The Jakarta Post, November 15, 2006
Academic deported for 'domestic reasons'
Ary Hermawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Thailand government deported Indonesian scholar George Junus Aditjondro from
Bangkok for "domestic reasons", a senior official here said Tuesday.
"The ban (on George) was based on domestic reasons," Indonesian Foreign Ministry
spokesman Desra Percaya told The Jakarta Post. He could not elaborate.
Desra said Indonesian diplomats in Bangkok had met with Thai Foreign Ministry
officials to discuss the problem.
George, a pro-democracy activist and prominent social scientist, said he was briefly
detained before being deported from Bangkok to Jakarta last Saturday.
He was told by the immigration office in Bangkok that he had been blacklisted by the
Indonesian government under former president Soeharto in 1998.
He was detained in the Impermissible Persons Detention Center along with visa and
passport violators. "'You are on the blacklist, so you may never enter Thailand'," said
George, quoting the Thai official he encountered in Bangkok.
A consul at the Thai Embassy in Jakarta, Narucha Ninnad, however, said his office
was still waiting for confirmation from Bangkok.
He said the embassy was trying to find out whether the blacklist against George was
issued by the Indonesian government or Thailand.
"It's not been confirmed yet," he said, adding that Thailand could ban anybody from
entering.
"If he or she commits a crime in Thailand, we can issue a blacklist against him or her
based on our prerogative," he said.
Desra said he was not aware of such a blacklist being issued by the Soeharto
administration against George. "If he really is still on the blacklist, it must have been
lifted because he has been traveling to other countries freely," he said. "It's not an
issue anymore."
George was to attend a meeting of researchers in Pattaya, west of Bangkok, to
discuss democratic space in 10 ASEAN countries. The meeting was organized by the
Manila-based South East Asian Committee for Advocacy.
He accused Thailand of constricting democracy following the military's recent
bloodless coup.
George lived in exile in Australia for years for his staunch criticism of Soeharto's
corrupt government. He returned to Jakarta in 2002.
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