Date: Sat, 18 Sep 99 12:07:38 -0000 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], LeftLink Post <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: LL:ART:PM - 17/09/1999: US journalist awaits charges after arrest in Dili PM - 17/09/1999: US journalist awaits charges after arrest in Dili ABC RADIO US journalist awaits charges after arrest in Dili PM - Friday, September 17, 1999 6:19 COMPERE: The American journalist and Timor activist, Alan Nairn, has now been in detention by Indonesian Security Forces since Tuesday. Now in Kupang, West Timor, he's expecting to be formally charged soon. Nairn witnessed the 1991 Dili massacre and was banned from entering East Timor for his pains. However, he has been back several times since and was picked up on the streets of Dili by soldiers earlier this week.From the Immigration Centre in Kupang where he's being held, Alan Nairn spoke to Annie White. ALAN NAIRN: Along the way over the days I've been interrogated by many people from Army Intelligence, Police Intelligence, Kopassus, now Immigration and they say that I will either be deported or I will be tried on two counts, each carrying a penalty, a maximum penalty, of five years in prison. And this morning Mr Syahrir, the Immigration Chief here, informed me that under instructions from the provincial Chief Justice, they were moving ahead with a court case, prosecution, against me. And just a few minutes ago someone from the police, a plain-clothed agent from the police, arrived to talk to Syahrir about the case. They have all said it's up to Jakarta, in the end. Specifically up to General Wiranto to make the final decision. ANNIE WHITE: What would you be charged with? ALAN NAIRN: Em, I think basically being in Indonesia and in occupied Timor in violation of the ban against me. I've been on the black list since 1991, since I survived the Dili massacre and was banned as a threat to national security. Er, that would be the essence of it. ANNIE WHITE: You were quite relaxed earlier in the week when you had been picked up. Are you more concerned now? ALAN NAIRN: Well, I ... since I'm a foreigner and a journalist, particularly an American, I'm not in the kind of danger that a Timorese or Indonesian would be ... I don't know what they're going to do with me but, you know, we'll see. It's very unfortunate that I can't be on the streets of Dili anymore. I may have been the last foreigner, maybe the last journalist, who was out there and these are just moments of maximum terror for the Timorese.When I was picked up on Tuesday and held at the Koram military headquarters in Dili, you could see that half the base was full of uniformed Aitarak militiamen, and I asked one of the officers there, Lieutenant Colonel Willem, whether they were Aitarak and he said yes, they are. They're based here, they live here. He said they're here so we can control them.Oh, I was brought for interrogation several times over to Polda, police headquarters, and there you could also see Aitarak going in and out of the Intelligence and Operations rooms. When I was flown to Kupong on an army chartered plane, most of the - along with military escorts - most of the plane was filled up with plain-clothed men wielding long rifles, pistols and knives, some of whom I recognised from the streets of Dili as having been street level militia leaders. But it turned out, as my military escorts explained to me, that all of these people were police Intel (phonetic), Indonesian personnel who had finished their assignment in East Timor and were now being rotated out. So it couldn't be more clear the link between the total integration among the army, the police and the militias. ANNIE WHITE: Has there been any change in the mood of the people holding you in recent days with the expected arrival in East Timor of the peace keepers? ALAN NAIRN: Well, when I was in Timor the officers and soldiers with whom I spoke about it were very nonchalant about the fact that a peace keeping force was due to arrive. They didn't really seem to have much problem with it. As they saw it, their mission in Timor was finishing up, you know the militias, the militia terror, that was ... they'd completed their task and they were about to leave. Here in Kupang, since I've been detained at Immigration as we've talked over time and as the staff and the officers have heard about why I've been detained and heard about the background of the case, that has seemed to affect their attitude over time as people hear about that. I feel very comfortable, especially more so as time goes on. COMPERE: Alan Nairn, the American journalist and independent East Timor activist, speaking from the Immigration Compound where he's being held in Kupang, West Timor. He was speaking to Annie White. A9 1999 Australian Broadcasting Corporation Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink --- from list [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---