Rights abuses occur in Australian raids: House
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
House of Representatives (DPR) legislators urged the government on Tuesday to lodge a protest against what they call human rights violations occurring during the raids on residences of Indonesians in Australia recently.
"We demand that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs lodge a protest against the treatment of Indonesians by Australian authorities," said Amris Hasan, the deputy chairman of House Commission I for defense, foreign and political affairs.
Amris was among the House's team of 10 legislators that went to Australia from Friday to Monday to investigate a series of raids and interrogations of Indonesian citizens by police and intelligence agents there.
Separately, the commission's chairman, Ibrahim Ambong, who headed the delegation, said that following their investigation and interviews with some Indonesian citizens in Australia, his team concluded that human rights abuses had been committed by Australian authorities.
Australia conducted a nationwide crackdown against members of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) organization following the Oct. 12 bomb attack on Bali, which killed more than 190 people, many of them Australians. The raids targeted 23 Indonesians living in Sydney, Perth and Melbourne.
JI has been put on the list of terrorist groups by the UN Security Council.
Ambong said the delegation had met with some Indonesians during their visit to Australia. One man, identified as Faisal, said he was mistreated during his interrogation.
Faisal claimed he was hung upside down during the questioning, Ambong said.
A number of homes where Indonesians lived were damaged and several computers and immigration documents were confiscated.
"Some Indonesian citizens are too afraid to return to their homes. They have been traumatized," Amris added.
Ambong and Amris said that the Indonesian government needed to take necessary steps to deal with the alleged violations.
House Commission I questioned how the Australian government, which claims to be a democratic country and respects human rights, could condone human rights abuses.
The commission urged the Australian authorities to put a halt to the raids and guarantee that they would not recur.
Ambong said the Australian government should have informed the Indonesian Embassy and brought along several embassy staff members to be witnesses during the raids and interrogations of Indonesian citizens.
He called on the government to be proactive in protecting its citizens abroad and to seek a guarantee from the Australian government that similar incidents would not occur in the future.