FREE THE ‘BALI-7’ ACTIVISTS DETAINED FOR STRUGGLING FOR REAL FREEDOM AND SOCIAL JUSTICE NOW!

Manila, Philippines
19 November 2011

 The Philippines-based Left coalition SANLAKAS (One Strength) condemns the highly reactionary and unjust arrests of seven peaceful political activists from Indonesia and the Philippines in Bali, Indonesia yesterday. Consequently, we urgently call on the Indonesian Government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to immediately release all the detained activists in the spirit of a real ASEAN democratic solidarity.

Specifically, we demand that President SBY make all the fundamentally vital steps necessary to uphold, assert and protect the universally recognized principles of human rights in Indonesia. These principles include the right to freely express oneself in public and the freedom to peacefully assemble.  And since Indonesia is a state-signatory to the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR), it has a state obligation to defend the human rights of all, and at all times.

The Indonesian and Filipino activists were merely protesting against the far more deadly and dangerous anti-people policies oppressively and undemocratically imposed upon most countries of the world today. These basically destructive neoliberal-oriented economic and social policies are also imposed among the ten ASEAN member-states, of which the Philippines is a charter-member.  As such, various Indonesian, international and regional activist and progressive groups organized this mass action to coincide with the 2011 ASEAN Summit being held in Bali today. After peacefully marching in front of various consulates in Bali on November 18, the local police cracked down on the marchers and eventually arrested the seven global justice activists.

The three (3) Indonesians and four (4) Filipinos were initially detained for twelve hours under questioning by the police.  However, the Indonesian authorities finally decided to keep them in detention for an indefinite period of time. This remains the case until now and without any clear resolution in sight.

The four Filipino activists who remain detained and under threat of being charged and/or deported are: Lidy Nacpil (Regional Coordinator of Jubilee South-Asia Pacific Movement for Debt and Development/JS-APMDD), Manjette Lopez (Vice President of the Freedom from Debt Coalition/FDC and Secretary General of SANLAKAS), Malou Tabios (JS-APMDD Staffer), Rhoda Viajar (JS-APMDD Staffer).

SANLAKAS, therefore, now demands that the Indonesian Government swiftly release all the detained ‘Bali-7’ global justice activists, and without any charges, threats and/or harassments against them. We likewise call on the Philippine Government, specifically the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), through the Philippine Embassy in Jakarta, to extend all the necessary assistance to our detained Filipino comrades now languishing in jail in Bali.

Toward the immediate freedom and liberation from jail of our ‘Bali-7’ comrades, SANLAKAS shall organize mass actions beginning early next week to focus attention on our comrades’ human rights case. The SANLAKAS protest actions will mainly be in front of the Indonesian Embassy in Makati City and at the DFA building in Pasay City. The latter houses the office of the ASEAN-Secretariat in the Philippines.

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SANLAKAS
115-D Roosevelt Avenue, Quezon City
Tel. No. (63) 415-9400