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THE
Filipino activist who was arrested along with two
foreign nationals for publicly speaking against the
adverse effect of incinerators to human health and the
environment in Bandung, Indonesia, on Thursday assailed
Indonesian authorities for arresting and later deporting
her and her companions.
Virginia
Cruz-Sy of the Global Alliance for Incinerator
Alternatives (Gaia) claimed that they were “politically
harassed” by both the arresting policemen and
immigration authorities.
Even
after deportation, Sy said she and her companions were
not informed of the nature of the charges against them
except for “abuse of visa,” when in fact as a visitor
from a member of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations, she is not required to secure a visa to travel
to Indonesia and speak in public.
Sy, who
arrived from
Jakarta
on Wednesday afternoon, said she spent more than two
days in the custody of police and immigration
authorities.
“We were
not able to sleep well because we were held and made to
stay in the interrogation room,” she lamented.
Although
she said she was not physically harmed, she said she
felt “harassed by the unfriendly treatment of the police
and the immigration authorities.”
“We were
arrested by the police and interrogated for almost three
hours by very unpolite immigration authorities,” she
said.
Sy is
planning to file a complaint with the Department of
Foreign Affairs (DFA) to press for the filing of a
diplomatic protest against the Indonesian government for
the incident.
Along
with her colleagues, Shibu Nair of India and Neil Tangri
of the US, Sy was taken to the Bandung police
headquarters. Their personal belongings were confiscated
and they were interrogated in connection with their
speaking engagement, which supports the position of a
big community in Bandung who oppose a $100-million
incinerator and waste-to-energy project in the area.
“We came
to Bandung to simply raise people’s awareness on the
adverse impacts of incinerating waste to community
health, environment and the climate and to let the
community know about better alternatives,” she said.
Sy said
their deportation prevented them from campaigning for
“Zero Waste for Zero Warming” in
Bali,
Indonesia,
where national leaders are meeting to discuss climate
change.
“We
resent the suppression of our right and responsibility
to speak out and take action against climate
change. Free speech across borders is nonnegoitable if
we are to succeed in the global effort to arrest
greenhouse-gas emissions responsible for heating up the
planet,” she added.
In light
of what she described as a “travesty of justice” she and
her fellow Gaia activists experienced, she called on
governments taking part in the UN climate-change forum
in Bali to stand up against waste incineration, support
Zero Waste, withdraw funds and subsidies to dirty
disposal technologies, and uphold democratic free speech
to stop the climate crisis. |
