(RSF/IFEX) – In a 14 September 1999 letter to the defence minister, General Wiranto, RSF protested the detention of and order to expel Allan Nairn, an American freelance journalist and human rights activist. RSF called on the minister to reconsider his decision and noted “that expelling him from the country is too severe and is […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a 14 September 1999 letter to the defence minister, General
Wiranto, RSF protested the detention of and order to expel Allan Nairn, an
American freelance journalist and human rights activist. RSF called on the
minister to reconsider his decision and noted “that expelling him from the
country is too severe and is not appropriate to the offence.” Robert Ménard,
RSF’s secretary-general, also asked him “to do everything in your power to
ensure that the international press can safely report on the dramatic
situation in East Timor.”
According to RSF’s information, on 13 September, Nairn, an American
independent journalist and human rights activist, was arrested by security
forces in Dili, East Timor. He was questioned by police officers, including
General Kiki Syahnakri, chief of the security operation in the province, who
announced that the journalist would be deported. The general explained that
Nairn had entered East Timor without a journalist’s visa. The journalist is
well known to the Indonesian security forces. Until 1998, he was blacklisted
by the police. He was one of the foreign journalists who, in November 1991,
had witnessed the “Santa Cruz massacre” in East Timor, perpetrated by the
Indonesian army.
