Wednesday, February 10, 2010

November 14, 2009 11:19 AM

Riau Immigration To Deport Greenpeace Activists

PEKANBARU, Nov 14 (Bernama) -- The Riau Immigration will soon deport 11 Greenpeace activists from Semenanjung Kampar, in Pelalawan district, as they are considered to have violated the use of their visitor's visas to Riau, Indonesia's Antara news agency reported.

"They are currently under the custody at the Pelalawan police station and Friday afternoon police to hand them over to the immigration so that their repatriation can be done soon," Head of the local Immigration Office, Lubis Jumanter, said here Friday.

Jumanter said the Greenpeace activists only had tourist visas for one visit, so their activities in Pelalawan were considered violating their visas, therefore they must be deported.

Since a few days ago, 55 Greenpeace activists from Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Brazil and Germany staged a demonstration to rescue low lying peat swamp forests in the Semenanjung Kampar area.

Greenpeace said, peatlands with a depth of over 3 metres and 700,000 hectares wide is the only largest peat forest which should be protected from illegal logging committed by the paper mill PT RAPP.

Meanwhile, Riau Police Chief Brig Gen Adjie Rustam Ramdja said, if foreign nationals of the Greenpeace are deported soon, the Indonesian activists should be arrested on charges of disturbing peace. "Some 21 of them are now undergoing interrogation by Pelalawan Police," he said.

"They have been suspected to have committed crime in the form of unpleasant actions and entered the area illegally. Although declared suspects, they haven't been arrested yet," police chief said.

The Greenpeace activists were suspected of violating article 335 of the Criminal Code on unpleasant actions with a penalty of two years in prison and Article 551 of the Criminal Code with a penalty of 1 year in prison, the police chief added.

-- BERNAMA

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