JP/5/INCO

JP/5/INCO

KL enraged over arrest of two Malaysians in RI

Andi Hajramurni
The Jakarta Post/Makassar

The arrest of two Malaysian accountants here has sparked an
uproar in Kuala Lumpur, with Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister
Najib Razak protesting the way South Sulawesi provincial police
treated the two.

"Our ambassadors will make approaches to get them out on bail.
They are being held with hardened criminals and we are very
concerned about their plight," Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak
told reporters on Monday, as quoted by Agence France Presse.

The two Malaysians were arrested on Aug. 16, while they were
doing an audit for subcontractor of giant nickel miner PT
International Nickel Indonesia Tbk (PT INCO). Now the two -- Choa
Yao Chin, 24 and Reimala Siva Linggam, 29, who work for auditing
firm KPMG, are locked up in South Sulawesi police station
detention cells for visa violations, a police spokesman Sr. Comr.
Djoko Subroto said on Tuesday.

According to Djoko, the two had "committed crimes" as they
acquired only a tourist visa, but in fact they worked as
accounting consultants with one of PT International Nickel
Indonesia's subcontractors.

It was, according to investigators, the second time they had
entered the country, the first between May 30 and June 28 and the
second on July 28. They had planned to stay from July 28 until
August 24. However, before they completed their work, they were
arrested on Aug. 16.

The police have questioned several witnesses since then,
including employees of PT Inco and its subcontractors. Djoko said
that the questioning of the suspects and several other witnesses
had been completed and the case files had been sent to the South
Sulawesi Prosecutor's Office. However, the court process would
not commence until after the Prosecutor's Office examined the
case files and handed it over to a Sulawesi court.

Separately, regional external relations director at PT Inco,
Edi Suhardi, explained that the two accountants did not work for
PT Inco, but for one of its subcontractors.

Just two weeks after the arrest of the two accountants, Maluku
provincial police arrested and deported a Singapore-based
professor and expert on terror issues, because he was traveling
around Maluku without proper research documents. Rohan Kumar
Gunaratna from Sri Lanka, was arrested by an antiterror police
unit on Sept. 5 while he was on his way to Ambon from Seram
Island. The police detained Gunaratna because he failed to show a
document that allowed him to carry out research on terror cells
in the conflict-ravaged province. Gunaratna was charged with
violating the law on immigration and deported.

Gunaratna is a professor and the chairman of the Institute of
Defense and Strategic Studies (IDSS) based in Singapore, which is
known to have produced a wide range of articles and books on
international politics, terror and strategic defense.