A brief update to Friday's post on John Sauven's expulsion from Indonesia. First, you can read John's own account of the bizarre episode here http://tiny.cc/6m6jp

There is still to my knowledge no officially detailed reason for the decision, despite John having planned meetings with government officials and big Indonesian companies. Meanwhile, my Twitter feed has received the attention of a follower purporting to work in the Indonesian 'government field'. It all started off in a mundane enough way, stressing how much havoc Greenpeace is causing in Indonesia (not as much havoc as cutting down all the rainforests, I venture) and that the government is trying to crack down on the organisation and so on. All legitimate debate, although some very senior and respected Indonesians seem to be on Greenpeace's side on this one - more on that in the Jakarta Post here http://tiny.cc/e59fr

Then my Twitter dissenter posted something utterly extraordinary. The reason Sauven was deported, he wrote, was because of a secret intelligence document showing he was planning a protest at an Indonesian nuclear reactor. I know for a fact that this is utter nonsense. Greenpeace UK does not campaign on the Indonesian nuclear industry - they have their hands full enough with that issue at home. Clearly this line was not sanctioned officially, and I have not been able to discover which part of the government this individual works for. It does reveal the confusion in Indonesia itself about what has transpired in the last few days. 

On the subject of utter nonsense, a new saga has been developing involving Andy Tait, another Greenpeace UK campaigner. The Jakarta Globe has that story here http://tiny.cc/vua07 Messy, at best.

Whoever is behind these moves, they are not helping Indonesian business or the Indonesian government one jot. Of course, many senior figures in busines and government know this. So presumably they will now use their influence to stop further embarrassment.