U.S. agents target RI in rigid visa checks
Tiarma Siboro and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Denpasar
The Indonesian government says it is unaware of the United States administration's plan to deploy agents to oversee visa operations at U.S. embassies and consulates in five more Muslim nations, including Indonesia.
Foreign ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa said on Wednesday that U.S. Embassy officials had not informed the Indonesian government about the plan, but asserted that "in common practice, the embassy has to give prior notification to the Indonesian government about any plan to reshuffle its staff".
"We do not know about the U.S. plan to place DHS agents in the country and its embassy here has never officially notified us," Marty told The Jakarta Post. on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Nusa Dua, Bali.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Tuesday a plan to deploy agents in U.S. embassies and consulates in Egypt, Indonesia, Morocco, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates after placing its personnel in Saudi Arabia in August as part of a sweeping overhaul of immigration procedures.
The five countries were chosen because of the high volume of visa requests the DHS processes and the presence of members of al-Qaeda and other groups hostile to the United States on their territory or in neighboring states, DHS spokesman Gordan Johndroe said.
The move came just days after the State Department ceded much of its visa-issuing authority to the DHS under tightened immigration laws enacted after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
Under the regulation, U.S. diplomats will retain the right to actually place a visa in an applicant's passport but applications will have to be first vetted by homeland security agents wielding broad powers over the process.
The procedure was outlined in an MOU signed on Sept. 29 by Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of Homeland Security Thomas J. Ridge. President George W. Bush then signed off on the plan.
Under the rules, the DHS agents will review visa requests to determine whether the applicant is a potential threat to the U.S. and will decide on denial or rejection on those grounds.
The countries whose administrations have repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism are the subjects of the MOU.
Stanley Harsha, a press attache at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta said Washington "is still discussing possible implementation in Indonesia".
"It is still being discussed whether the proposal to place people at other U.S. embassies will be agreed," Harsha told the Post.
Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim country and faces accusations of harboring a terrorist network linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda.
The country has been rocked by a series of bomb attacks since 2000 with the climax taking place when two nightclubs on the resort island of Bali were devastated by bombs on Oct. 12, 2002, leaving 202 people dead, mostly foreigners,
Indonesia was among the countries affected by the U.S. post- Sept. 11 attack immigration policy, which require all males of 16 years or over living in the U.S. to report regularly to local immigration authorities.