Self-exiled activist returns home

JAKARTA (JP): Activist Yeni Rosa Damayanti, returning after a three-year self-exile in the Netherlands, pledged to continue her struggle for democracy and told her colleagues that Soeharto was just one of many obstacles which had to be overcome.

"We must make sure that Indonesia never again falls under the reign of another authoritarian government... That's our job now," the 29-year-old said before a boisterous crowd of 100 activists gathered to welcome her here last night.

"We still have a lot of work to do. Soeharto was just the first obstacle," she said before an approving crowd comprised mostly of Center of Information and Action Network for Reform (Pijar) members.

Her audacity helped shoot her name from obscurity in 1994 when she was sentenced to jail for slandering then president Soeharto during a demonstration here.

After serving a six-month prison sentence she went to Europe.

In 1995 she was linked, along with politician Sri Bintang Pamungkas, to the organization of an anti-Soeharto rally in the German city of Dresden.

Bintang returned home and was sentenced to 34 months in prison for slandering Soeharto during a lecture in Germany.

Yeni decided not to return and has rarely been heard of since.

She arrived home for the first time yesterday morning and was met with warm hugs and the glow of television spotlights at the airport.

Later in the evening, her fellow activists held a welcoming party at the Perintis Kemerdekaan building in Central Jakarta.

Present in the crowd were human rights campaigner HJC Princen and scholar Daniel Dhakidae.

Yeni expressed her dismay at returning to see "the situation worse than during Soeharto's rule".

She said she was saddened at the dour economic hardships being faced by the Indonesian people.

While exclaiming that she was quite happy to see the end of Soeharto's power, she sorrowful at the costs the nation has had to endure.

"Hundreds of people have lost their land, thousands have been imprisoned and died ... all in the name of development," she said.

Regarding her experience abroad, she said it was like being held "hostage" because she had been denied an Indonesian passport by the embassy in the Netherlands, rendering her unable to travel out of the country.

"I tried many times to renew my passport but they kept refusing to do it for me until a day after Soeharto resigned," she said. (aan)