Russian official held after brawl in Jakarta Airport

Press, 10 February 1982, Page 9

Russian official held after brawl in Jakarta Airport

NZPA-Reuter Jakarta Indonesia has expelled a Soviet diplomat for spying and is holding the head of the Jakarta office of the Soviet airline Aeroflot after an airport fight, a Foreign .Ministry spokesman _ said yesterday. ' . - ■.

The spokesman said *an assistant military attache,' Lieutenant-Colonel s'.- P. Egorov; other Soviet diplomats, and the Aeroflot chief, Alexander Finenko, were involved in a fight with Indonesian security agents at Jakarta Airport’ last Saturday.

As .Colonel Egorov was being seen off. by other embassy. , members and. Mr Finenko, Indonesian security agents approached with a warrant - for Mr Finenko’s arrest, the spokesman said. "One Soviet diplomat hit an Indonesian official and a fight broke out." he added. Finally. Mr Finenko was arrested and taken into custody with another Soviet. Mr G. „;M. Odariouk. who was released later because he

had diplomatic immunity, the spokesman said. The spokesman declined to give details of Colonel Egorov's; alleged spying active ties but said there were “strong-indications” that Mr Finenko was involved in the case. .

The spokesman would not confirm local press reports yesterday that the military attache, who had been given 48 hours to leave the country, w;as believed to have been involved in obtaining classified, military information. :

Official sources said that the Indonesian Foreign Min-, ister (Mr Mochtar Kusumaatmadja) called in the Soviet Ambassador (Mr Ivan Shpedko) yesterday and protested strongly about “undplomatic Soviet behaviour.”

A Foreign Ministry communique said: “In view of the incidents, the Indonesian Government has strongly protested against the actions of the Soviet Embassy officials, particularly the dip-

lomats who were supposed to foster good relations between the host country and the country they represented and respect - the law as well as local regulations.”

It went on: “Therefore, should less favourable consequences arise in IndonesianSoviet relations, this will be entirely the responsibility of the U.S.S.R. and not the Indonesian Government." Soviet-Indonesian relations have never been good since the staunchly anti-Commun-ist regime’ of President Suharto came to power in 1965. They deteriorated recently after Moscow Radio broadcast messages referring to the banned Indonesian Communist Party.

Last week Vice-President Adam Malik warned that diplomatic relations between the two countries, could be disrupted if the broadcasts continued. His statements were made after a demonstration by a Governmentbacked youth group outside the Soviet Embassy.