Immigration asks Sofjan to delay all overseas trips

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)