Indonesian Police Raid Conference
Sherry Wolf | 09.06.2001 22:14
Indonesian Police Raid Academic Conference—International Solidarity Campaign Underway—Protests Called for U.S. and Australian consulates
For Immediate Release:
Indonesian Police Raid Academic Conference—International Solidarity Campaign Underway—Protests called in U.S. and Australia
U.S. Contacts: Ahmed Shawki, director of Center for Economic Research and Social Change and editor of ISR, (773) 583-7884 or (847) 921-1917 and Lee Sustar (773) 425-6684, both are members of UAW Local1981.
JAKARTA, June 9—Police in Jakarta raided the Asia Pacific Solidarity Conference Against Neoliberalism June 8 and forcibly detained 32 foreign participants for 24 hours while unknown assailants beat at least two Indonesian attendees who were later hospitalized.
"Maybe 50 or 60 police stormed into the meeting room with guns, including rifles held in an offensive stance," said Max Lane an Australian attending the conference. "This is a brutal and anti-democratic assault on human rights that threatens democracy everywhere," Paul D’Amato an American participant said in a brief phone conversation.
Foreign attendees were stripped of their passports and charged with violating the terms of their visas, but lawyers aiding them deny any violations occurred. Indonesian officials have ordered the foreign nationals to report to police on Monday, June 11 at 10 a.m. where, according to an Australian news agency, they would be further interrogated and re-arrested, released or deported. Several participants who had been released were re-imprisoned 8 hours after their release, including a four-year-old child accompanying the national coordinator of Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor, Pip Hinman.
One of those arrested was Budiman Soedjatmiko, chair of the Peoples Democratic Party (PRD). The party has played an important role in the Indonesian labor movement, and Budiman has received death threats from an anticommunist group. His parent’s home was recently firebombed.
International labor and human rights groups are heeding the PRD’s call for solidarity and organizing to prevent violence and any further human rights violations against Indonesian activists and foreigners.
In the U.S., solidarity rallies will be held outside consulates at 8 a.m. local time Monday, June 11 in New York, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
Indonesian Police Raid Academic Conference—International Solidarity Campaign Underway—Protests called in U.S. and Australia
U.S. Contacts: Ahmed Shawki, director of Center for Economic Research and Social Change and editor of ISR, (773) 583-7884 or (847) 921-1917 and Lee Sustar (773) 425-6684, both are members of UAW Local1981.
JAKARTA, June 9—Police in Jakarta raided the Asia Pacific Solidarity Conference Against Neoliberalism June 8 and forcibly detained 32 foreign participants for 24 hours while unknown assailants beat at least two Indonesian attendees who were later hospitalized.
"Maybe 50 or 60 police stormed into the meeting room with guns, including rifles held in an offensive stance," said Max Lane an Australian attending the conference. "This is a brutal and anti-democratic assault on human rights that threatens democracy everywhere," Paul D’Amato an American participant said in a brief phone conversation.
Foreign attendees were stripped of their passports and charged with violating the terms of their visas, but lawyers aiding them deny any violations occurred. Indonesian officials have ordered the foreign nationals to report to police on Monday, June 11 at 10 a.m. where, according to an Australian news agency, they would be further interrogated and re-arrested, released or deported. Several participants who had been released were re-imprisoned 8 hours after their release, including a four-year-old child accompanying the national coordinator of Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor, Pip Hinman.
One of those arrested was Budiman Soedjatmiko, chair of the Peoples Democratic Party (PRD). The party has played an important role in the Indonesian labor movement, and Budiman has received death threats from an anticommunist group. His parent’s home was recently firebombed.
International labor and human rights groups are heeding the PRD’s call for solidarity and organizing to prevent violence and any further human rights violations against Indonesian activists and foreigners.
In the U.S., solidarity rallies will be held outside consulates at 8 a.m. local time Monday, June 11 in New York, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
Sherry Wolf
e-mail:
nodetention@hotmail.com