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