Fugitive Indonesian feels the strain

Press, 16 April 1980, Page 1

Fugitive Indonesian feels the strain

PA Wellington The fugitive Indonesian student, Jose .Satyadharma, is feeling the strain of seven weeks on the run. Canterbury University students have hidden Mr Satyadharma from immigration authorities since February '2B, in defiance of an order that he leave the country. The students have moved him about to make sure that is not found. “He handled it well at first, but now there are signs of strain. It has been a long time,” said Mr Garth Ritchie, a student, who recently fasted for five days to,. publicise his friend’s cause. Mr Satyadharma wants to get a Supreme Court ruling reversing the decision of the Minister of Immigration (Mr Bolger) to expel him. No date has yet been set for a hearing, but the students believe that it will come up soon. The Indonesian Embassy in New Zealand . has reacted to the furore over Mr Satyadharma more in sorrow than in anger, according to the Wellington reporter of “The Press.” “If he was sitting opposite me now, my advice to him would be, ‘Don’t be a silly boy’,” said the head of information and culture at the Embassy (Mr B. R. Siagian). .

“I would say to him: You came to New Zealand as a good citizen to study and make ydurself a better citizen. Are you helping yourself?” Mr Siagian said that the ; Embassy did not know the basis of Mr Satyadharma’s request for asylum in New Zealand, because he had not told the Embassy. It was untrue that Mr Satyadharma had been asked to supply the Embassy with news clippings, because the Embassy had its own clipping service. Mr Satyadharma had never supplied the Embassy with any information about other Indonesian students, and had never been asked to. “We never knew he was

, doing anything against Ini donesia at university until he exposed himself,” Mr Siagian said. “We had no previous knowledge of any Indonesian student activists in New Zealand until Mr Satyadharma told us through the newspapers that he was an activist.” Asked if he thought Mr Satyadharma had put himself at risk with the Indonesian authorities because of his criticisms of the Indonesian Government, Mr Siagian said that every citizen had the right to criticise his Government. Mr Satyadharma had come to New Zealand to study in 1974. He had come with the blessing of the Indonesian authorities because he had shown himself to be a good student. .In March this year Mr Satyadharma’s passport had been held by the Embassy because he had not filled out his form for an extension, as he had done in previous years. At that point Mr Satyadharma had applied for asylum. “We act as his parents while he is in New Zealand, but he never came to us with his troubles,” said Mr Siagian. “He went directly to the' newspapers. If the New ■ Zealand Government deports him as an overstayer, the Indonesian Embassy will help him in every way ; possible.”