PROMOTING HUMAN RIGHTS, PEACE AND DEMOCRACY IN INDONESIA

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Rights group urges release of McCulloch and Sadler from inhumane detention

18 November 2002

The continued detention without trial of Lesley McCulloch and Joy Lee Sadler by the Indonesian authorities in Aceh is inhumane and a blatant denial of their rights under international law, says TAPOL the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign. The organisation is calling for their immediate and unconditional release.

In letters today to Indonesia's Justice Minister, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, and Foreign Minister, Hassan Wirayuda, TAPOL warns that if the women are kept in custody their health will be in grave danger. Joy Lee Sadler, an American citizen, is HIV positive. She is seriously ill and her condition is deteriorating rapidly. Lesley McCulloch, a British citizen, is suffering from intense back pain brought on by the conditions of her detention. Both women have made serious allegations that they have been assaulted and sexually harassed.

The two women are charged with visa violations, which they deny. They were arrested on 11 September and have been held for more than two months without trial. No dates have been fixed for the start of their trials.

The length of the womens' detention is out of all proportion to the offences alleged against them. Most visitors to Indonesia suspected of visa violations are simply deported.

It is apparent that the authorities are pursuing the cases against the two women for political reasons. They intend to make examples of them in order to warn foreigners against visiting Aceh and to prevent the dissemination of information about the dire human rights situation in the province, says TAPOL.

Aceh, on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra, has for many years been an area of intense conflict between the Indonesian armed forces, TNI, and the separatist Free Aceh Movement, GAM. The people of Aceh have suffered from widespread and systematic human rights abuses at the hands of the TNI. Thousands of men, women and children have been killed, tortured or "disappeared".

Lesley McCulloch is a respected academic observer of the human rights situation in Aceh and the conflict there. Her commentaries have been widely published by the media in Southeast Asia.

Joy Lee Sadler is a health-care worker who traveled to Aceh to help treat the sick and injured in refugee camps in the province.

ENDS

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