Thailand Blacklists George Junus Aditjondro
Monday, 13 November, 2006 | 15:48 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The Thai government forcefully sent home Indonesian intellectual George Junus Aditjondro, on Saturday (11/11).

“You are blacklisted, so you will never be permitted to enter Thai territory,” Aditjondro quoted one of the Thailand immigration officials as saying during a press conference yesterday (11/12) in Jakarta.

Aditjondro was banned from entering the new airport at Bangkok, Svarnabhumi, when planning to attend a workshop for all ASEAN socio-politics observers on political space for democracy at Pattaya.

Thailand immigration rejected his arrival based on a black list that the Soeharto government issued in March 1998.

Aditjondro was opposed by the Soeharto regime because he had exposed the former president's family's wealth to the general public.

He had once been detained for one day in a room with no access to communication or sunlight.

Ade Subiakti, the Director General of Immigration at the Department of Justice and Human Rights, acknowledged that he still did not know about this information.

However, he has confirmed that Indonesia had never asked for the ban.

“It was not possible for the government to intervene,” he said.

According to him, being blacklisted by other country would only be asked in narcotics and terrorism cases instead of political ones.

Aditjondro has suspected that the blacklisting occurred because the authoritative military regime in Thail following the coup d'etat disliked pro-democratic figures.

According to him, the treatment could also be seen as a symptom of growth of solidarity and cooperation of the military faction that is currently empowering the Thai government.

The reason for this was that, he said, the blacklisting petition was issued by the pro-military regime (Soeharto).

“How could the democratic rights of an ASEAN citizen be developed if border-crossing repression to pro-democratic activists are not stopped?” said this independent researcher from the Political Space and the Democracy of Indonesia and Timor Leste group.

RIKY FERDIANTO