RI police skip Holland on European trip

RI police skip Holland on European trip

JAKARTA (JP): An Indonesian police delegation, led by National
Police Chief Lt. Gen. Dibyo Widodo, leaves today on a trip to
Europe to improve cooperation but has abruptly dropped The Hague
from the itinerary.

According to the schedule, the delegates, consisting of high-
ranking police officers and eight executives from state
institutions, will first attend the opening ceremony and
preliminary session of the 65th Interpol general assembly in
Antalya, Turkey, on Wednesday.

According to the original schedule, they were then due to
visit France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Germany.

However, the delegation has dropped the Netherlands and plans
to go to Spain instead.

On Saturday officials refused to comment about the sudden
change in the schedule.

"I have nothing to comment about the reason but it's true that
the schedule has been changed and the delegation is not going to
the Netherlands," deputy to the secretary of the Indonesian
Central Bureau-Interpol, Col. Wayan Ardjana, told The Jakarta
Post.

The non-police officials joining the police delegates include
staff from the Perum Peruri banknote printing firm, Directorate
General of Customs and Excise, Bank Indonesia (the central bank),
and Ministry of Education and Culture.

They are all due to attend the week-long Interpol meeting in
Turkey.

Dibyo and the other officers will only spend one day in Turkey
before leaving for France, United Kingdom, Spain and Germany
until Nov. 2 to pay courtesy calls on his counterparts in the
four European countries.

During his visit, Dibyo will be accompanied by his deputy for
operational affairs, Maj. Gen. MB Hutagalung, Jakarta
Metropolitan Police Chief Maj. Gen. Hamami Nata, secretary of the
National Central Bureau of Interpol Brig. Gen. Ahwil Lutan and
former National Police Chief Gen. (ret) Awaloeddin Djamin.

The officers will also pay a visit to several police-related
institutions and projects in the respective countries.

Ecstasy

Sources said that the change was probably taken following the
reluctance of the Dutch authorities to cooperate with the
Indonesian police in investigating the recent arrest of the
Garuda pilot, Mohamad Said, 49, who was charged with trying to
smuggle 8,000 Ecstasy pills out of Schiphol airport.

A few days after Said's arrest on Sept. 29, Dibyo told
reporters that the Indonesian police wanted Said to be tried here
and had asked the Dutch police to send over their preliminary
investigation on the suspect.

"By doing so, we could trace his syndicate members here," said
Dibyo. Besides that, he added, the suspect is an Indonesian
citizen, and so is eligible, under local law, to be tried here
even though the crime took place overseas.

In response to Dibyo's request, Dutch Ambassador Paul Reitze
Brouwer hinted during a press conference on Oct. 10 that the
Netherlands may not extradite Said.

"There's no extradition treaty between the Netherlands and
Indonesia," Brouwer said.

Moreover, he said, distributing and possessing Ecstasy pills
is a crime in the Netherlands, and the crime happened in the
Netherlands.

The need to extradite Said is still a controversy here because
many locals want the suspect to be tried in the Netherlands so
all his activities and those of his syndicate in Jakarta will be
publicly opened. (bsr)