H.E. Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie
President of the Republic of Indonesia
Office of the President
Jakarta
Indonesia

Vienna, 15 September 1999

Your Excellency,

The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors and media executives, is most concerned about the safety of Allan Nairn, a U.S. journalist, who is being detained by security forces in Dili, the capital of East Timor.

We are informed that Nairn, who writes for The Nation, a New York-based weekly magazine, was taken into detention in Dili on 14 September 1999 and questioned by military and police officers. We understand that he has been able to communicate with colleagues in the U.S. via his cellular phone and that he has identified the officers, including Maj. Gen. Kiki Syahnakai, chief of the security operation in East Timor.

Nairn was covering the violence by Indonesian troops and pro-Jakarta militias following East Timor’s U.N.-supervised August 30 referendum on independence. In November 1991, he had suffered a fractured skull when he was beaten by Indonesian soldiers while covering the 1991 Santa Cruz massacre, in which as many as 200 Timorese were killed by security forces after a funeral. In November 1994 authorities prevented him from travelling to East Timor and in March 1998 he was expelled from Indonesia after holding a press conference in which he criticised U.S. support of the Indonesian military.

The detention of Allan Nairn is a clear violation of everyone’s right “to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers,” as guaranteed by Article 19 of the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights. IPI therefore urges Your Excellency to do everything in your power to secure his immediate and unconditional release. We further urge you to ensure that the Indonesian police and military work closely with international troops – expected to begin landing soon in East Timor – in protecting both local and foreign journalists reporting on events in the territory.

We thank you for your attention.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director