Activists arrested on eve of World Ocean Congress in Indonesia |
| 13
May 2009 We have just heard that two activists from Wahana Lingkungan Hidup Indonesia (WALHI) - Friends of the Earth Indonesia - were arrested on Monday 11th May for taking part in a peaceful protest on a beach near the World Oceans Congress in Indonesia. The two activists Berry Nahdian Furqan, Executive Director of WALHI and Erwin Usman (also from WALHI) were arrested and detained by soldiers and navy vessels on Malalayang Beach, Manado. The activists were part of a wider international meeting that was planning to promote the voices of small-scale and artisanal fishers who have been otherwise excluded and marginalised from the World Oceans Conference (WOC). A dozen participants from the Philippines were also arrested and detained, and have now been forcibly repatriated back to Manila. Although nobody was seriously injured in the arrests, the Forest Peoples Programme strongly condemns all such actions to limit the expression of free speech, and especially the attempts made to severely limit the voices and concerns of artisanal fishers on issues of coastal and marine biodiversity and livelihoods. We urge the Indonesian government and the organisers of the World Ocean Congress to:
For more information contact Maurizio Farhan Ferrari at
maurizio@forestpeoples.org |
