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)