U.S. terrorism expert kicked out of Indonesia again

[cal04]

An American expert on terrorism and Islamic militancy in Southeast Asia has been kicked out of Indonesia for the second year in a row, a move that could embarrass President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Sidney Jones, Indonesia director of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG), told Reuters she had been barred from entering Jakarta on Thursday after arriving back from a short trip to Taiwan.

Her residency card had been confiscated, she said. "It's just a complete mystery. There was no reason and no warning. If there had been a warning I would have taken more than two days of clothes," Jones, 53, told Reuters from Singapore. "I was allowed back at the end of July and everything seemed fine. I was assured that we were in a new era."

Jones was expelled in June 2004 under a previous administration after a series of hard-hitting reports on terrorism in Indonesia. In July this year, she was allowed back to live in Indonesia. Yuri Thamrin, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, confirmed Jones had been denied entry.

"Based on my checks, the restriction still applies for her to enter Indonesia, but there is a possibility her status will be reviewed in due course," he said in a text message to Reuters, without elaborating.
Immigration officials said Jones had been blacklisted but would not say for how long or why. Jones' fresh expulsion comes at a time when Yudhoyono has won plaudits from the international community for his openness and efforts to cement democracy in Indonesia.

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=6266215&cKey=1132915834000

[oblivious]

1. Don't want people pointing out the military and police are behind it.

Police 'had role in' Bali blasts

October 12, 2005
INDONESIAN police or military officers may have played a role in the 2002 Bali bombing, the country's former president, Abdurrahman Wahid has said.

In an interview with SBS's Dateline program to be aired tonight, on the third anniversary of the bombing that killed 202 people, Mr Wahid says he has grave concerns about links between Indonesian authorities and terrorist groups.

While he believed terrorists were involved in planting one of the Kuta night club bombs, the second, which destroyed Bali's Sari Club, had been organised by authorities.

...Another terrorism expert, George Aditjondro, said a bombing in May this year that killed 23 people in the Christian village of Tentena, in central Sulawesi, had been organised by senior military and police officers.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0%2C5744%2C16898139%255E29277%2C00.html

[0007]

2. Are other countries finding a market for control of government

by faking terrorism? What did junior start?

[rooboy]

3. As soon as I saw the headline, I knew it would be Sydney Jones.

They don't like being told unpleasant things in South East Asia.

[Judi Lynn]

4. U.S. Expert Expelled From Indonesia, Again

U.S. Expert Expelled From Indonesia, Again
By ROBIN McDOWELL
Associated Press Writer
November 25, 2005, 7:25 AM EST

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Indonesia expelled an American expert on Southeast Asian terrorist networks for one year, an official said Friday, saying her activities could cause public disorder.

It is the second time that Sidney Jones, the project director for the International Crisis Group in Jakarta, has been barred from the country in as many years.

"I don't understand," said Jones, who was turned back at Indonesia's airport Thursday on return from a short trip to Taiwan. She is now in Singapore.

"If there was a problem, you would have thought they would have called me in or raised the question while I was in Jakarta, giving me some ability to respond," she said.
(snip/...)

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-indonesia-expulsion-order,0,6467971.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines



Sidney Jones

Time Magazine: International Crisis Group
The Problem-SolversBy Aryn Baker
Posted Monday, October 3, 2005; 21:00 HKT
Forecasting the future is rarely a rewarding exercise. Calamities averted earn you little credit, yet warnings that go unheeded—weakened levees in New Orleans or radicals preaching hate in London's mosques—only serve as unwelcome evidence exposing ill-prepared governments. Sidney Jones knows the feeling. She's the Jakarta-based Southeast Asia project director for International Crisis Group, an NGO headquartered in Brussels and headed there by the plain-speaking former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans. Two months before the 2002 Bali bombings, Jones released a meticulously researched, prescient report on the danger posed by Jemaah Islamiah (J.I.), the Southeast Asian network of extremists now widely believed to have masterminded those attacks. Few paid heed at the time, but after the attacks, Jones' thorough descriptions of the background and training of key J.I. members proved invaluable to the multinational investigative team. "That's the advantage of having long-term contacts and a real depth of field experience," says Jones, whose 13 years working with Muslim prisoners in Indonesia as a human-rights advocate gave her wide access to the country's Islamic militants.
(snip)http://www.time.com/time/asia/2005/heroes/icg.html

[cliss]

5. What is wrong with this woman's hands?

If you look closely, they are red, patchy. They look swollen. Looks painful.