Indonesia: German Journalist Freed After Arrest

* Pacific Media Watch Online - check the website for archive and links:
http://www.pmw.c2o.org/
* Post a comment at PMW's Right of Reply:
http://www.voy.com/166636/

GERMAN JOURNALIST RELEASED AFTER BRIEF ARREST IN INDONESIA'S ACEH

BANDA ACEH (AFP/Pacific Media Watch): A German freelance journalist has been released after being detained overnight in Indonesia's Aceh province for entering the region without proper immigration documents, the military said Saturday.

Cradow Cascha, 35, was released by military in the southwestern area of Gunung Tambolon in Gayo Luwes district late Saturday afternoon, said Lieutenant Colonel Asep Sapari, a military spokesman.

The military said Cascha was arrested on Friday because he had entered the district as a foreign journalist without properly notifying martial law administrators.

Sapari said the German was ordered to go back to the neighbouring city of Medan in North Sumatra province without being escorted by the military.

"We have good faith that he will not return here," he told AFP.

The government on May 19 last year put Aceh under martial law and launched an all-out offensive aimed at wiping out the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), which has been fighting for independence since 1976.

The military has restricted the movements of foreign journalists in Aceh and local reporters say they have come under pressure from both sides.

Last June Indonesian troops shot dead a 53 year-old German tourist and wounded his wife in West Aceh district after mistaking them for separatist rebels.

Separately, military spokesman Sapari said soldiers had gunned down a suspected rebel intelligence operator in North Aceh district and arrested 26 others in separate raids Friday.

He also accused GAM of killing a 38 year-old man in the district on Thursday. No GAM officials could be immediately reached for comment.

+++niuswire

PACIFIC MEDIA WATCH ONLINE http://www.pmw.c2o.org

PACIFIC MEDIA WATCH is an independent, non-profit, non-government organisation comprising journalists, lawyers, editors and other media workers, dedicated to examining issues of ethics, accountability, censorship, media freedom and media ownership in the Pacific region. Launched in October 1996, it has links with the Journalism Program at the University of the South Pacific, Bushfire Media based in Sydney, Journalism Studies at the University of PNG (UPNG), the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism (ACIJ), Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand, and Community Communications Online (c2o).

(c)1996-2004 Copyright - All rights reserved.

Items are provided solely for review purposes as a non-profit educational service. Copyright remains the property of the original producers as indicated. Recipients should seek permission from the copyright owner for any publishing. Copyright owners not wishing their materials to be posted by PMW please contact us. The views expressed in material listed by PMW are not necessarily the views of PMW or its members.

Recipients should rely on their own inquiries before making decisions based on material listed in PMW. Please copy appeals to PMW and acknowledge source.

For further information, inquiries about joining the Pacific Media Watch

listserve, articles for publication, and giving feedback contact Pacific

Media Watch at: E-mail: delaro@clear.net.nz pcronau@hotmail.com Fax: (+679) 30 5779 or (+612) 9660 1804 Mail: PO Box 9, Annandale, NSW 2038, Australia or, PO Box 78028, Auckland 1002, New Zealand. New website: www.pmw.c2o.org

© Scoop Media