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U.S. insists on immunity for all Namru-2 laboratory staff

The United States has insisted on diplomatic status for all 19 Americans at its Namru-2 research lab in Jakarta, while also maintaining the lab is committed to transparency

Abdul Khalik (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Fri, April 25, 2008

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U.S. insists on immunity for all Namru-2 laboratory staff

The United States has insisted on diplomatic status for all 19 Americans at its Namru-2 research lab in Jakarta, while also maintaining the lab is committed to transparency.

Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy John A. Heffern said American researchers at the Naval Medical Research Unit No. 2 (Namru-2) had some level of diplomatic immunity as part of the embassy community.

"It is our hope in negotiations that an MOU would allow Americans at Namru to have (diplomatic) status," he told a news conference here Thursday.

Indonesia said Wednesday it decided to grant diplomatic immunity to only two American officials at Namru-2 and demanded the laboratory ensure transparency in its operations.

Indonesia and the United States are now negotiating a new MOU to extend the operation of Namru-2 after the previous agreement expired in 2005.

Heffern, who leads the U.S. team in the MOU negotiations, said the immunity status was one of the pending issues at the talks.

Although the Namru-2 staff had some level of immunity, it would be different from full diplomatic status, he said.

According to the U.S. State Department, administrative and technical staff of the kind at Namru-2 have immunity from prosecution, police arrests and court subpoena as witnesses.

Their residences are also closed to law enforcers and their family members share the same levels of immunity.

Many Indonesians have accused Namru-2 of conducting intelligence activities in the country.

At the Thursday press conference, U.S. Ambassador Cameron Hume dismissed the accusations.

"Everything it (Namru-2) does is transparent. All of the research projects they work on are approved by the ministry of health.

"The Indonesian government has access to all of the research they work on. I think the idea that it is not transparent to the Indonesian authorities is frankly peculiar," he said.

Hume said the fact that 90 percent of Namru-2's 175 staff members were Indonesians also proved that the accusations were nonsense.

Heffern said another unsettled problem was the issue of sending virus samples to the U.S. laboratory.

Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari stopped the sending of virus samples to the laboratory early this month, saying unless the United States agreed with the material transfer agreement (MTA), a WHO agreement to regulate both sender and receiver of virus samples, Indonesia would not resume sending samples.

Hume, however, said Indonesia should separate the Namru-2 and MTA issues.

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