Budi Otmansyah

Seven Greenpeace Activists Deported From Indonesia

Pekanbaru. Seven foreign Greenpeace activists who chained themselves to a crane at port facilities of PT Indah Kiat Pulp and Paper in Riau were deported on Friday, while five others were told to leave the province, authorities said.

“[We] have decided to deport seven of the twelve foreign activists via the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. The other five are banned from Riau until further notice,” Pekanbaru Immigration Office head Jumanter Lubis said on Friday.

He said the twelve activists had been proven guilty of visa violations and misuse of immigration documents and the punishment given them was based on the Law on Immigration 1992.

“The banishment and deportation was based on a police investigation. It is also proposed that the seven deported activists be blacklisted from visiting Indonesia,” Lubis said.

He said the seven activists had been proven guilty of chaining themselves and dangling from the cranes at PT Indah Kiat Pulp and Paper port in Perawang, Siak district, while the other five were expelled for being at the site and watching the action.

“The other five were only watching, they didn’t have a chance to take part in the action,” Lubis said.

Greenpeace Indonesia campaign manager for Southeast Asia Bustar Maitar said that the banishment and deportation sanction was clearly given in response to pressure from the paper company.

“We did not break the law with our action because what we did was expressing our opinion about the environment in public. This kind of response might mean that in the future any foreigner could be arrested and deported simply for watching a demonstration,” Maitar said.

Greenpeace lawyer Johnson Panjaitan accused the police of siding with the company and said there was coercion in the arrest of the activists.

“An obvious indication is that the company report was received by police only after the action was over. The report should have been filed when the action was under way,” he said.

“As of now there are no more Greenpeace activists in Kampar Peninsula. We’ll continue to counsel in the legal process involving 21 of the [Indonesian] activists,” Panjaitan said.

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