(CPJ/IFEX) – American journalist Allan Nairn is still in official Indonesian custody, nearly three days after he was first detained by Indonesian military officers in Dili, East Timor. Nairn was flown out of East Timor yesterday aboard a military jet and taken to Kupang, West Timor. **Updates IFEX alerts of 15 September and 14 September […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – American journalist Allan Nairn is still in official Indonesian
custody, nearly three days after he was first detained by Indonesian
military officers in Dili, East Timor. Nairn was flown out of East Timor
yesterday aboard a military jet and taken to Kupang, West Timor.
**Updates IFEX alerts of 15 September and 14 September 1999**
According to an official at the United States State Department, Nairn is
being held in Kupang’s immigration compound while immigration authorities
prepare a report on his case, which they will then forward to Jakarta for
approval.
Nairn – a freelance journalist who filed regular reports from East Timor for
the American news organisations “The Nation”, a weekly political magazine,
and Pacifica Radio’s current affairs program “Democracy Now!” – was detained
by Indonesian military officers at around 5:30 a.m. (local time) on 14
September 1999. Nairn says he has been interrogated by police and by
military officers, including Maj. Gen. Kiki Syahnakri, head of the
Indonesian military operation in East Timor.
Stapleton Roy, the USA ambassador to Indonesia, has spoken to Nairn, and
says that he has not been physically harmed, and is receiving food and
adequate shelter. Roy also met on 16 September with Indonesia’s Minister of
Information Yunus Yosfiah and Minister of Transmigration A.M. Hendro
Priyono. Both promised to help expedite Nairn’s deportation.
