Immigration asks Sofjan to delay all overseas trips
JAKARTA (JP): The Directorate General of Immigration has asked businessman Sofjan Wanandi to remain in Indonesia because of his possible involvement in a bomb blast last month.
Directorate spokesman M.A. Ghani, was quoted by Antara as saying yesterday that the request was issued last Thursday pending an official appeal to ban the business tycoon from going overseas.
Ghani said the directorate general could not impose a travel ban on a person without a request from either the attorney general, the Armed Forces chief, the minister of justice or the minister of finance.
He said the order served only as "a proactive measure" and the directorate general had no legal power to bar a person from traveling abroad.
"The proactive measure means that while waiting for an official request, we ask him (Sofjan) to postpone any planned departure. We are not imposing a travel ban on him yet," Ghani said.
Requests for a travel ban from the attorney general deal with crimes, while those from the Armed Forces chief, the minister of finance and the minister of justice deal with security, unpaid debts to the government and immigration affairs respectively.
Sofjan was questioned by intelligence officers from the Jakarta military command following reports that his name was found written in documents seized at the scene of a bomb explosion in a low-cost apartment in Tanah Tinggi, Central Jakarta.
The authorities suspected the bomb makers were activists of the banned People's Democratic Party (PRD).
Sofjan, an exponent of the 1966 generation which supported the establishment of the New Order, was cleared of links to the PRD but City Military Commander Maj. Gen. Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin warned that if new evidence implicating Sofjan in the plot was found, he would be taken to court.
Antara said Sofjan, who chairs the Gemala Group, left for Sydney last Tuesday on an Ansett Australia flight.
Sofjan was unavailable for comment yesterday, but one of his assistants said he had returned to Indonesia.
Separately, 25 relatives of Amir Biki, a Moslem figure who was shot dead in a military operation to quell a riot in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, in 1984, rallied at the House of Representatives to demand the prosecution of Sofjan and his fellow ethnic Chinese businessman Sudono Salim better known as Liem Sioe Liong.
The leader of the group, Rusly Biki, said the two business tycoons were responsible for causing the ongoing economic turmoil.
"Both the House and security authorities should take measures against them. Indonesian people, mostly Moslems, are severely affected by the price hikes the businessmen have sparked," he said.
Rusly accused the conglomerates under the leadership of Sofjan and Sudono of stockpiling basic commodities for their own interests.
"We do not want unexpected riots to mar the general session of the People's Consultative Assembly in March, but they could happen if our demands are left unheeded," Rusly said.
Danil Tandjung, a United Development Party legislator who received the group, said he would channel the group's demands to his faction. He called on the demonstrators to comply with the law, rather than to take harsh measures in the wake of the prolonged economic turbulence. (amd)