Subject: UK turns down visa application from Prabowo
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 15:53:50 +0100 (BST)
From: tapol@gn.apc.org (TAPOL) Solidamor, Jakarta, 22 October 1998
UK turns down visa application from Prabowo
Jakarta (Solid-Net)
Some time before the British government authorities arrested General Pinochet, former
President of Chile because of the disappearances and killings that occurred while he was
in power, we now learn that the British embassy in Jakarta has turned down a visa
application from Prabowo, the son-in-law of former President Suharto who was recently
dismissed from the Indonesian armed forces.
Prabowo, the former commander of Kostrad, the army's strategic command, and former
commander of Kopassus, the army's elite corps, was hoping to visit the UK on a tourist
visa at the beginning of October this year. According to an embassy official, his visa
application was rejected because the British government did not want to permit a visit by
someone thought to have been involved in the disappearance of a number of Indonesian
activists and the deaths of many people in Indonesia and East Timor.
Prabowo received much of his education in the UK. Perhaps he can count himself lucky
that he did not visit Britain where he might have suffered the same fate as General
Pinochet. He is still able to visit the US and Canada without let or hindrance but it is
likely that more western countries will tighten up the rules about allowing visits from
people involved in political crimes.
In the past few weeks, commentators here in Jakarta have mentioned the names of a
number of Indonesian generals responsible for mass killings in Indonesia and East Timor
who should be arrested if they visit western countries. They include Suharto, Try
Sutrisno, a former armed forces commander and army chief of staff, Prabowo and the current
Minister of Information (retired lieutenant-general) Yunus Yosfiah, who now stands accused
of ordering the murder of five TV journalists in Balibo on 16 October 1975 as they were
preparing to film Indonesian incursions into East Timor.
The British government's refusal to issue a visa to Prabowo and the arrest of Pinochet
in Britain show that although it has been impossible as yet for murderers to be brought to
trial in on their own authoritarian countries, there are international circumstances which
which make it possible for them to be brought to justice abroad. (tass)
TAPOL, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign 111 Northwood Road, Thornton Heath, Surrey
CR7 8HW, UK Phone: 0181 771-2904 Fax: 0181 653-0322 email: tapol@gn.apc.org Campaigning to
expose human rights violations in Indonesia, East Timor, West Papua and Aceh
Join us to celebrate TAPOL's 25th anniversary on 20 October 1998. Contact us for ticket
details.
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