Jailed Xanana has medical checkup
Jailed Xanana has medical checkup
JAKARTA (JP): Jailed East Timor guerrilla leader Jose
Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao left the Cipinang Correctional
Institution on Tuesday for a medical checkup, a senior Ministry
of Justice official announced.
"There was nothing special about it. He underwent a medical
checkup like other convicts. Every convict who requires such a
checkup is given permission to leave," Baharuddin Lopa, the
Director General for Correctional Institutions, told Antara.
"What's the big deal? There's no need to blow this out of
proportion. He could become big headed."
Xanana, the former commander of the armed separatist group
Fretilin, is currently serving a 20-year jail term for his
guerrilla activities. The sentence was meted out by the Dili
District Court in East Timor two years ago.
He was given permission to leave the prison temporarily after
his Indonesian lawyers filed a formal application on Monday
saying that their client required private medical treatment for a
kidney infection.
Lopa said all convicts are entitled to private medical
treatment although all correctional institutions are staffed with
doctors.
An official of the local representative of the International
Red Cross Committee was quoted by Reuters as saying on Tuesday
that Xanana's condition was not serious. The official, who was
not identified, visited Xanana in Cipinang on Friday.
Lopa denied earlier press reports that the permission had been
given in response to Xanana's alleged threat to go on a hunger
strike.
A Fretilin leader in exile, Jose Ramos Horta, was earlier
reported to have said that Xanana would go on a hunger strike if
his request for a medical checkup was denied.
"That's a lie," Lopa said. "Xanana is not on a hunger strike".
"Even if Xanana goes on a hunger strike, we won't stop him.
He's the one who's going to suffer. We're not going to force him
to eat."
Lopa cautioned the media to not blow news about Xanana out of
proportion."If Xanana refuses to eat, you turn it into news. But
if other convicts go on a hunger strike, not a single journalist
will report it. What's so special about Xanana?"
Xanana is manipulating the press so that he always stays in
the news, he said. "Don't let Xanana use you." (emb)