The Age [Australia], May 27, 2004
Terror expert told to leave Indonesia
By Matthew Moore, Indonesia Correspondent, Jakarta
[PHOTO: Sidney Jones's visa won't be renewed.]
The researcher regarded as the leading expert on South-East Asian terror group
Jemaah Islamiah has been stopped from working in Indonesia and has been told her
visa will not be renewed.
Sidney Jones, who heads the Jakarta office of the Brussels-based International Crisis
Group, and other staff in her office all failed to get their work permits renewed several
weeks ago and since then their office has ceased to function.
Government officials, including Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda, yesterday criticised
some of Ms Jones's work, prompting her to issue a statement complaining about her
treatment.
"Wirajuda reportedly told journalists and political party activists that ICG's reports
were biased, and that the Government had the right to expel whomever it chose," her
statement said.
Ms Jones said the Ministry of Labor had told her it had received a complaint but it
could not say who made it or what it was about.
"How can we answer charges when the charges are made in secret?" she said.
A spokesman for the Indonesian Foreign Ministry, Marty Natalegawa, confirmed Mr
Wirajuda had criticised Ms Jones at a breakfast yesterday attended by Indonesian
journalists but denied that he said her work was biased.
"It's absolutely not the case. What Pak Hassan said . . . when a question was asked
about the status of Ms Jones's visa, he wondered out loud about the work of the ICG
but not in the context of it being biased but he simply (posed ) a well-considered
question about the authority of its reports."
Mr Natalegawa said the Foreign Minister was particularly concerned about ICG
reports on the strife-torn Aceh province.
Although the ICG's most recent report on Aceh, called How Not to Win Hearts and
Minds, was published last July, unhappiness with it continues to linger.
Despite these concerns in the Foreign Ministry about the ICG's reports, Mr
Natalegawa insisted they played no part in the decision to stop Ms Jones working in
Indonesia.
"This is totally unrelated to the question of Sidney Jones's work permit . . . we are not
going to fall into the trap and, nice try to Sidney Jones, make her some kind of
martyr."
The decision to not renew Ms Jones's work permit has some parallels with the
decision in December 2001 to refuse to extend the work permit of Age correspondent
Lindsay Murdoch, who was also criticised by the Government for his reporting from
Aceh.
Copyright © 2004. The Age Company Ltd.
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