RI seeks U.S. help to deport convicted Maluku separatist

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Indonesian government said on Friday it was seeking cooperation with the United States to deport convicted Maluku separatist Hermanus Alexander Manuputty, who has been reported as residing in Los Angeles.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Marty Natalegawa said: "We have taken a diplomatic approach with the U.S. government to express our concern and wish that he be located and repatriated," he told The Jakarta Post.

He said that quiet diplomacy was under way between the two governments to determine measures to repatriate Manuputty, better known as Alex.

"We are very confident that the U.S. government will support us in bringing him back," Marty said, but declined to go into details of the arrangement.

Alex fled to the U.S. early last year, although he had been sentenced on Jan. 28, 2003 by the North Jakarta District Court to three years in jail for treason. He filed an appeal, but the higher court upheld his conviction.

He left Indonesia while he remained free pending a decision on his appeal, before the Supreme Court dismissed it last November.

Marty said Alex arrived in the U.S. on Nov. 22 on a tourist visa. "That is already an immigration violation, as he is not a tourist," he said.

Alex's escape was a shock to the government, since he had been banned from leaving the country since his conviction.

The Maluku separatist leader was charged with treason for plotting a rebellion through his organization, the Maluku Sovereignty Front (FKM), affiliated with the South Maluku Republic (RMS), a separatist movement presumably quashed in the 1950s.

In an interview in Washington with the Jawa Pos daily, Alex said he left Indonesia legally, on an Indonesian passport.

The convicted separatist said he was currently staying with the Indonesian community in Los Angeles.

"Since I have been here, I have participated twice in rallies at the Indonesian consulate general in Los Angeles," he said.

Marty, however, said Alex had never gone to the Indonesian consulate in Los Angeles and the mission was trying to locate his whereabouts.

Indonesia and the U.S. have no extradition treaty. Nevertheless, in some cases the two countries have cooperated in repatriating criminal suspects to Indonesia.

In 1995, U.S. authorities repatriated Indonesian suspect Oki, who was charged with murdering two Indonesians and an Indian citizen in Los Angeles.

The Indonesian police, with the help of their U.S. counterpart, also arrested actress Zarima Mirasfur for drug trafficking.

However, Alex's case is political, which could affect Indonesia's efforts to bring him home to serve his sentence.