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AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE


AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, Fri Nov 25, 2005 3:47 AM ET

Indonesia bars US terrorism researcher for second time

JAKARTA (AFP) - Indonesia has barred entry to prominent US terrorism researcher and Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) expert Sidney Jones, who said she had "no idea" why she was turned away from the country.

Immigration authorities barred entry on Thursday to Jones, who had only returned to Indonesia in July after being expelled 13 months earlier.

"She had insufficient immigration papers and was ordered to fly back to Singapore," Cecep Supriatna, a spokesman for the Indonesian immigration directorate general, told AFP.

"Her name is on a list of people barred from entering Indonesia," he added.

Jones, the Southeast Asia director of the International Crisis Group (ICG), told AFP from Singapore that she had been returning to Jakarta after a short trip to Taiwan to receive an award on behalf of the ICG.

What happened was "quite simple but mystifying... I was stopped at passport control and told I was banned from entering," she said, adding that authorities wanted to return her to Taiwan but eventually allowed her to go to Singapore.

"There was no reason, no warning and I have no idea why it happened... I want an explanation and the opportunity to talk through whatever the probl! em is now," said Jones.

Foreign ministry spokesman Yuri Thamrin confirmed restrictions were in force against Jones but told AFP that "we do not rule out the possibility for these restrictions to be reviewed in future."

Jones' expulsion last year resulted in a chorus of criticism from human rights groups, who said the tactic was reminiscent of former dictator Suharto.

The Brussels-based ICG, which researches the causes of conflicts worldwide, has published critical reports on Jakarta's handling of separatist conflicts in Aceh and Papua provinces.

It has also reported extensively on the Indonesian-based and Al Qaeda-linked JI group, considered extremely sensitive issues in Indonesia.

But Jones said that none of what the ICG had written recently could be deemed offensive to the Indonesian government.

"! We've issued two reports (recently) -- one on the day of the peace agreement on Aceh, on August 15, and one two weeks ago on Maluku and Poso," where there is ongoing unrest, she said.

"Neither of them have anything that I can possibly imagine would be offensive to the Indonesian government."

Jones said she would seek clarification from the government as she had thought upon her return that "there were no longer any problems -- it was a new government and the old banning was part of the past."

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who had urged the former government of Megawati Sukarnoputri to explain why it first expelled Jones and a colleague in June 2004, has repeatedly said since coming to power in October last year that he would boost media freedom in Indonesia.

Komaruddin Hidayat, a professor on Islamic philosophy at the state Jakarta Islamic University, sa! id Jones may have known too much about JI, which Indonesia does not acknowledge officially as existing.

"As an American, whose government is deemed by many Muslim Indonesians as an oppressor of Muslims in Iraq and the Middle East, she has talked too much and has all the knowledge about Jemaah Islamiyah," he told AFP.

"Her articles on Jemaah Islamiyah paint an image that... the country is a hotbed for terrorists," he said.

The move against Jones also follows a US decision this week to resume military grants to Indonesia on the basis of it making progress in advancing democracy, which sparked criticism from rights groups.

Copyright © 2005 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
 


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