Click here to read CPJ’s September 15 update on the Allan Nairn case
September 14, 1999
His Excellency Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie
President, Republic of Indonesia
Office of the President
Bina Graha, Jalan Veteran No. 17
Jakarta Pusat, Indonesia
Your Excellency,
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed by the Indonesian military’s detention of the American journalist Allan Nairn in Dili, the capital of East Timor. Nairn has been covering East Timor for the U.S.-based Pacifica Radio program “Democracy Now!” and the political weekly The Nation.
At around 5:30 a.m. local time on the morning of September 14, Nairn was stopped by Indonesian military officers at a checkpoint in Dili, which has been almost entirely devastated by pro-Jakarta militias backed by the Indonesian military. Journalists have been targeted by the militias in what many see as an army-orchestrated campaign to prevent news of atrocities from reaching the outside world.
As a result, Nairn is one of the few journalists left in East Timor. His eyewitness accounts have recently been broadcast on CNN and National Public Radio.
Nairn, who has been able to communicate with colleagues in the U.S. through his cellular phone, says he has been interrogated by police and army officers. The latter include Maj. Gen. Kiki Syahnakri, who was put in charge of the Indonesian military operation in East Timor last week, after martial law was imposed on the territory.
As a nonpartisan organization of journalists dedicated to the defense of our colleagues around the world, CPJ is deeply concerned about the safety of Allan Nairn, who has reported extensively on human rights abuses committed by the Indonesian military in East Timor. CPJ fears that his background makes him particularly vulnerable during this volatile period.
In November 1991, Nairn suffered a fractured skull when he was beaten by Indonesian soldiers while covering the army’s massacre of scores of East Timorese demonstrators at the Santa Cruz cemetery in Dili. In November 1994, authorities prevented Nairn, who was on assignment for the American monthly magazine Vanity Fair, from going to East Timor. He was detained in West Timor and later flown to Jakarta. And in March 1998, Nairn was expelled from Indonesia after holding a press conference in which he criticized American support and training of the Indonesian military.
CPJ respectfully urges Your Excellency to use the power of your office to order Allan Nairn’s immediate release from custody, and to ensure that he may report without fear for his personal safety.
CPJ appreciates Your Excellency’s September 12 announcement that a multinational peacekeeping force would be welcome in East Timor. But we worry that the interim period between now and the arrival of international troops may be the most dangerous of all. We once again remind Your Excellency that on May 5 the Indonesian government signed a United Nations-brokered agreement in which it pledged to ensure a “secure environment” in East Timor, one “devoid of violence or other forms of intimidation.”
We therefore ask that Your Excellency instruct police and military officers to protect journalists from harm, and to cease all harassment or intimidation of the media in East Timor.
We thank you for your attention to these urgent matters, and await your response regarding the status of Allan Nairn.
Sincerely,
Ann K. Cooper
Executive Director
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His Excellency Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie
President, Republic of Indonesia
Office of the President
Bina Graha, Jalan Veteran No. 17
Jakarta Pusat, Indonesia