9:06 PM |
Title – 6059 PAPUA: Indonesians deport two Dutch reporters over 'visa misuse'
Date – 1 April 2009
Byline – Christian Motte
Origin – Pacific Media Watch
Source – The Jakarta Globe, 30/03/09
Copyright – CP
Status – Unabridged
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DUTCH REPORTERS KICKED OUT OF PAPUA
By Christian Motte
JAYAPURA (JG Online/Pacific Media Watch):
The Immigration Department is deporting two Dutch
journalists for allegedly misusing their tourist visas by
covering a pro-independence rally in Papua Province last week.
Raden Hendiartono, head of immigration in Jayapura, the
provincial capital, said on Sunday that Gabriela Babette, 57,
and Peter Mariaw Smith, 57, both with Dutch NRC TV, had been
sent to Jakarta.
"We are deporting both foreign citizens," he said. "We have
given them three days to stay in Jakarta to take care of their
return tickets to the Netherlands."
A third journalist, Ronald Wigman, 54, also with NRC TV, was
found to have a permit to stay in Bali, Hendiartono said.
"Ronald will be questioned in Denpasar [Bali] because his
documents and data are there," he said. "He went to Jakarta as
he has relatives there. But it is possible he will be deported,
too."
The three journalists and Elske Schouten, who is the NRC
Handelsblad newspaper's Jakarta correspondent, were originally
detained by immigration officials and questioned for 12 hours
about their activities in the sensitive province, which is off
limits to foreign journalists.
Schouten was later released and returned to Jakarta, but the
three others were barred from leaving the resource-rich
province, home to a low-level insurgency by members of the Free
Papua Movement, or OPM.
The journalists were reporting on the return of Nicolaas Jouwe,
a founder of the OPM. Jouwe came back to the country after more
than 40 years exile in the Netherlands and stoked controversy by
referring to Indonesia as Papua's next-door neighbor.
Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda had earlier said that the
journalists would be deported for abusing their tourist visas.
On Wednesday, Papua Governor Barnabas Suebu said he regretted
the detentions.
"Why should they be arrested, they have a three-day visa, during
which they had the right to stay in Papua. This is strange," he
said, adding that the episode could discourage tourism and harm
relations with the Netherlands.
What are now the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua,
once occupied by the Dutch, were incorporated into Indonesia
after a 1969 UN-backed vote by tribal elders, which was widely
seen as a sham.
The government heavily restricts access to the region by foreign
journalists and Indonesian security forces there are accused of
widespread human rights abuses.
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