Indonesian prisoners expected to be freed

Press, 18 February 1977, Page 4

Indonesian prisoners expected to be freed

There should be no political prisoners in Indonesia by 1980 because of the country’s political stability and pressure on its Government from international civil-rights groups, according to an Indonesian lawyer visiting Christchurch. Dr Yap Thien Hien is a distinguished civil-rights lawyer who spent 11 months without trial as a political prisoner in Jakarta. He is in New Zealand to attend the international convention for peace action in Wellington this week-end. He is a member of the International Commission of Jurists and a Chinese Christian active in world church programmes. Dr Yap said that the Indonesian Government had stated that by 1980 all political prisoners would have been released. There were up to 17,000 political prisoners in Indonesia, most of whom had been in prison without trial since 1965. Dr Yap said he was unconvinced by most of the Government statements concerning political prisoners, but he had to give it the benefit of the doubt concerning the prediction for 1980. Dr Yap is the chairman of the Indonesian National Council of Churches subcommittee which gives aid to political prisoners. . He said that on December 1 last year a statement from the Indonesian Government said that 2500 political prisoners had been released. It was impossible to verify this figure because the Government did not release the names of the prisoners. Political prisoners in Indonesia fell into three main (categories. The first was

leading Communists and agitators against whom there should be sufficient evidence to gain a court conviction. There were about 5000 in this category but only SOO had been tried since 1965. i The second category was i people regarded as in the second echelon of the Communist Party and affiliated organisations. There was not sufficient evidence to bring these people to trial and there were about 11,000 of them detained on the island of Buro, west of West Irian. Dr Yap said he had never visited the island, but described it as a concentration camp. The Government, he said, described it as a rehabilitation camp. The prisoners apparently lived in barracks and worked in' agriculture and there were no barbedwire fences. The third category was people suspected of being involved with the Communist

I Party. In most cases they had : been investigated and re- : leased. However, Dr Yap did not come under any of these ! categories when he was arrested. "My error was to ; become involved with the ! student demonstration against i ■ the Japanese Prime Minister, 1 Mr Tanaka. “As a lawyer, and as the ; secretary of the Institute of I Human Rights, I protested at ! the arrest of the students. It I was my job.” And because of articles on • human rights written by Dr Yap in newspapers, and letters to editors, he was arrested and charged with inciting the riots. “They accused me of being the brains behind the riots.” He spent II months in a military prison before being released without trial. All but two people detained after the riots had now been released.