinki, Finland. -- JP