An American expert on terrorism and Islamic militancy in Southeast Asia has been kicked out of Indonesia for the second year in a row, the analyst and a Foreign Ministry official said on Friday.
Sidney Jones, Indonesia director of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, told Reuters she had been barred from entering Jakarta on Thursday after arriving back from a short trip to Taiwan and having her residency card confiscated.
"It's just a complete mystery. There was no reason and no warning. If there had been a warning I would have taken more than two days of clothes," Jones, 53, told Reuters from Singapore. "I was allowed back at the end of July and everything seemed fine. I was assured that we were in a new era."
Jones had been expelled in June 2004 under a different administration after a series of hard-hitting reports on terrorism in Indonesia.
In July this year, she was allowed back to live in Indonesia.
Yuri Thamrin, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, confirmed Jones had been denied entry.
"Based on my checks, the restriction still applies for her to enter Indonesia, but there is a possibility her status will be reviewed in due course," he said in a text message to Reuters without elaborating.
He could not be reached by telephone to comment further.
Jones' fresh expulsion could be an embarrassment to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who has been winning plaudits from the international community for his openness and efforts to cement democracy in Indonesia.
Jones said her most recent reports for the ICG had been about a landmark peace deal with rebels from Aceh province and militancy in Indonesia's east.
Officials at Jakarta's airport on Thursday showed her a computer print out which said there was a letter from immigration in effect from Oct. 7 barring her entry, Jones said.
It was unclear why the order had taken so long to be implemented, she added.
Jones said she had tried unsuccessfully to reach Indonesia's justice minister and Yudhoyono's aides.
"From this vantage point it looks like a throw back," she said, referring to Indonesia authoritarian past when it was not uncommon for Jakarta to deny entry to journalists and academics.
Jones speaks fluent Indonesian and is a leading analyst on Indonesian affairs, especially on the Jemaah Islamiah terrorist network, a regional offshoot of al-Qaida.
Indonesia also barred Australian academic Edward Aspinall, an expert on the civil conflict in Aceh and a frequent visitor to Indonesia, from entering the country earlier this year.
In Aspinall's case and Jones earlier expulsion, the government had defended its right to admit whom it chose but officials had been vague about precisely what either had done to cause the expulsions.
